Villa Commedia

Pliny's Comedy and Tragedy villas were two of the several villas owned by Pliny the Younger during the 1st century in the area surrounding Lake Como in northern Italy. In modern-day Italy, they are known respectively as Villa Commedia and Villa Tragedia. In one of Pliny's letters to his boyhood friend Voconius Romanus (Book 9, Epistle 7), he named them as his favourites. In his letter, Pliny wrote that the Tragedy villa was atop a ridge above the lake, but the Comedy villa was right on the water's edge and that "each of them has particular beauties; a diversity which renders them to their master as still more agreeable."

Quotes about Villa Commedia

 * In the past, on Lake Como, the rich only bought villas on the hills or high rocks of Lake Como, as Pliny did with Villa Commedia, in order not to lose sight and not to have flooding. The poor go to the shore to let the water lick your feet.
 * In passato i ricchi compravano le case e le ville solo sulle colline del Lago di Como, come fece Plinio con villa Commedia, per non perdersi la vista e per non avere allagamenti. "In riva a farsi lambire i piedi dall'acqua ci andavano i poveri.
 * Giorgio Gandola, "Lake Como", Il Giornale, 7 March 2008


 * On this low and comfortable beach of Lierna was the villa of Pliny known as the Commedia like the Comedy that the actors recite on stage with lower tones than the performance of the Tragedy.
 * Vuolsi che su questo lido depresso ed agevole di Lierna il giovin Plinio avesse la villa sua detta Commedia, perciocchè gli attori di quelle in sulla scena escivano con borzacchini del coturno tragico più umili.
 * Giovanni Battista Giovio


 * (The Villas of Plino) are built "more Baiano" that is how they used to be built in Baia, on the Gulf of Pozzuli, where the heights allow them to be built by arranging them one above the other.
 * (Le Villa di Plino) sono costruite "more baiano" cioè come solevano costruire a Baia, sul Golfo di Pozzuli, ove le alture permettono l'una e l'altra disposizione.
 * Pliny the Younger, Ep. 9, 7, 3 sgg.