Since the earliest Roman settlements, Italians have been expertly cultivating their land into beautiful and creative displays of nature, where terraces and walkways, plants and flowers, water and statuary are combined to provide a unique ad inspiring setting. The Italian garden has greatly evolved throughout the ages, taking on different forms, favoring different plants, and serving different purposes. Early Italian gardens made use of citrus, still regarded as an essential element for its bright fruit and shiny leaves. The ancient art of the topiary was revived in the Renaissance for its drama and elegance, and the refined parterre was developed to spread forth from the great palazzos and provide a dramatic view from their upper stories. Later, in the nineteenth century, the influence of the English garden took hold, with its meandering paths, asymmetrical lakes, and blossoming trees.
In Italian Gardens, author Judith Wade explores more than five hundred years of this tradition, discussing each of these developments and transporting the reader to thirty-seven of the most captivating gardens of Italy. Eleven regions are visited, from Lombardy and Piedmont in the north, to the island of Sicily in the south. Both small and grandiose, historic and contemporary gardens are featured.
Travel with Wade to the aristocratic Villa Favorita in Lugano, where an avenue of cypresses welcomes those who approach; the English-style park of Villa Novare Bertani in Verona, with its seventeenth-century wine cellar; the eighteenth-century Avenue of the Camelias at Lucca's Villa Reale, where the American artist John Singer Sargent painted; and great examples of contemporary Italian landscapes, like La Mortella in Naples, which boasts more than eight hundred species of rare plants.
As "living works of art" these changing displays of nature grow and bloom with the seasons. Smell the roses and lavender, feel the light spray of the fountain, and listen to the sound of your footsteps on the pebbles-- each locale is vividly portrayed in words and pictures, bringing the experience of each garden to life.
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Introduction Garden of Villa Seghetti Panichi
Villa Favorita Lugano 22 Villa Grabau San Pancrazio
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Alessandro Manzoni ancient architect architectural avenue baroque beautiful Bisuschio Biviere borders botanical box hedges Bozzolo Brusuglio Buonvisi Casalzuigno Castel di Lama Castel Giuliano Cervara citrus Collodi colors Corsini al Prato created cypress trees decorated designed e-mail eighteenth century exotic facade flowers fountain Garden of Villa Garzoni Garden Giusti Grezzana Grounds of Villa guided tours hornbeam ilex Isola Madre Italian garden lake Landriana landscape lemon Lenno magnolias Montegabbione Mortella Negrar nineteenth century Oasi di Porto Palazzo Fantini parterre plants Poiega Porta Bozzolo present owner pruned Right romantic Russell Page San Liberato Santa Margherita Ligure Scarzuola sculpted seventeenth-century sixteenth-century species statues style terrace theater topiary Tredozio vegetation Verbania Vignanello Villa Arvedi Villa Cicogna Mozzoni Villa del Balbianello Villa Favorita Villa Gamberaia Villa Geggiano Villa Grabau Villa Malenchini Villa Manzoni Villa Marigola Villa Monastero Villa Novare Bertani Villa Pallavicino Villa Seghetti Panichi Villa Taranto Villa Trissino Marzotto Villa Tritone