. Three Vassar girls in the Tyrol. f Borromean Islands opposite the Villa Claudia interested thegirls both by their beauty and their history. One was called the Isola dei Pescatori, or Island of the Fisher-men. On it was crowded a fishing-village. A little stretch of green-sward at one end was reserved for the drying of the nets. The houseswere painted pink, buff, and white, and presented an irregular jumbleof roofs and queer little jutting balconies. In front of the island bare-legged men were continually pushing off or hauling in clumsy boats,which with their rakish lateen-sails added to the
. Three Vassar girls in the Tyrol. f Borromean Islands opposite the Villa Claudia interested thegirls both by their beauty and their history. One was called the Isola dei Pescatori, or Island of the Fisher-men. On it was crowded a fishing-village. A little stretch of green-sward at one end was reserved for the drying of the nets. The houseswere painted pink, buff, and white, and presented an irregular jumbleof roofs and queer little jutting balconies. In front of the island bare-legged men were continually pushing off or hauling in clumsy boats,which with their rakish lateen-sails added to the effect of the a contrast to this island was its neighbor the Isola Bella,whose gardens and palazzo are for four months of the year the homeof the Count and Countess Borromeo. This island rises like a crea-tion of fairyland from the lake, in a succession of artificial terraces inan ornate though unnatural style of gardening. Statues, vases, andcarved balustrades are intermingled with the semi-tropical plants, — the. \\\ filter - 1 mi ^ ^ p| I«P1. i| «P : LA GO MAGGIORE. gj aloe, the orange, the citron, roses, jasmine, and cacti, set off with thedark velvety background of yews cut into fantastic forms. The entireisland is covered with soil brought from a distance. It was a rockywaste until 1671, when Vitaliano, Count Borromeo, master general ofordnance to the King of Spain, took the fancy to make a paradisehere. The exotic plants flourish luxuriantly, for the flinty rock be-neath the shallow soil retains the suns heat, and in winter the arti-ficial garden is carefully boxed from the snow. The taste of theentire plan has been much questioned. There is something theatricaland out of place about the island, but in spite of this it exerts itscharm on the young and the uncritical. Dorothy, though she com-pared it to an elaborately decorated wedding-cake, admired it as shedid rococo architecture, — which has been aptly called the cauliflowerand periwig style, — a
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Keywords: ., bookauthorchampneyelizabethweli, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890
