Boston Flora

Tag: Villa Lante

  • Thursday, May 7 – Saturday, May 16 – Italy: Gardens, Roses, Cooking, and Culture

    Have you ever dreamed of visiting Italy in the Spring? This will be a wonderful garden tour – including Ninfa, Bomarzo and the Villa d’Este. Tour organizers Marco Giusti and Claudio Bernardoni are reliable and engaging. They are both trained Italian chefs, and they will be cooking several dinners in your villa as well! This will be a small group of 8 to 10 gardeners and there are only a few places left. Barbara DeRiso, MD, and member of Schenley Farms Garden Club in Pittsburgh is happy to answer any questions you may have, and to help you arrange to join this tour. Feel free to contact her at barbaraderiso@gmail.com.

    Itinerary:

    Thurs. May 7th
    Morning transfer from Rome Fiumicino International Airport to our hotel in Tivoli. Visit the town of Tivoli and see the fabulous fountains of the Villa d’Este gardens. Dinner in a typical trattoria in Tivoli.

    Fri. May 8th
    Early morning departure for a guided tour of Ninfa, a supremely romantic garden where flowers scramble over the ruins of a medieval town set on the banks of a crystalline river. Monty Don, the famous garden expert has called Ninfa “the most beautiful garden in the world”. Return to Tivoli for lunch. Visit the town of Tivoli and see the fabulous fountains of the Villa d’Este gardens, just about the most sumptuous you’ll see anywhere. Dinner in a restaurant.

    Sat. May 9th
    Transfer to our villa in the Tuscan countryside. On the way, we’ll visit Bomarzo, a garden like no other, immersed within a forest and filled with fantastic sculptures, and Villa Lante, one of Italy’s most beautiful Renaissance gardens. Arrival at the villa – a centuries-old stone villa with a pool, newly restructured and surrounded by a breathtaking landscape – in time for dinner.

    Sun May 10th
    First hands-on cooking lesson making traditional local dishes
    and creating a full-course Italian meal for lunch. Free time in the afternoon to lounge by the pool or to go for a walk in the local countryside. Dinner at the villa.

    Mon May 11th
    Visit the wine cellars of the Villa Sant’Anna vineyards, makers of Nobile di Montepulciano, one of the world’s finest wines. Taste some of their best bottles as you snack on cold cuts and cheese.Walking tour of the medieval and Renaissance hill town of Montepulciano with a lovely main square and its elegant 16th century church, built in golden travertine, finely situated at the end of a long avenue of cypresses.

    Tues May 12th
    Visit the Roseto Botanico ‘Carla Fineschi’, one of the world’s largest private collection of roses (the biggest in Europe) with a stopover in Arezzo. Walking tour of Arezzo, a stunning city, boasting many fine buildings, grand squares and an ancient annual Palio of its own. Dinner at the villa.

    Wed May 13th
    Guided walk through Pienza, an idyllic Tuscan town that began life as a model Renaissance city. Lunch in the villa. In the afternoon: a guided visit of the beautiful gardens of La Foce, the masterpiece of the great British garden designer and architect, Cecil Pinsent. Dinner at the villa.

    Thurs May 14th
    Walking tour of Siena, Italy’s loveliest medieval city, full of spectacular art treasures, the splendid Romanesque-Gothic cathedral and the magnificent, shell-shaped main square, where every year the Palio horse race takes place – an event which dates back to the 6th century. Lunch in a trattoria and dinner at the villa.

    Fri May 15th
    Morning: visit the beautiful abbey of Sant’Antimo, immersed in an idyllic Tuscan countryside where you might chance upon monks chanting in the church. Have a stroll in the quaint medieval town of Montalcino. Lunch at the villa. In the afternoon visit Bagno Vignoni, a medieval village where the central square is a pool of steamy water; and visit San Quirico D’Orcia, yet another village of old-world charm with an elegant 16th century garden. Dinner at the villa.

    Sat May 16th
    After breakfast, departure for Rome Fiumicino International Airport.

    Cost: € 2500,00
    (€ 150 ($168) discount if you share a room)

    All rooms in villa are en-suite with double or twin beds. The villa also has wi-fi.
    All payments must be made by bank transfer. Please contact alfrescoitaly@gmail.

  • Saturday, June 20, 10 – 4 – Newport Area Open Day

    The Garden Conservancy will sponsor an Open Day in Newport, Rhode Island on Saturday, June 20, from 10 – 4.  Visit Green Animals Topiary Garden at 380 Cory’s Lane, Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum at 101 Ferry Road and Route 114, for more information.

    The Purviance Garden,  47 Kane Avenue, Middletown, Rhode Island

    For more than thirty years the owners have lovingly tended their gardens. The house is sheltered by two venerable lindens of astonishing form and framed by a billowing boxwood hedge, shaped by an artist. The border by the terrace holds flowering shrubs, a whimsical collection of potted plants, a garden pool, roses, perennials, and evergreens. A tiny playhouse is tucked under a copper beech. Other small gardens are constantly changing, rearranged by the owners who cannot resist tinkering.

    Bellevue House Gardens, Newport, Rhode Island

    This walled three-and-one-half-acre property serves as the private park of an estate designed by Ogden Codman Jr. for his cousin Martha. The gardens have recently been restored, embellished, and re-imagined. They pay homage to the garden designers of the American Renaissance period (1885-1930), and include a series of follies, exedras, and tea houses which form axes and vistas inviting diversions beyond the contemplation of the magnificent specimen trees set in sweeping lawns. The most recent additions include the American Renaissance Water Garden on the east side of the house. A carved granite statue of the goddess Pomona as a metaphorical deity passes energy to the current family over time. The waters gush forward from the her fruit-laden cornucopia, then rise up to a Villa Lante-like table, spill out the father’s lips, under a bridge, and down a long rill to a children’s fountain. A pergola nearby pays homage to Rosemary Verey’s laburnums and wisteria and frames the new tea house, replicating the work of Salem architect Samuel McIntyre (1800). At the rear of the property, stands the newest folly—the cupola of McIntyre’s 1809 Branch (now Howard Street) Church in Salem as redesigned by J. P. Couture of Providence. It is adjacent to an English water garden that reflects the cupola in its symmetrical pool. Completed in the fall of 2008, a new Oriental Vale extends the view to the south. Here a Chinese Chippendale bridge frames a cascade running from a lily-lined lagoon into the pond. A hillock blocks street views and sends a waterfall down to stepping stones that edge the lagoon, which is embraced by a shoal of large beach stones, Japanese maples, and granite lanterns. We regret that fishing for the multi-colored koi is not allowed. Nor will we in turn fish for compliments, though your comments and suggestions for this evolving work will be appreciated.

    Parterre, Newport, Rhode Island

    Recalling the romance of eighteenth-century France, a series of formal gardens with whimsical outbuildings surround the house, built just ten years ago amidst a park-like setting. Always a work in progress, inspiration from other gardens continue to provide precious details. The existing woodland had been reclaimed, with a fall “flame border” of Japanese maples as its accent (a la Sheffield Park, England.) From the fourteen-foot copper beech tapestry hedge to the evergreen “winter garden”, the focus at Parterre is on horticultural specimens and diversity.