Gardens of Italy by Ann Laras: Book Review on Central, Northern, Southern Peninsular Green Treasures

The image-filled, information-rich guidebook describes ancient Rome’s extant gardens. Archaeological reconstruction through Pliny the Younger’s (63 – 113) Letters and pumice-aided preservation expose as Pompeii’s predominant woody plants:

• almond, apple;
• cherry, chestnut;
• fig;
• laurel, lemon;
• oleander, olive;
• pear, pomegranate; and
• quince.

It likewise favors the villa of Livia Drusilla (January 30, 58 B.C. – September 28, A.D. 29), as:

• bride of Emperor Augustus (September 23, 63 B.C. – August 19, A.D. 14);
• mother of Emperor Tiberius (November 16, 42 B.C. – March 16, A.D. 37);
• maternal great-great grandmother of Emperor Nero (December 15, 37 – June 9, 68);
• paternal grandmother of Emperor Claudius (August 1, 10 B.C. – October 13, A.D. 54);
• paternal great-grandmother of Emperor Caligula (August 31, 12 – January 24, 41).

Roman architecture and horticulture never go missing. Evergreens, stones, and water honor post-imperial gardening. They indicate Italian-ness in:

• Campania’s gardens of Minerva, Mortella, Negombo, Palazzo Reale, and Santa Chiara, and of Villas Cimbrone, Il Tritone, Rufolo, San Michele;
• Lazio’s gardens of Castello Ruspoli, Landriana, Ninfa, Orto Botanico, Palazzo Patrizi, Sacro Bosco, and San Liberato, and of Villas Aldobrandini, Borghese, d’Este, Farnese, Lante;
• Liguria’s gardens of Cervara, Villa Durazzo, Villa Hanbury;
• Lombardy’s/Piedmont’s gardens of Isola Bella and Isola Madre and of Villas Balbianello, Carlotta, Cicogno Mozzoni, Melzi, San Remigio, Taranto;
• Tuscany’s gardens of Boboli, Fineschi, Foce, Garavicchio, irises, Parco di Demidoff, Porcinai, and Venzano, and of Villas Castello, Cetinale, Gamberaia, Garzoni, I Tatti, Mansi, Petraia, Reale, Vicobello, Vignamaggio. 

Visitors judge Veneto super-relevant through Donna Leon’s mystery-filled venues. Giardino Giusti, Orto Botanico, Palazzo Querini Stampalia, Parco Sigurtà, Villa Barbaro, and Villa Rizzardi kindle enthusiasm for:

• Verona;
• Padua;
• Venezia;
• Valeggio sul Mincio;
• Pojega di Negrar;
• Maser.

So Gardens of Italy leads garden- and peninsula-lovers on culturally enriching, educationally entertaining, geo-historically enthralling journeys with:

• Anna Andersson, Italian Government Tourist Board, Stockholm, Sweden;
• Thorbjörn Andersson, Elsa Cappelletti, Giorgio Galletti, Lena Landgren, Kjell Lundquist, Bengt Rönnhedh, landscape architects;
• Astrid Capoferro, Barbro Frizell, Allan Klynne, Margareta Lepscky, Pia Letalick, Börje Magnusson, Stefania Renzetti, Anne-Marie Touati, Swedish Institute, Rome, Italy;
• Jo Christian, Fiona Robertson, editors;
• Becky Clarke, Anne Fraser, Frances Lincoln Ltd.;
• Ann Laras, author; and
• Erich Lessing, Åke E:son Lindman, photographers.

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Detail of fresco of illusionistic garden, with all plants and trees simultaneously flowering/fruiting, Villa di Livia ad Gallinas Albas (Villa of White Hens), Prima Porta, north Roman suburb; Livia's gardens, famed for laurel trees, are under excavation.
Largest of three vaulted subterranean rooms in Livia's Villa depicting luscious garden with ornamental plants and pomegranate trees is installed in Rome's National Museum (Museo Nazionale Romano), housed in Palazzo Massimo alle Terme.
Museo Nazionale Romano (National Roman Museum), Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome, west central Italy: Miguel Hermoso Cuesta, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Livia_Prima_Porta_01.JPG

a celebration of water in the gardens of Villa d'Este: Neptune Fountain (foreground) and Water Organ (background)
Commissioned by Cardinal Ippolito (II) d'Este (1509 – 1572), grandson of Pope Alexander VI (1431-1503) and inscribed as UNESCO world heritage site in 2001, Villa d'Este exemplifies Renaissance architecture and the Italian Renaissance garden.
Tivoli, Lazio region, central peninsular Italy; Thursday, March 31, 2005, 12:00: KatDevsGames (Mmxbass), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Villa_d'Este_01.jpg

view of Venice's Palazzo Querini Stampalia's courtyard garden
Sixteenth-century palace underwent renovations of ground floor and landscape 1961-1963 by renowned Venetian architect and designer Carlo Scarpa (June 2, 1906 – November 28, 1978), who restored courtyard garden.
sestiere Castillo, between St. Mark's Basilica and Rialto Bridge, left bank Grand Canal, Venice, northeastern Italy: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra (dalbera), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Le_jardin_de_Carlo_Scarpa_(fondation_Querini_Stampalia,_Venise)_(8142985275).jpg

Gardens at Villa Vignamaggio, 16th-century villa featured in William Shakespeare's effervescent comedy, "Much Ado About Nothing," directed by Kenneth Branagh in 1992
Greve in Chianti, Florence province, Tuscany, central peninsular Italy: Dave & Margie Hill / Kleerup (The Consortium), CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/the-consortium/8464339494/

17th-century Palazzo Boromeo: Giardino Quadro (Square Garden) in background; terraced pyramid (la piramide a terrazze) Giardino Barocco (Baroque Garden) in foreground
view from lakeside town of Stresa, province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola
Isola Bella (Beautiful Island), Isole Borromee (Borromean Islands), western Lago Maggiore, northern Italy: MM, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:StresaIsolaBellaPalazzoBorromeoGiardiniTerrazzaInferiore.jpg

Larås, Ann. 2005. Gardens of Italy. Introduction by Thorbjörn Andersson. Special photography by Åke E:son Lindman. London, England, U.K.: Frances Lincoln Limited.