The structured composition of the garden follows the definitive layout of the villa, which is divided into a single perspective axis oriented towards the west-east direction coinciding with the long driveway running through the entrance courtyard, preceded by the flower garden and the internal courtyard that continues into the garden.
The Italian landscaped garden extends near the eastern courtyard arranged in the same central perspective of the driveway that culminates in the theatre of Diana. The 17th-century designed, formal garden is arranged in a geometric maze marked by the presence of fountains, statues and “plant theatres,” which enclose fountains or mythological-allegorical group sculptures.
The series of fountain and water features of the garden, many of which today are no longer functional, was once fed by a water wheel to provide the correct pressure but now in disuse. The first fountain is placed in the theatre of Andromeda, while the largest is located in the theatre of Diana, where complex mechanisms gave rise to water features such as sudden spurts that doused the surprised visitor. A fountain with a basin is also located at the centre of the big theatre also known as Perspective of the eight statues, which is located not far from the dragon stairs or waterway. The iconography of the fountains and sculptures are inspired by classicism, as in the Theatre of Diana, or derived from Tuscan-Roman country residences such as the stairs of the dragons.
The 17th-century avenue which ends at the Theatre of Diana gives rise, in the orthogonal sense according to the north-south axis, to three major parallel avenues designed in the 18th century. The first avenue on the east divides the garden into two parts of equal sizes; the first is a wooded area, which currently has the form of an arched “hornbeam wood”. The second avenue, in the axis of the water tower through the area of the boxwood maze, is now impoverished but with stellar designs still perceptible. The third avenue, where the southern façade of the villa forms a backdrop, defines the space where in the 18th century, the large French parterre with flower beds without borders were built.
Today inside the garden are some small buildings in ruins such as the aviary covered with graceful metal domes and decorated inside with frescoes of which some fragments remain visible. Today, the hunting lodge, which is a small two-storey building preceded by a small courtyard is completely destroyed. The kitchen and a sitting room were located on the ground floor, while the main floor had a vestibule flanked by two symmetrical elements, the service staircase, oratory, a lounge, and two bedrooms with many alcoves.
The work commissioned in the garden in the first half of the 18th century by Giuseppe Antonio Arconati is widely documented by some charts in the treatise Country Residences by Marc’Antonio Dal Re, published in 1743, with a dedication to Giuseppe Antonio Arconati.
The 18th-century changes are traditionally attributed to Milanese architect, Giovanni Gianda, gardener extraordinaire of the villa of Bollate, who Dal Re considered a French national, although it is not possible to establish exactly what his real contribution was to the project. Santino Langè, for example, circumscribed many of the works and limited himself only to the creation of some decorative details such as the mazes.
When the Arconati family faded away in 1772, the Busca family took over as the owners and in 1792 entrusted the architect, Leopoldo Pollack, with the transformation of the English landscaped garden, which was never realized.