![Villa Lante Stone Table [Photo © Alice Joyce]](http://www.alicesgardentravelbuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/VillaLanteStone-Table-Photo-©-Alice-Joyce-110x150.jpg "Villa Lante Stone Table [Photo © Alice Joyce]")
The elements of a Renaissance garden come together in a poetic harmony at Villa Lante, northeast of Rome in the village of Bagnaia. Often quoted author of Italian Villas and Their Gardens, the novelist Edith Wharton found the setting to be a magical place when she visited in 1903. The survival of these gardens is commendable, as so many of the period have now vanished. Attributed to the great Mannerist architect, Vignola, Villa Lante began as the dream of Cardinal Gambara in the 16th century. The conversion of a hunting preserve became the glorious landscaped grounds we see today. Cardinal Peretti-Montalto tales credit for the creation of the central Fountain of the
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Once home to the doyen of 19th century English gardening, William Robinson’s historic Gravetye Manor is enjoying new life as a luxe country hotel and celebrated restaurant, just as the acclaimed gardens are regaining their rightful role. Having left his post at Great Dixter, Gravetye’s head gardener Tom Coward is managing the restoration of the property’s established gardenscape, while promising to add contemporary panache to planting beds, borders, and bucolic
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Located along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, the Getty Villa first opened in 1974 as the original J. Paul Getty Museum; the architecture of the site patterned after the Villa dei Papiri – a Roman country house dating to the first century. The Villa closed for renovation in 1997, just as The Getty Center opened to great fanfare in Los Angeles. After a 12-year closure, the cultural cognoscenti were abuzz by 2006 as the Getty Villa reopened with stunning exhibition spaces; presenting an unparalleled showcase for Greco-Roman & Etruscan antiquities. An overall stunning redesign by architects, Machado and Silvetti Associates of Boston received widespread
Continue reading Getty Villa: Elegant Symmetry .. Echoes of Ancient Rome
