0:00:05 > 0:00:09The British have long been entranced by Italy,
0:00:09 > 0:00:11its beautiful countryside,
0:00:11 > 0:00:15the enduring traditions of art and culture,
0:00:15 > 0:00:21and, of course, its extraordinary gardens.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30I'm taking a journey throughout the whole of Italy,
0:00:30 > 0:00:33visiting beautiful gardens everywhere I go.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36You come and immediately you feel inspired.
0:00:36 > 0:00:41I'll be in Florence, where gardens grew from the Renaissance ideals.
0:00:41 > 0:00:47In every direction, you see balance, order and harmony.
0:00:47 > 0:00:52And Naples, with unexpectedly intimate glimpses behind displays
0:00:52 > 0:00:54of astonishing grandeur.
0:00:54 > 0:00:59This is a peek at her bum, and I like the sense of what the butler saw.
0:00:59 > 0:01:04I'll be looking in on the gardens of the rich and the famous.
0:01:04 > 0:01:06So, what's this one here?
0:01:06 > 0:01:10- Mr Clooney's place.- Yeah, I can see why he might want to live there.
0:01:11 > 0:01:17As well as meeting local Italians growing some of the best food in the world.
0:01:17 > 0:01:19It's very good.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23But my journey begins in Rome, the seat of emperors and popes, to visit
0:01:23 > 0:01:28gardens that are amongst the most flamboyant ever created in history.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48Tourists have been flocking to Rome for hundreds of years,
0:01:48 > 0:01:52to feast on the astonishing architectural richness of its classical past.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56But many also come to see its great gardens,
0:01:56 > 0:02:00most of which originate from a brief but golden age of gardening.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07In a 50-year period from about 1550, there was suddenly an explosion of garden-making -
0:02:07 > 0:02:09extraordinary, magnificent gardens -
0:02:09 > 0:02:13and you have to wonder, why then?
0:02:13 > 0:02:15Why round here, Rome?
0:02:15 > 0:02:18And also, why gardens?
0:02:21 > 0:02:27To find out, I'm going to visit the most spectacular of the gardens from this period, in and around Rome.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33As well as getting to know these iconic gardens, I'll also be exploring the lives
0:02:33 > 0:02:38and the turbulent times of the enormously powerful and wealthy men that made them.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44Now, the greatest wealth and power in 16th-century Italy
0:02:44 > 0:02:48was not in the hands of bankers or kings, but of the church.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52The most powerful group of people in Rome in the 16th century
0:02:52 > 0:02:57were the cardinals, and they all had their eyes fixed on just one seat of power,
0:02:59 > 0:03:01and that was the papacy.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14The Pope was the most influential man in the Christian world.
0:03:14 > 0:03:20Every living soul in 16th-century Europe was either fiercely for or against him.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23He had the greatest art collection in the world,
0:03:23 > 0:03:26the greatest power, and access to vast wealth.
0:03:26 > 0:03:28This intoxicating combination
0:03:28 > 0:03:34was the prize that every aspiring cardinal greedily desired.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40You have to picture Rome round about the middle of the 16th century
0:03:40 > 0:03:44as a place that was asserting itself, and they were saying,
0:03:44 > 0:03:48"We are the powerful people, this is God's city."
0:03:48 > 0:03:53And right here in the Vatican, the single most powerful place on the planet,
0:03:53 > 0:03:55God's representative ruling it,
0:03:55 > 0:04:00and that gave the cardinals and the people working around the Vatican
0:04:00 > 0:04:03an extraordinary sense of power, and brashness and confidence,
0:04:03 > 0:04:09and that's the context in which you have to set these gardens that they were making.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13When a pope died,
0:04:13 > 0:04:18the cardinals elected one of their members to succeed him.
0:04:18 > 0:04:19However, in the 16th century,
0:04:19 > 0:04:23this was less a measure of their spiritual qualities
0:04:23 > 0:04:28and more a result of how influential, rich and cultured they were,
0:04:28 > 0:04:33and one way to demonstrate these attributes was by making an awe-inspiring garden.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41I'm heading off an hour north to Villa Farnese in Caprarola,
0:04:43 > 0:04:46which is a small town in the province of Viterbo, about 40 miles
0:04:46 > 0:04:51from the centre of Rome, to visit one of these great gardens made by a power-hungry cardinal.
