Lazio and Campania – Russell Page gardens and Castles

We will devote the whole morning to the visit of the Vatican Museum, the Vatican Gardens and the Basilica of Saint Peter. The Museum houses ancient Roman sculptures such as the famed “Laocoön and His Sons” as well as Renaissance frescoes in the Raphael Rooms.

The Vatican Gardens date back to the Middle Ages, when orchards and vineyards extended north of the Papal Apostolic Palace. In 1279 Pope Nicholas III moved his residence to the Vatican from the Lateran Palace, closing this area with walls. He also created a vegetable garden, a lawn and a garden.

At the beginning of the 16th century, a landscape remodeling was carried out following the landscape design style of the Renaissance. In the Renaissance style a rectangular labyrinth was also created and subsequently a large rectilinear defensive wall.

The Vatican Gardens are a natural, architectural and artistic space of great beauty and spirituality with various medieval fortifications, Renaissance and Baroque buildings and monuments, with gardens, parks, orchards and a 3-hectare wooded area.

We will visit the Sistine Chapel – famous for its frescoes by Michelangelo and his Last Judgement. Peter’s Basilica, the biggest church in the world and important pilgrimage site. Here we will see the Pietà one of the most enchanting sculptures in the history of art and one of the most representative works of the Renaissance genius.

After lunch we will make a promenade at Villa Borghese,  a large and historical city park in the center of Rome that includes different types of greenery, from the Italian garden to the large English-style areas, buildings, small buildings, fountains and ponds.

Let’s enjoy a tea or a cappuccino or an ice cream in the first chalet, built in 1922, the among the avenues of horse chestnuts, plane trees, and oaks, a step away from the Pincio, Piazza del Popolo and Piazza di Spagna.

Overnight in Rome

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

On this day we will make an excursion at approximately 35 km from Rome to visit 2 of the Italian sites included in the World Heritage List by UNESCO:

The magnificent Villa d’Este of Tivoli built at the behest of Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este, governor of Tivoli since 1550. The cardinal, disappointed at the failure to elect as pontiff, wanted to revive the splendor of the villa in this villa Ferraresi, Roman and French courts and above all equal the magnificence of Villa Adriana.

The concentration of fountains, caves and water features present at Villa d’Este represented a model repeatedly emulated in the European gardens of Mannerism and Baroque.

Villa Adriana, wanted by the emperor Hadrian as his residence from 117 AD, was built on the basis of a pre-existing building owned by his wife Vibia Sabina, who constituted its first nucleus. It is a monumental housing complex that still stages the glories of the places of power of ancient Rome.

In the villa you can see the Pecile, a huge garden and the Great Spas, reserved for the staff assigned to the Villa.

Overnight in Rome

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

We leave Rome and move south towards Naples with stops at interesting sites: Villa La Landriana near Ardea village. Lavinia Taverna and Russell Page created this “room-like” garden out of nothing, which over time, thanks also to the collaboration of Vivaio Torsanlorenzo, has seen the birth and growth of a unique collection of plants and flowers. Crossing the front door is a continuous surprise. As in a museum, each of the rooms has its own essence which lives on in the continuum of the route. The extreme proximity to the sea and the consequent favorable microclimate make this garden a green oasis in which different plants coexist in terms of characteristics and origin.

35 km further south, here is Ninfa, “here are the fabulous ruins of a city that with its walls, towers, churches, convents and inhabited areas lies half submerged in the swamp, buried under the thick ivy. In truth, this location is prettier than Pompeii itself, whose houses rise rigid as mummies drawn out of volcanic ashes. » (Ferdinand Gregorovius)

The garden of Ninfa is a natural monument of the Italian Republic. It is a typical English garden, started by Gelasio Caetani in 1921, in the area of ​​the disappeared medieval town of Ninfa, of which today only several ruins remain, some of which have been restored during the creation of the garden.

Starting in 1967, with the help of Count Donato Sanminiatelli, a friend of the Caetani family and a lover of gardens, and Russell Page, the famous English landscape architect, the park was transformed into the famous Landriana Garden. ”

The gardens extend for 10 ha, divided into “rooms” each with a particular botanical feature that makes it unique as the valley of ancient roses with the lake, the orange garden, the white avenue, the olive garden, the blue lawn , the Spanish tub. ”

Ninfa Garden has been among the finalists of the European Garden Award 2018-2019, for the category “The European heritage of gardens and gardening”.

