The pond at the Vescovi Villa is small and still. Or at least so it appears. Its waters seep through the rock of Monte Pirio and spill out here from underground water veins. lt's full of life, both plant and animal, and it plays an important role in draining or quenching the thirst of the entire garden, with which it communicates via small ditches.

You have to be a tourist or a groundskeeper to access the small pond. Or a resident, with a valid identity card, to prove that you're a resident of Torreglia. You also need to be curious, or a fan of nature rather than frescoes, because to reach this corner of the garden you have to have covered some distance. It's an area that cannot be seen from outside the walls and goes almost unnoticed from within them.

The space conveys order and formal relaxation. There are park rides, labelled recycling bins, and benches with plaques dedicating or thanking donors. The guides often mention this area, but point it out from the terraces. It is a marginal place, on the edge, of minor importance. It only changes face during events, when the element of water adds charm, mystery and magic to a finely controlled place.

Since the 1500s, the pond has had a hydraulic and agricultural function, which today are being lost in the recreational tourism project. The rides, benches and wicker waste baskets for recycling contrast sharply with the rows of grapevines a few metres away. Clearly, the garden is maintained in a state that recalls past activities for tourism purposes. Thanks to the FAI and visitors, the Vescovi Villa still has an agricultural setting, but it is a backdrop, managed by external parties, which only affects the protected property when the odd food product finds its way into the gift shop, among the bookmarks, jewellery and souvenirs.

Around the pond is a buzzing quiet: the traffic outside is muffled by the bamboo, and what attracts the ear most are the hums and rustles. Especially when there is a light breeze, one perceives a vibrant space; from the wind on the skin to the swaying shadows, the park and pond come to life. Movements, reflections, immersion.

The Vescovi Villa is what makes the pond unique. With your back to the east wall and your feet on the slender strip of grass that separates it from the water, your gaze takes in the hills, the villa, the small hill on which it stands and the vineyards that slope down to this corner where the pond lies.

Tourists, maintenance workers, residents: three categories of visitors to the pond. There are those who pass by during a visit, those who play between the amusements, and those who relax while contemplating the landscape or chatting with someone. There is a precise layout of where people should go and where it would be most appropriate to walk, sit or play, but this place has certainly hosted different experiences and emotions that cannot be reduced to a simple plan of spatial arrangements. 

"I've loved art, literature and history since I was a child, and I found beauty around me that I wish to share with everyone" - Jenny Artusi. This is the only personal phrase you can find near the pond. It's on a rusty plaque on a bench. This last bench is hard to reach, however, due to the invasive bamboo obstructing the path.

The pond and the park are enclosed, surrounded, closed off, but also permeable. I believe that the intimacy of the place depends on both the day of the week and the time of day, but above all on the number of tourists present. It can be the most private and secluded place in the entire area or a chaotic, crowded and dispersive space on weekends and public holidays. 

This small body of water is a passageway, a conduit, a temporary receptacle. Perhaps the pond itself is a spatial portal. The villa, on the otherhand, is a major temporal portal, referring to other eras for obvious historical reasons. There are also other objects that tell of different times, such as the benches, which in their silence convey the sounds and sensations of past experiences.

This place has changed a lot over the last ten years. It used to be a peripheral area, with a primarily agricultural and hydraulic function, whereas today it is a playground, a place for relaxation. It has now acquired new functional, aesthetic and rational stability. The only thing that seems to escape this new formulation is the bamboo, which is spreading rapidly, despite everything.

The pond has an intimate relationship with the place that hosts it. It is a mirror of ephemeral images, which change with the weather and the seasons, but it is also a tangible resource for the waters flowing through it and a point of reference for the animal life that inhabits it. The entire garden and all its plants depend on this corner of water. And the entire structure of the villa finds its vanishing point here, as fundamental as a breath.