0:04:53 > 0:04:57I've come to Villa Farnese mainly because I've always wanted to see it
0:04:57 > 0:05:01but the reason why people have come here in such great numbers
0:05:01 > 0:05:06is because it is generally reckoned to be one of the most perfect examples
0:05:06 > 0:05:08of a surviving Renaissance garden.
0:05:18 > 0:05:24This was the home of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese II, of the distinguished Farnese family.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27His grandfather was Pope Paul III.
0:05:29 > 0:05:31Pope Paul had originally commissioned the building
0:05:31 > 0:05:36as a fortified castle, at a time when Rome was almost constantly at war.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40But by the time the cardinal inherited it, in 1549,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43all that had been built of this fortress
0:05:43 > 0:05:45were the five-sided footings.
0:05:45 > 0:05:50So in 1556, Farnese hired the architect Giacomo Vignola
0:05:50 > 0:05:58to built an enormous palace on these existing foundations and to create the latest fashionable accessory -
0:05:58 > 0:06:02a beautiful Renaissance garden.
0:06:30 > 0:06:38There's no doubt that we have this idea that Italian gardens are all formality, clipped hedges, green -
0:06:38 > 0:06:43at best a very mannered, calm, stately type of garden, but at worst
0:06:43 > 0:06:47rather bleak, even hard and harsh, compared to our love of flowers,
0:06:47 > 0:06:52and I think that's one of the things I want to know, what were they like?
0:06:52 > 0:06:55How have they evolved? And is what we're seeing now
0:06:55 > 0:06:59a true picture of Italian gardens as they've developed through history?
0:07:04 > 0:07:10By the 1560s, when this garden was made, the Renaissance had been in full swing for over 100 years
0:07:10 > 0:07:15and had produced an unprecedented flowering of new ideas in art,
0:07:15 > 0:07:18architecture, literature, science and philosophy,
0:07:18 > 0:07:21with artists such as Raphael,
0:07:21 > 0:07:25Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29But this wasn't just about paintings and sculpture.
0:07:29 > 0:07:34The Renaissance also launched the idea that a garden could be a work of art.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38To find out more about this garden in particular,
0:07:38 > 0:07:42and Renaissance gardens in general, I meet Giorgio Galletti,
0:07:42 > 0:07:47a garden historian who's restored a number of Renaissance gardens
0:07:47 > 0:07:48like Villa Farnese.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52The ideas of order, and symmetry and harmony
0:07:52 > 0:07:55were key parts of Renaissance thought, weren't they?
0:07:55 > 0:08:00Vignola used pure geometry, and also he designed his garden
0:08:00 > 0:08:04on pure geometry according to a square grid.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06Architecture, not only gardens,
0:08:06 > 0:08:10should be based on a pure geometry.
0:08:10 > 0:08:15The idea of, the man should recreate the harmony of the universe,
0:08:15 > 0:08:18and it has to be very simple
0:08:18 > 0:08:22and very feasible to be understood by man.
0:08:22 > 0:08:23Right.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31This grid-like formality might appear constraining
0:08:31 > 0:08:35to modern British gardeners, but it was designed to create order
0:08:35 > 0:08:40out of chaos, placing man in controlled, and controlling,
0:08:40 > 0:08:42harmony with nature.
0:08:46 > 0:08:51As you climb steep steps to the top of the garden,
0:08:51 > 0:08:55you leave the ordered formality behind and enter the bosco,
0:08:55 > 0:08:59which was a wood designed for the cardinal and his guests
0:08:59 > 0:09:03to indulge in his greatest pleasure -
0:09:03 > 0:09:06hunting prey ranging from wild boar to songbirds.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16It's best to think of the garden as a process, or a journey.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20So you've gone from the ordered gardens down by the villa,
0:09:20 > 0:09:25then up through the bosco - this place of excitement, of hunting,
0:09:25 > 0:09:30of wild animals and nature red in tooth and claw, but controlled -
0:09:30 > 0:09:36and then, as you come through the end of the bosco, there's a clearing, and in front of you...
