to cypresses
by Cadenabbia; the laburnums hanging their yellow clusters from the
clefts of Sasso Eancio; the oleander arcades of Varenna; the wild
white limestone crags of San Martiuo, which he has climbed to feast
his eyes with the perspective, magical, serene, Lionardesquely
perfect, of the distant gates of Adda. Then while this modern Paris
is yet doubting, perhaps a thought may cross his mind of sterner,
solitary Lake Iseo--the Pallas of the three. She offers her own
attractions. The sublimity of Monte Adamello, dominating Lovere and
all the lowland like Hesiod's hill of Virtue reared aloft above the
plain of common life, has charms to tempt heroic lovers. Nor can
Varese be neglected. In some picturesque respects, Varese is the most
perfect of the lakes. Those long lines of swelling hills that lead
into the level, yield an infinite series of placid foregrounds,
pleasant to the eye by contrast with the dominant snow-summits, from
Monte Viso to Monte Leone: the sky is limitless to southward; the low
horizons are broken by bell-towers and farmhouses; while armaments of
clouds are ever rolling in the interval of Alps and plain.

Of a truth, to decide which is the queen of the Italian lakes, is but
an _infinita quaestio_; and the mere raising of it is folly. Still
each lover of the beautiful may give his vote; and mine, like that of
shepherd Paris, is already given to the Larian goddess. Words fail
in attempting to set forth charms which have to be enjoyed, or can at
best but lightly be touched with most consummate tact, even as great
poets have already touched on Como Lake--from Virgil with his 'Lari
maxume,' to Tennyson and the Italian Manzoni. The threshold of the
shrine is, however, less consecrated ground; and the Cathedral of Como
may form a vestibule to the temple where silence is more golden than
the speech of a describer.

The Cathedral of Como is perhaps the most perfect building in Italy
for illustrating the fusion of Gothic and Renaissance styles, both of
a good type and exquisite in their sobriety. The Gothic ends with the
nave. The noble transepts and the choir, each terminating in a rounded
tribune of the same dimensions, are carried out in a simple and
decorous Bramantesque manner. The transition from the one style to the
other is managed so felicitously, and the sympathies between them are
so well developed, that there is no discord. What we here call
Gothic, is conceived in a truly southern spirit, wi