Maggie's Farm

Few family lines can claim wealth and influence in a straight line from the 12th Century to today. Usually, decadence, disease, dilution, war - and taxes - take their toll.

Here's a brief history of the family through 1652, from the family's rise in Tuscany, to their power in Milan, to their landholdings in Lombardy. I do not know what their current status is, but they do own at least three islands in Lago Maggiore, including Isola Bella with its palace and remarkably ornate Italian gardens (which are studied in all garden design classes, I am told, even though they may look vulgar to today's spartan Yankee eye). Such things were designed to impress as much as to delight.

All of the soil was brought in by boat:

The family even has a family website, but I don't want to try to struggle with the Italian.

I'll be there in a week or two, mainly to do some Alpine hiking, some eating, and to see a medieval village or two, and I like to know what I am looking at.