0:09:36 > 0:09:38is this apparition.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42It's a fairy palace, it's an extraordinary, rich creation
0:09:42 > 0:09:45rising up out of the ground,
0:09:45 > 0:09:50and you've reached this state of absolute beauty.
0:10:03 > 0:10:08This is where Alessandro Farnese entertained his fellow cardinals
0:10:08 > 0:10:13and anyone - and in truth, that was everyone - that he wished to impress.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19It is an astonishing ethereal fantasy that is built from stone,
0:10:19 > 0:10:25water, vast riches and an even greater ambition.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29The water features and sculpted cascades pointedly demonstrate
0:10:29 > 0:10:32his culture and sophistication and,
0:10:32 > 0:10:37at every turn, you can see clear symbols celebrating the greatness
0:10:37 > 0:10:39of the Farnese dynasty.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46All this fun and games was really part
0:10:46 > 0:10:48of power play.
0:10:48 > 0:10:53The most important thing that this is saying is, "I am a powerful man".
0:10:53 > 0:10:55Think of this water being channelled down
0:10:55 > 0:10:59in this marvellous staircase of water, made by dolphins.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03Well, any visitor would have known the dolphin was the crest
0:11:03 > 0:11:06of the Farnese family.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10Alessandro's grandfather had been here.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14He'd tasted it, he'd been close to the seat of power,
0:11:14 > 0:11:18so he had about him this sense of right,
0:11:18 > 0:11:20and the garden expresses that.
0:11:20 > 0:11:25The river gods, the water coming from their cornucopias, go into a glass.
0:11:25 > 0:11:26This is the fountain of the glass.
0:11:26 > 0:11:31The idea of taking rivers, drinking them, holding them in your hand -
0:11:31 > 0:11:33this wouldn't have gone unnoticed.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36So the symbolism is almost as important as the aesthetic beauty.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44Despite the jostling for position that went on between cardinals,
0:11:44 > 0:11:47it was a very small world that they moved in,
0:11:47 > 0:11:50and many would dine and hunt together as friends.
0:11:50 > 0:11:56So when Farnese created this garden, fully ten years after the lower gardens were completed,
0:11:56 > 0:11:58he turned to a fellow cardinal,
0:11:58 > 0:12:03who himself had made a great garden nearby, for some advice.
0:12:04 > 0:12:09This palazzina, a rather grand building up here at the top,
0:12:09 > 0:12:13was recommended to Farnese by his neighbour, Cardinal Gambarra,
0:12:13 > 0:12:15at Villa Lante, who fundamentally said,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18"Look, old chap, you've got gout.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22"Like me you find it a bit tricky when you're having your dinners outside on a summer's evening.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25"Build yourself a shed at the end of the garden." So he did.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28Very nice shed it is, too, and it was up here that they would relax.
0:12:28 > 0:12:33The power play would be done and there would be wine and song,
0:12:33 > 0:12:35if not women.
0:12:41 > 0:12:45This garden is formed from an elaborate parterre
0:12:45 > 0:12:48of crisp box hedging, superb sculptures
0:12:48 > 0:12:51and the delightful play of water.
0:12:51 > 0:12:57However, there is a notable absence of flowers of any kind.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00Yet, according to Giorgio Galletti, Renaissance gardens like Farnese
0:13:00 > 0:13:04would originally have been filled with colour.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07There was a kind of symbolic flower garden,
0:13:07 > 0:13:10particularly a lot of lemon pots.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14When there was the fashion of the bulbs, all the cardinals and princes,
0:13:14 > 0:13:18they were in competition to buy the rarest bulb.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22Right. I you talk to most people in England now, they will say,
0:13:22 > 0:13:28"But there are no flowers, it's all just evergreens and shapes and it's very beautiful, but limited".
0:13:28 > 0:13:31So what you're saying is that was never the case?
0:13:31 > 0:13:35Not in the Renaissance. There were jasmines, crocuses, lilies,
0:13:35 > 0:13:39that was very important for the Farnese family,
0:13:39 > 0:13:43because it was in their coat of arms,
0:13:43 > 0:13:47and parts of small topiary in box.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52So what happened to all the flowers?
