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Villa Bettoni is a three-story complex dating back to the mid-1700s. It features a marble balustrade adorned with statues and several rooms decorated with frescoes that house interesting art collections. The garden, connected to the villa by two overpasses and built on a slope, was designed by Amerigo Vincenzo Pierallini from Florence, between 1764 and 1768.

The building stretches along its longitudinal axis and it features two wide facades, one on the lake, the other on the road, and the gardens.

The building is made of a central body. The upper floor is decorated with eleven pilasters, with the windows in the center: three of them are bigger than the others and the gables around them feature ancient-looking busts. They all overlook the balcony above the elegant tripartite entrance portico. The raised floor is decorated with a balustrade with several statues.

The facade is smooth and doesn’t have any decoration but curvilinear and triangular pediments. The same elements are found, in a more sober version, along the side of the building facing the lake.
In the southern part of the villa, there are some rooms belonging to the pre-existing structure, dating back to the XVII century – they used to be the dining area.
The other parts of the building are separated from the central body; on the ground floor, the staircase leads to the main one, structured on different ramps decorated with original elements and classical mythology sculptures: Mercury and Minerva alluding to the military feats of the Bettonis, Hercules, and Omphale celebrating family weddings.

THE GARDEN

An imposing gate gives access to the garden. In the flat part of it, there’s a large exedra enriched with statues, with a vast semicircular parterre divided into six portions by low box hedges (Buxus sempervirens). This area is flanked by high yew hedges (Taxus baccata) which create a sort of backdrop for a monumental visual effect of perspective.

The garden also includes ancient lemon groves, stairs, artificial caves with walls decorated with stalactites and shells, statues of rural or celebratory subjects, fountains and nymphaeums, various pinnacles, a large fountain, an avenue of olive trees, and some ancient oaks.

From the terraces, visitors can access the lemon gardens (Citrus x limon) and other rare and no longer cultivated citrus fruits, such as the lemons from Maderno and the Salò cedar (Citrus medica) inside some pots. On the last terrace, there is the “Varino valley”, full of evergreen plants, while at the top of the theater staircase, there is a green labyrinth, some parterres, and a theater.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)