The Himalayan Cedar of Villa Geno

The Italian tree register lists this one as Il Maggiore, the greater one, because there are two of them and somebody had to rank them. A pair of Himalayan cedars closes the end of Viale Geno, the lakeside promenade Como walks in the evening, and Lombardy's tourism office gives their girths as 5.80 and 4.30 metres. The national register records this tree at 5.60, near enough to make it the larger of the two. They stand over a clearing beside a lakeside fountain that throws its jet more than forty metres into the air, which means most people meeting these cedars are looking the other way when they arrive. Villa Geno began as an eighteenth century estate. The Cornaggia family bought it in 1850 and had the architect James Tazzini rebuild the house, and in 1911 the whole property, villa, park and the promenade leading to it, passed to the city of Como. The cedars have therefore spent most of their lives in public ownership, shading a walk that is free at any hour and about fifteen minutes on foot from the station. Deodars droop at the tips of every branch, which at this size reads as a very large tree hanging its head, and they hold that shape all year. No age has been published for either of the pair.