0:13:52 > 0:13:54Villa Farnese became abandoned and overgrown
0:13:54 > 0:13:58when garden fashions changed and it wasn't restored
0:13:58 > 0:14:00until the 20th century.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02In many gardens like Farnese,
0:14:02 > 0:14:07the only planting to survive was the box hedging, which in fact was often not original,
0:14:07 > 0:14:11so restorers assumed that Renaissance gardens were flowerless.
0:14:13 > 0:14:19It is quite a shock when you realise that the image of the Renaissance garden is actually inaccurate.
0:14:19 > 0:14:21It wasn't like that, and that they wouldn't have used box
0:14:21 > 0:14:25and it wouldn't have been green, and they would have had flowers.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28And when I came to this top section,
0:14:28 > 0:14:31I stood here for a bit thinking, "Well, I don't get it,
0:14:31 > 0:14:36"I just don't feel any response to this rather flat open space and the green grass."
0:14:36 > 0:14:39And it wasn't until I learnt that actually it wasn't like this,
0:14:39 > 0:14:44it was full of flowers, it was like a physic garden with beds, with beautiful specimens
0:14:44 > 0:14:47that they were gathering and were being given as presents.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50When you think about it, why shouldn't Renaissance gardeners
0:14:50 > 0:14:54have enjoyed flowers every bit as much as we do?
0:14:54 > 0:14:57And I need to undo these preconceptions I have
0:14:57 > 0:15:03of Italian gardens as being all about shape and structure and form,
0:15:03 > 0:15:07and start to fill in the gaps with flowers and the pleasure of flowers,
0:15:07 > 0:15:10just like I have in my own garden.
0:15:13 > 0:15:19Alessandro died in 1589, just a few years after the palazzina was completed,
0:15:19 > 0:15:22but his garden remained hugely influential, particularly
0:15:22 > 0:15:27to his fellow cardinals, vying to outdo each other with the magnificence of their gardens.
0:15:31 > 0:15:35The great outpouring of art and culture in the Renaissance,
0:15:35 > 0:15:38with its emphasis on harmony and order,
0:15:38 > 0:15:41was in part a reaction to centuries of chaos.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45Throughout the whole medieval period, Italy was a patchwork of warring states,
0:15:45 > 0:15:49and it had also been particularly devastated by the Black Death,
0:15:49 > 0:15:55wiping out a third of its population, so by the beginning of the 15th century,
0:15:55 > 0:15:58the Renaissance was inspired by looking back to the glories
0:15:58 > 0:16:01of ancient Rome, which until then
0:16:01 > 0:16:04had been almost completely ignored.
0:16:04 > 0:16:09So I am now heading 15 miles east of Rome to an archaeological site
0:16:09 > 0:16:11that had an enormous influence
0:16:11 > 0:16:15on the great 16th-century burst of garden making.
0:16:21 > 0:16:26This is Villa Adriana, which was built almost 2,000 years ago
0:16:26 > 0:16:30by the Western world's most powerful man, the Emperor Hadrian.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39The reason I've come to Hadrian's villa is not so much to admire
0:16:39 > 0:16:43the garden, because that hasn't survived 2,000 years.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47This hasn't been quietly growing for all that period, it's all recreated.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51But there is enough evidence, enough of the layout,
0:16:51 > 0:16:55to provide the spark that lit the fire for Renaissance gardens.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57Although you can go to Renaissance gardens and you'll enjoy it -
0:16:57 > 0:17:00you don't need to know everything about it, it's just lovely -
0:17:00 > 0:17:03if you want to know the story and to understand it,
0:17:03 > 0:17:07you have to pick up the threads, starting here in Hadrian's villa.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17Hadrian built his villa in the early decades of the 2nd century AD,
0:17:17 > 0:17:23at the same time as his famous wall was being built across the border between England and Scotland.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28This was the emperor's palace,
0:17:28 > 0:17:34his court, and the military headquarters for Rome's vast empire.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37Hadrian travelled more widely than any other emperor
0:17:37 > 0:17:40and his gardens were directly inspired
0:17:40 > 0:17:44by ancient Greek and Egyptian architecture and mythology.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51For hundreds and hundreds of years, the ruins just lay there,
0:17:51 > 0:17:54ignored, and people didn't pay them any mind,
0:17:54 > 0:17:57and it wasn't till the beginning of the Renaissance that people began reading the literature
0:17:57 > 0:18:00and looking at the ruins, putting two and two together
0:18:00 > 0:18:02and realising that there was something special here,
0:18:02 > 0:18:07and gradually the columns, and the statues, and the water features
0:18:07 > 0:18:11began to be potential that they could use in their own gardens and their own houses.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15Now, if you think about it, we still take it for granted
0:18:15 > 0:18:19there are columns and statues and temples in grand gardens.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21But none of that existed
0:18:21 > 0:18:25before the Renaissance rediscovered the classical world.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35The part of this enormous, sprawling site
0:18:35 > 0:18:39that most excited Renaissance visitors was the canopus,
0:18:39 > 0:18:44which was a long colonnaded pool with statues all the way around,
0:18:44 > 0:18:49culminating in a large banqueting hall with a great arched and domed opening.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58I've arranged to meet Marina de Franceschini here,
0:18:58 > 0:19:02an archaeologist who's been studying the villa for the last 20 years,
0:19:02 > 0:19:07to find out just why the canopus was so important for Renaissance artists and architects.
