at the whole may harmonize with the
feelings induced by the lofty features of the accompanying scenery in
any hill country, and yet more, on the Larian Lake, by the deep memories
and everlasting associations which haunt the stillness of its shore. Of
the color required by Italian landscape we have spoken before, and we
shall see that, particularly in this case, white or pale tones are
agreeable.

106. We shall now proceed to the situation and form of the villa. As
regards situation; the villas of the Lago di Como are built, _par
preference_, either on jutting promontories of low crag covered with
olives, or on those parts of the shore where some mountain stream has
carried out a bank of alluvium into the lake. One object proposed in
this choice of situation is, to catch the breeze as it comes up the main
opening of the hills, and to avoid the reflection of the sun's rays from
the rocks of the actual shore; and another is, to obtain a prospect up
or down the lake, and of the hills on whose projection the villa is
built: but the effect of this choice when the building is considered the
object, is to carry it exactly into the place where it ought to be, far
from the steep precipice and dark mountain, to the border of the winding
bay and citron-scented cape, where it stands at once conspicuous and in
peace. For instance, in the view of Villa Serbelloni[16] from across the
lake, although the eye falls suddenly from the crags above to the
promontory below, yet all the sublime and severe features of the scene
are kept in the distance, and the villa itself is mingled with graceful
lines, and embosomed in rich vegetation. The promontory separates the
Lake of Lecco from that of Como, properly so-called, and is three miles
from the opposite shore, which gives room enough for aerial perspective.

[Footnote 16: [Villa Serbelloni, now the dependence of the Hotel Grande
Bretagne at Bellaggio, and Villa Somma-Riva, now called Villa Carlotta,
at Cadenabbia, and visited by every tourist for its collection of modern
statuary, are both too well known to need illustration by the very poor
wood-cuts which accompanied this chapter in the "Architectural
Magazine." The original drawings are lost; judging from that of the
cottage in Val d'Aosta we may safely believe that they were most
inadequately represented by the old cuts.]]

107. We shall now consider the form of the villa. It is generally the
apex of a series of artificial terraces, whic