Gardens of Italy
by Ann Laras
Amazon reader’s review: “Long a mecca for gardeners, Italy boasts an enormous range of stunning gardens from lakeside idylls to cliff top retreats, formal palazzos and woodland sanctuaries. Author Ann Laras gives a highly personal account of her trip around 60 Italian gardens, using her love of Italianate gardens and horticultural history to punctuate her highly readable prose. With a keen eye on detail, plants and atmosphere, the picture she paints, along with the stunning photographs of Ake Eson Lindman, makes the reader almost believe they are walking around the gardens with her. Her descriptions of the many gargoyles, water features, statuary and grottoes reveal her love of the place and its people, its history and heritage. With theatrical flourishes, the gardens of Italy are more than just gardens as we know them. They are stage sets for romance, history, partying and reflection. With stunning backdrops these jewels of Italy are depicted to best advantage, sea, mountains, valleys and lake-side all falling perfectly into place with man’s creations. From the famous Ninfa to Villa d’Este to the more secretive and harder to find Villa Gamberaia and Giardiini della Landriana, transport yourself to a horticultural paradise of designs old and new, traditional and contemporary from a land that could, possibly, rival that of England for their beautiful gardens.”