0:19:09 > 0:19:15I feel like dwarf, because if I think that here all the greatest architects of all times have come.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19Palladio, Pirro Ligorio, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael
0:19:19 > 0:19:23- and everybody else, so you... - Yeah, yeah.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27But everybody was coming here to take inspiration
0:19:27 > 0:19:30and also because they were looking for measurements.
0:19:30 > 0:19:35They were looking for the magical formula that would give them
0:19:35 > 0:19:37the perfect proportion of buildings
0:19:37 > 0:19:41and also they were trying to understand the secret of building
0:19:41 > 0:19:45a place like this, that is still standing after so many centuries,
0:19:45 > 0:19:48a thousand years of neglect.
0:19:53 > 0:19:54The visiting 16th-century architects
0:19:54 > 0:19:59came here not just to admire the aesthetics of the building,
0:19:59 > 0:20:01but to re-discover practical engineering knowledge
0:20:01 > 0:20:06that had been lost since the fall of the Roman Empire.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10One vital lost skill was how to transport vast quantities of water.
0:20:10 > 0:20:15Hadrian used a ten-mile long aqueduct just to supply
0:20:15 > 0:20:18the villa's countless pools and fountains,
0:20:18 > 0:20:23and the sheer volume of water needed for pools designed to cool
0:20:23 > 0:20:25and reflect light into buildings
0:20:25 > 0:20:30was a clear demonstration of the emperor's knowledge and power.
0:20:30 > 0:20:34- You must imagine the water was flowing down.- Down here?
0:20:34 > 0:20:35- Down there.- Yeah.
0:20:35 > 0:20:42And then was flowing in these channels, and the middle water in this inner channel coming down.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45So water playing, water moving and overflowing and...
0:20:45 > 0:20:49Oh, yeah. Water was a way to show the power of the emperor, because
0:20:49 > 0:20:54we know that there was an aqueduct to bring in water from the Aniene River.
0:20:54 > 0:20:56But the water was part of the garden.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00In a sense, it wasn't a practical purpose, it was for decorating.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04- Yeah.- And where did they eat? How did that happen?
0:21:04 > 0:21:08- So they were lying here...- On here? - On this.- So you lie on top of here?
0:21:08 > 0:21:13Yeah, you must imagine that there were cushions. Pillows. Yeah.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16And then there were the servants
0:21:16 > 0:21:17bringing food, bringing drinks
0:21:17 > 0:21:20and also I believe that over there,
0:21:20 > 0:21:23there was a place for the emperor,
0:21:23 > 0:21:26because that was the best place.
0:21:26 > 0:21:31Imagine Hadrian, what kind of nice garden parties he was having here.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34- Yeah, yeah. - Really something exceptional.
0:21:34 > 0:21:39And the lake and the water itself, would they have had boats or anything like that?
0:21:39 > 0:21:44There were small boats, with people having feasts and orgies,
0:21:44 > 0:21:47but mainly the beauty of the lake
0:21:47 > 0:21:50was the reflection of the landscape.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54You must imagine also a dinner party in the evening with candlelight.