After the garden we will visit Sermoneta undoubtedly one of the most beautiful villages in Lazio and Italy, a timeless town wrapped in a unique and evocative atmosphere, located in the Pontine Plain a stone’s throw from the Lepini Mountains. This enchanting place, characterized by the presence of Caetani Castle and its splendid historic center.

Proceed to Naples and overnight.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Today, after a panoramic tour along the splendid promenade of Naples we will embark for the island of Ischia a volcanic island in the Gulf of Naples in Italy. It is known for mineral-rich thermal waters. Almost an obligatory destination for “VIP” in the 1950s and 1960s. Richard Burton, Liz Taylor, Ava Gardner, Charlie Chaplin, the Dukes of Windsor, visit Ischia and are enchanted by it. We will visit the characteristic Borgo di Sant’Angelo, with its colorful houses, outdoor tables and souvenir shops.

The center is closed to traffic and accessible only by bus: it is worth the trip for a shopping and coffee break then we will visit Villa La Mortella.

In 1956 Lady Walton called the famous landscape architect Russell Page to design the original layout of the garden by integrating it among the picturesque volcanic rock formations.

La Mortella is divided into two parts: a lower garden in the valley and an upper garden on the hill terraced with dry stone walls.

It covers an area of ​​about 2 hectares and houses a huge collection of exotic and rare plants, which is enriched year by year; for variety and richness of the collections La Mortella can be considered as a botanical garden

The whole garden is designed with taste and skill, making the most of the evocative rocky environment and the views of the Mediterranean, and is enriched by fountains, swimming pools, streams that allow the cultivation of a superb collection of aquatic plants such as papyrus, lotus flower and tropical water lilies. The various areas of the garden are connected with avenues, paths, dry stone walls, ramps and stairs, which allow visitors to reach the highest area where you can enjoy splendid views over the bay of Forio.

Overnight in Naples

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Even today we will visit an island in the Neapolitan Gulf: Capri, queen of rocks, inspirer of Pablo Neruda.

It is the most glamorous island, worldly enough, and of emotions. It has long been a privileged destination for the best international tourism as well as for its natural beauty such as the Faraglioni and the Blue Grotto, but capable of guaranteeing silence, intimacy and relaxation. Together with Capri we will also visit Ancapri, a distillate of the colors, scents and light of the Mediterranean. Life is still authentic and survives tourism: hidden among the houses there are small and neat gardens surrounded by rare plants. Walking through the center of Anacapri means discovering a small workshop of Neapolitan tailoring, rediscovering the manual skills of an expert shoemaker, observing the women who work in the street crocheting or knitting, conversing and singing old songs while lemons perfume the air. Here we will visit the beautiful Villa San Michele, the realization of the Mediterranean dream of a doctor and writer from distant Sweden.

When Axel Munthe arrived in Capri in 1885, he was a young doctor. Here he found the light he was looking for and decided to settle in Anacapri by building a villa on the remains of an ancient chapel dedicated to San Michele, following a few sketches made on a wall. The picturesque porch of the villa is transformed into a suggestive pergola beyond which, in a fascinating succession, the terraces, the belvedere and the garden open, not large but it presents itself as a triumph of colors to be discovered by exploring the different levels in to which the park is divided with numerous shady and ventilated areas.

Overnight in Naples

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

We leave Naples with direction to Rome, but with a special stop to the Caserta where we will visit the wonderful Reggia. The Royal Palace of Caserta and its park, two jewels of unparalleled splendor, were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1997.

Designed in the eighteenth century by Luigi Vanvitelli, on behalf of Charles III of Bourbon, the Reggia, which represents the triumph of the Italian Baroque, is one of the most important works of the famous Neapolitan architect: his visitor remains enchanted by the beauty of the interiors and the magnificence of the ‘external.

With attention to detail and divided into four monumental courtyards, the building is faced by a scenic park which is now a destination for thousands of tourists.

The sumptuous palace is an ideal and original fusion of two other royal residences: the Palace of Versailles of the kings of France and the Madrid palace of the Escorial, seat of the kings of Spain.

Overnight in Rome

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Farewell Dinner

Proceed to airport to fly back to hometown with unforgettable memories.

Meals: breakfast