4 6 THE ART OF GARDEN DESIGN IN ITALY 
Princess Charlotte constructed the road connecting the village of Cernobbio with Moltrasio, at 
the same time making the entrance avenue and archway on the south side of the villa. Upon 
the lakeside a terrace occupied one half of the facade, with a water-stairway in the centre of the 
casino; the principal entrance opened on to a portico overlooking the inner courtyard. The 
dining-room was in the centre of the casino and overlooked a small enclosed parterre garden. 
On the eastern side of the casino is the parterre, divided into three levels, with a low 
terrace and circular stone stairways; ornamented with flowerbeds and busts. On the north-east 
side a * stanzone,’ or orange-house, enclosed the parterre, and on the north a fine architectural 
grotto, executed in spars and multicoloured pebbles, divided the parterre from the more utilitarian 
‘podere,’ or farm. From the centre of this grotto began the ‘grande all6e,’ a magnificent avenue 
of cypresses, bordered upon either side by a series of basins, raised one above the other, down 
which the water, gaily rushing, produced a most fairy-like effect. A small grotto and fountain of 
Ariosto terminates the ‘ all6e,’ whilst at its foot is a small oval court with central pool sur¬ 
rounded by caryatides supporting a cornice; semicircular recesses are cleverly planned upon either 
side of this court, from one of which a small door leads to a series of five apartments intended 
to be lavishly decorated as a garden residence—an idea that was never fully finished. 
At the foot of the ‘grande allee’ two plane-tree avenues lead to right and left, and a 
further avenue skirted the steep hillside, which (though probably left in its natural state in the 
original garden scheme) was laid out in the so-called English style, following the bed of a small 
mountain torrent. Upon the opposite side of the ‘allee’ the ground was entirely devoted to the 
cultivation of vines and olives. The idea of continuing the main axial line of the parterre, 
through the grotto and up the vista formed by the long rows of solemn cypresses, to the 
fountain of Ariosto, was one worthy of the best tradition of Italian garden design, and, given a 
sufficient supply, the effect of long lines of silvery water, trickling from basin to basin, glistening 
in the sunlight between the cypresses, must have been entrancing and fairylike. 
In one part of the grounds is a small circular temple with columns and cornice of 
marble, with a statue of the Goddess of Wisdom and a bust of Telemachus. The monument to 
Ariosto was never completed, and the fa$ade to the grotto in which it stands is also incomplete. 
At the back of the grotto is a mill for grinding corn and crushing olives, and cisterns into 
which the water for the cascade and fountains was collected. Small temples and summer-houses, 
sham classic and mediaeval ruins, complete the scheme for this part of the grounds, and are 
hardly worthy of our serious consideration. 
A few miles further, and on the opposite side of the lake, is the Villa Pliniana, coolly recessed 
in the deep shade of thickly wooded cliffs. It was built in 157 ° by Count Anguissola, of 
Piacenza, and is now the property of Marchese Trotti. The garden is terraced, but is of no 
great extent, owing to the very restricted nature of the site. Entering through the water-gate, 
one is delighted by a charmingly cool grotto, with varieties of ferns and water trickling in tiny 
pots from pool to pool. Unfortunately no attempt is made to keep up the original character of 