0:21:54 > 0:21:58With just the sound of music, dancers.
0:21:58 > 0:22:03It was really something beautiful to see, and something impressive.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06No, I'm impressed. Definitely.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17Now, round the back of these seating areas is a doorway
0:22:17 > 0:22:20and the public aren't allowed in here, but they've let me in
0:22:20 > 0:22:23because it leads to the emperor's private quarters,
0:22:23 > 0:22:26and presumably there were guards in here.
0:22:30 > 0:22:36Now, this is where Hadrian would have his dinner, so all his guests
0:22:36 > 0:22:39reclining down below, and remember these are just the selected few,
0:22:39 > 0:22:44but he was on his own up here, and there was water and a pool here,
0:22:44 > 0:22:48and in the alcoves you've got gods, you've got statues.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50Now, you have to imagine this lined with marble,
0:22:50 > 0:22:54so light spangling off the walls, white marble,
0:22:54 > 0:22:58and this god-like emperor bathed in a halo of light.
0:22:58 > 0:23:03And it would have been really powerful stuff, so that the garden,
0:23:03 > 0:23:07the emperor, delicious food and song and entertainment and light, water,
0:23:07 > 0:23:12all coming together and you can see, if you take that leap of imagination
0:23:12 > 0:23:14and then apply it to the Renaissance
0:23:14 > 0:23:18and these powerful cardinals, they want some of that magic.
0:23:18 > 0:23:20They want Hadrian's magic, best of all.
0:23:34 > 0:23:361,400 years later,
0:23:36 > 0:23:41one man set out to recapture the emperor's magic with his garden,
0:23:41 > 0:23:44or even to outreach it.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48The setting for this is just a mile up the hill from Hadrian's villa,
0:23:48 > 0:23:50in the small town of Tivoli.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01The garden I'm about to visit
0:24:01 > 0:24:08was made by the most powerful, the most ambitious and the richest of all that pack of powerful cardinals
0:24:08 > 0:24:10that were milling around the papacy
0:24:10 > 0:24:14and he was given the governorship of Tivoli as a reward.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17But it was a double-edged sword, because it kept him out of Rome.
0:24:17 > 0:24:23And he poured his wealth and his ambition and, to some extent his frustration, into his garden.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29This man was Cardinal Ippolito d'Este,
0:24:29 > 0:24:33and his garden harnessed water and made it dance and perform
0:24:33 > 0:24:36like no other before or since.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04I've been to Villa d'Este a few times before.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07You come in from the top but originally, it was designed
0:25:07 > 0:25:13to arrive at the bottom of the garden, and then the visitor would slowly climb up this hill,
0:25:13 > 0:25:16amazed at all the wonders they were seeing and thoroughly puffed
0:25:16 > 0:25:18by the time they reached the top.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22And that's how it was originally designed, so that it would unfold and reveal itself and, by the time
0:25:22 > 0:25:28you reached the top, which is where the cardinal would have been, you were in a state of breathless awe.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34Cardinal d'Este had vast wealth,
0:25:34 > 0:25:37and an overwhelming desire to become pope.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40When he failed in his first attempt in 1549,
0:25:40 > 0:25:45he hired Rome's most distinguished architect, Pirro Ligorio,
0:25:45 > 0:25:50to create the biggest and most ambitious water garden since Hadrian's villa.
0:25:52 > 0:25:57Ligorio demolished whole streets to make room for the garden on the steep hillside,
0:25:57 > 0:26:02and built a sophisticated system to bring water from a nearby aqueduct.
0:26:02 > 0:26:08In today's money, all this would cost a cool £100 million.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14But this wasn't just a matter of d'Este displaying his wealth
0:26:14 > 0:26:16and artistic taste, although it was certainly that.
0:26:16 > 0:26:21He also intended to impress visitors with the depth of his scientific knowledge.
0:26:21 > 0:26:26And these were truly astonishing feats of hydro-engineering.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42The scale of the water is just ridiculous, really.
