This watercolour captures Villa d'Este's most intimate corner, the moss-covered nymphaeum. The main grotto-style structure is an intricate mosaic nymphaeum (a classical grotto dedicated to water nymphs). It is decorated with thousands of tiny colored pebbles, seashells, and artistic details.
 
Interesting facts...
In the late 18th century, the villa was purchased by the Marquis Bartolomeo Calderara for his young wife, Vittoria Peluso, a celebrated prima ballerina from Milan’s famed La Scala opera house. After the Marquis died, she married one of Napoleon's military commanders, Count Domenico Pino.
Merging her's and her husband’s military career, Countess Peluso constructed mock fortresses, fake towers, and ramparts along the steep cliffside directly above the mosaic grotto. To entertain her guests, she would stage elaborate, theatrical mock battles in the gardens, treating the grotto and the surrounding park like a romanticised military stage setting.
 
The grotto's modern legacy is tied directly to a massive 19th-century British royal scandal. In 1815, Caroline of Brunswick, the estranged and publicly humiliated Princess of Wales (and wife of the future King George IV), fled England and bought the estate. 
 
Location: Via Regina 40, Cernobbio, Lake Como, Italy