![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
Continue reading Villa Lante: Touring Italy’s Historic Gardens
Outside Rome, a bit southwest of the town of Tivoli in Lazio Province, the monumental Roman ruins of Villa Adriana stand as a testament to the ambitions and fancies of Emperor Hadrian. Based upon the emperor’s design and built in the 2nd century A.D., the site presents a remarkable fusion of ostentatious architecture – a vast complex of buildings and courtyards, canals and thermal baths – cradled within hundreds of acres of green terrain.
Continue reading Villa Adriana: Emperor Hadrian’s Opulent Retreat
Ninfa is a landscape where gardens rise up on the site of a once-prominent 8th-century town. The present-day gardens were shaped by the creators: Three generations of the Caetani family responsible for the landscape one sees today. In particular, three ladies of English and American ancestry – laudable, artistic figures who contributed to the gardenscape. The wistful romanticism of ancient stone walls is not easily captured in words; the stone surfaces a honey-hued canvas for fading frescoes. Ninfa opens to the public on a limited basis, offering guided
Continue reading Enchanted Ninfa .. Protected Landscape
