To many of us, the great gardens of Italy seem like paradise on earth. But how much do we know of their history, & the people who created them? In this ravishing book, illustrated with contemporary paintings, drawings & prints as well as photographs of the gardens today, Helena Attlee tells their story. She starts with Petrarch
- still looking to medieval chronicles for advice on how & when to plant
- & goes on to the Renaissance & those first gardens to emerge from architects` plans. Then she describes the great gardens of the Medici; the first botanic gardens; the weird Mannerist gardens & their grottoes followed by the Baroque splendour of Isola Bella & the Villa Aldobrandini; the Neoclassical & Picturesque gardens of the eighteenth & nineteenth centuries; & how, in the twentieth century, expatriates with money to lavish on their villas & gardens brought new delights.