several churches. The Duomo is entitled to notice: its lofty cupola is a fine piece of architecture. The fabric is of white and black marble, on a grand scale, but irregular in its design; abounding in ornamental details which exhibit much incongruity and discordance. The great western entrance, formed through a wall of vast thickness, is lined on each side by a row of columns with foliaged capitals, from which rises a circular arch: this portal, flanked by narrow pointed lights, has over it a row of imagery under canopies, surmounted by a rose window, to the right and left of which are statues of ecclesiastical personages; and above these, filling up the pedimental termination of the front, are other sculptures. On each side is a smaller door, beneath a circular arch, over which is a long lancet window. The façade, and the arcades adjoining it present an assemblage of round and pointed architecture, in which one recognises neither the Grecian, Gothic, nor Saracenic, but the strangest possible mixture of all the three different stiles of building to which those appellations have respectively been applied. The most costly portion of its elaborate but ill-assorted embellishments was executed at the expense of Pope Innocent XI (Odescalchi) who as well as Clement XIII (Rezzonico) were natives of Como: and (if I mistake not) the two effigies finely sculptured in alabaster, seated in niches on each side of the grand entrance to this Cathedral are portraitures of those pontifical characters. In the multitude of Saintly statues that decorate the outside of the church, is one representing the younger Pliny,* by * Mr. Coxe says that the Latin inscription to this statue (of a man, whose dislike of Christians stands recorded in his own writings), has the date of 1495, an epocha when Como bore its share of testimony to the tender mercies of the Dominicans; and its mountains were illumined with the fires of the Inquisition. which it would appear that the memory of a heathen native is canonically honoured in a city where the bones of a heretic were formerly liable to be calcined. So much space is occupied by the Cathedral and its precincts that the market-place and other central parts exhibit little more than huddled-up houses and gloomy piazzas. Nearer the walls however, there are large mansions of white stone, with somewhat more roominess in the streets. The new theatre has a handsome exterior. But the inside of the town is for the most part incommodious and cheerless. High massive towers, strengthening and overlooking the yet formidable line of its surrounding bulwarks, attest the consequence of Como in feudal times, of which the Milan gate is perhaps the most conspicuous relic. The city is commanded by a conical hill, covered with verdure, on the uppermost region of which are spread the ruins of ancient fortifications, a lofty turret still crowning the top. These are the remains of the Castle of Baradello.* Mount Lampino (Mons Olympius) and the equally bold and beautiful hill of St. Fermo are seen among the more distant features of the environs, which on all sides are superlatively fine.-The inhabitants rise betimes. At half-past four we found them stirring, and about their business: many, chiefly females, were flocking to matins. The long shining bodkins and the still more showy circlet of gilt balls worn * Respecting this prominent, and interesting as prominent, object in the landscape, Lady Morgan's work furnishes the following historical note:"From the walls of this mountain fortress, was suspended a cage, in which, in 1277, exposed to all the inclemency of the stormy region, was imprisoned and perished, the famous feudal chief Torriani, once lord of the domains of Como and of the Milanese, the victim of the vengeance of his rival and conqueror, Sforza."-Italy, p. 172. by them, in common with the rest of the Milanese countrylasses, are no unbecoming finish to a fine head of hair and a good countenance: but prettiness is certainly not an attribute of the "woman-kind" here: the faces even of mere girls are marked with the wrinkles of age: a yellow swarthiness is the general tint of complexion; and goitres most unhappily deform the necks of not a few of the paysannes. As we proceeded from Como, and ascended one of the heights by which it is enclosed, the view on our left hand, looking over Montorfano into the plain of Erba, and towards the mountainous groups whose varied combinations mark the favoured district of Brianza, was replete with the most lovely and romantic beauties of the picturesque. Ombrose valli, amene vigne, e piante Di frutti onuste; e mille oggetti e mille Sparse quả e lá deliziose ville Eccelse torri, e bei palagi alteri Rallegran le mie stupide pupille.* Our appointed road was in an opposite direction, but through a no less fertile, cultivated, populous, and smiling land. We see the mulberry and the olive planted every where and bearing fruit in abundance. The vines are trained on posts and twigs, and supported high above the ground. About mid-way between Como and Varese, a spectacle suddenly burst upon the sight, well worth the pains of the longest day's journey, and a truly gracious treat at the commencement of our own. Crossing a rising Extracted from a Poetical Description of that Eden of the Milanese, the vicinity of the Monte di Brianza, by the celebrated Abbate Passeroni. ground, we beheld below us a rich, well wooded, and extensive plain, bounded on either hand by hills, which running nearly parallel with each other, ultimately join the ridges that encompass the borders of the lake we had just quitted. A noble line of green mountains formed the second distance, behind which rose a loftier and more craggy chain; whilst to complete a back ground of inconceivable magnificence, the snowy summits of the Helvetic Alps, soaring above all, shone resplendently in the morning sun! Varese (where we breakfasted) contains some good streets, two or three fine churches, handsome fountains in the public square and gardens: the environs are adorned by the stately residences of nobility: its palace on eminence commands a view of the lake, and the verdant shelvy sides of that fine sheet of water, adorned with habitations. There is in the architectural character, as well as in the local position and arrangement of these towns, a striking adaptation to the purposes of pictorial study and selection. The general loftiness and amplitude of the houses; the white stone or plaster of their walls; the lively red colour of the large semi-cylindrical tiles forming deep ridges on their flattened and broadly overhanging roofs; the galleries and balconies constructed on the outside for the free enjoyment of a charming climate; the porticos below and arcades above sheltering the internal and frequently unglazed windows from the sun; the intermingled foliage of fruit-bearing and odoriferous plants cast with a seemingly careless profusion over their gaily painted fronts; the general luxuriance of vegetation with which they are surrounded-are all so many forms, shapes, and situations, into which the painter would wish to see them thrown; in whatever degree they may be compatible with or may militate against interior comfort and domestic convenience. Some of the Villas have an air of Palladian grandeur and elegance, presenting façades of considerable extent, superb design, costly materials, and finished execution: varying from two to four stories in height, they are generally seated on the plateau of a more or less numerous succession of terraces, whose horticultural economy, regulated in a stile of insipid formality and of misplaced nicety, their walks being confined to straight alleys, and their yew-trees clipped into indescribable patterns, exhibit an apparently studied contrast to the bold inequalites and wild exuberance of Nature, so peculiar to Italy: "Its uplands sloping deck the mountain's side, The structure of the churches is in keeping with the rest of the rural picture; each village temple, plain and simple in its external appearance, though in general tawdry and overloaded within, has its high quadrangular tower of stone, or of brick covered with white stucco, surmounted sometimes with a small cupola, still more rarely with a spire, most commonly with a tiled roof: in the top-most story, at each of the four sides of the steeple a window is pierced, and a bell hung outwards between the frame-work. The ecclesiastical buildings seem with scarcely an exception to be comparatively of modern date. The stile called Gothic has here been neither preserved nor imitated. Travelling had now become delightful-on fine roads, free from dust, beneath solar rays of brightest lustre |