0:26:42 > 0:26:47Miles over the top, but what d'Este did was re-channel the water supplying the town,
0:26:47 > 0:26:52and took a third of it - a third of the town's water supply -
0:26:52 > 0:26:57to make his garden, so having done that, then he was determined
0:26:57 > 0:27:00to do something big with it,
0:27:00 > 0:27:04so he had an enormous hydro-technical display
0:27:04 > 0:27:07and it still remains the most impressive I've ever seen,
0:27:07 > 0:27:11and it all comes from one source, and there's no pumps at all.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15The whole thing is powered by pressure, so they knew what they were up to.
0:27:28 > 0:27:29By studying Villa Adriana,
0:27:29 > 0:27:32Renaissance architects re-discovered ways of taming water
0:27:32 > 0:27:36that had been lost for a thousand years.
0:27:36 > 0:27:41They found they could control the water's speed and movement using
0:27:41 > 0:27:44different size pipes and spouts and, with this new knowledge,
0:27:44 > 0:27:47the artistic ambition of gardens
0:27:47 > 0:27:51rose to new and astonishing creative heights.
0:27:55 > 0:27:58This is the Terrace of 100 Fountains.
0:27:58 > 0:28:00Took five years to make.
0:28:02 > 0:28:07It uses water that comes from a single source, no pump, all the fountains have the same velocity,
0:28:07 > 0:28:12the same rhythm, the same sound, and it builds up as we walk along.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15It's like a musical instrument.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32Now, poor old Cardinal d'Este, he hardly saw this.
0:28:32 > 0:28:37It took five years at the end of his life and then was completed,
0:28:37 > 0:28:39and behind this beauty is a nagging pain for him,
0:28:39 > 0:28:43because the three layers of water represent rivers leading to Rome,
0:28:43 > 0:28:50and of course, that's where d'Este wasn't, and that's where d'Este most of all wanted to be.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57In the two decades it took to construct his garden,
0:28:57 > 0:29:03Cardinal d'Este made five failed bids for the papal throne.
0:29:03 > 0:29:07At every setback, his garden got grander and grander,
0:29:07 > 0:29:11and the coded messages it sent out became ever more pointed.
0:29:14 > 0:29:15The waters of the 100 Fountains
0:29:15 > 0:29:21flow down here to a garden called Rometta and the story behind it is
0:29:21 > 0:29:25that the Pope forbade Cardinal d'Este to build a palace in Rome,
0:29:25 > 0:29:28because he knew that he would challenge his power,
0:29:28 > 0:29:30so d'Este petulantly said,
0:29:30 > 0:29:34"OK, I can't have my palace in Rome,
0:29:34 > 0:29:37"I'll have Rome in my palace"
0:29:37 > 0:29:39And so he built a model of Rome.
0:29:41 > 0:29:45Rometta was originally more than twice its current size,
0:29:45 > 0:29:48but most of it was demolished in the 19th century.
0:29:48 > 0:29:50However, in the 16th century,
0:29:50 > 0:29:54d'Este's guests would have been able to see an elaborate model
0:29:54 > 0:29:58encompassing the whole of Rome, and thus the power of the papacy
0:29:58 > 0:30:02in his garden, with its own Pantheon and a Coliseum,
0:30:02 > 0:30:06and they certainly would have understood the message intended
0:30:06 > 0:30:10by this statue of Romulus and Remus, the founding fathers of Rome.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15I think what this garden really displays -
0:30:15 > 0:30:20they didn't really go for meditative calm or obvious floral beauty in the way that we do.
0:30:20 > 0:30:23What they wanted were fun and games, they wanted drama,
0:30:23 > 0:30:26and apparently this was d'Este's favourite bit of the garden,
0:30:26 > 0:30:30and he used to put on theatrical performances here and there were all sorts of things going on.
0:30:30 > 0:30:35There were fountains, there was allegory, there are people prancing about dressed up, no doubt.
0:30:35 > 0:30:39The whole thing is busy with drama, and that's the way they liked it.
0:30:42 > 0:30:46The simplicity, symmetry and harmony of early Renaissance gardens
0:30:46 > 0:30:51were being replaced by a new fashion for the dramatic.
0:30:51 > 0:30:56Gardens now engaged and entertained the visitor with spectacular,
0:30:56 > 0:31:01highly theatrical displays, and there was a new spirit of playfulness,
0:31:01 > 0:31:04with a constant intent to surprise and delight,
0:31:04 > 0:31:09typically with water jokes, designed to give you a good soaking when you were least expecting it.
0:31:16 > 0:31:19This fountain, by the way, is meant to surprise you.
0:31:19 > 0:31:22It suddenly springs up and I have actually been here before when
0:31:22 > 0:31:26it became even more playful, so it may happen any minute.
0:31:26 > 0:31:31But the whole point was to have jokes. Gardens were places to delight, and surprise,
0:31:31 > 0:31:35and amaze and entertain you, and if you'd got money,
0:31:35 > 0:31:39then of course that entertainment can get very elaborate indeed,
0:31:39 > 0:31:42and this whole square can fill with water.
0:31:44 > 0:31:48To the modern eye, d'Este's garden seems somewhat kitsch and garish,
0:31:48 > 0:31:53but this was a world where moneyed good taste ran easily
0:31:53 > 0:31:55from Palestrina masses and Michelangelo
0:31:55 > 0:31:58to musical water fountains.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04There's a common perception that Cardinal d'Este built this garden
0:32:04 > 0:32:10out of anger and frustration because he couldn't be pope, but I think, I'm not sure that's right.
0:32:10 > 0:32:15I think that, obviously, he did want to be pope and he was very cross about it,
0:32:15 > 0:32:20but I think the really interesting thing is that he lived in an age
0:32:20 > 0:32:22when very powerful, very rich men
0:32:22 > 0:32:26expressed that power and that creative energy
0:32:26 > 0:32:29by building a garden.
0:32:29 > 0:32:33I mean, just as now an oligarch buy himself a football team
0:32:33 > 0:32:39or a newspaper, it seems to be that it was acceptable to make a garden,
0:32:39 > 0:32:41and that would impress other rich men.
0:32:41 > 0:32:46And so what we have is a flowering, where wealth and power
0:32:46 > 0:32:50expressed itself in gardens, and I can't think of another age when that was true.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01Despite all his wealth and all his power,
0:33:01 > 0:33:05d'Este ran up huge debts creating his garden,
0:33:05 > 0:33:07and he never did become pope.
0:33:13 > 0:33:18Back in the centre of Rome, the Borghese Gardens were originally built for the Borghese family
0:33:18 > 0:33:25in Renaissance times, but are today managed by the state, and are the city's most popular public space.
0:33:35 > 0:33:38There are a few great public gardens in Rome, and my favourite of these,
0:33:38 > 0:33:42the ones at Villa Borghese, come here on a Sunday -
0:33:42 > 0:33:47I'm losing my ice cream - or a Bank Holiday, they're packed,
0:33:47 > 0:33:53mainly with local people using them, playing, enjoying, walking in these exquisite gardens.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00It's just a lovely place to come and relax with the local Romans,
0:34:00 > 0:34:04and it's certainly worlds apart from the Rome of 500 years ago.
0:34:04 > 0:34:10The confidence and even arrogance displayed by the 16th-century cardinals through their gardens
0:34:10 > 0:34:16superficially exudes a sense of invincibility, but in fact, it was a turbulent and uneasy period.
0:34:16 > 0:34:20Just a few years earlier, Rome had endured one of the worst traumas
0:34:20 > 0:34:26of its entire history at the hands of the Holy Roman emperor, the Spanish King Charles V.
0:34:27 > 0:34:32It's all too easy to build up this picture of high Renaissance Rome
0:34:32 > 0:34:36as this glorious place, untroubled, with great and grand men in control,
0:34:36 > 0:34:40but in fact in 1527, there was the Sack of Rome,
0:34:40 > 0:34:46and 30,000 troops of Charles V came in and pillaged and raped
0:34:46 > 0:34:48and destroyed the city.
0:34:48 > 0:34:50Beautiful gardens were lost,
0:34:50 > 0:34:54buildings burnt down and that wasn't just a loss of material,
0:34:54 > 0:34:56it was a crisis of confidence,
0:34:56 > 0:35:01and all these great cardinals and leaders, with their money and their power,
0:35:01 > 0:35:04knew that they could lose the whole thing at a stroke.
0:35:04 > 0:35:08Life was very tenuous,
0:35:08 > 0:35:13and the next garden I'm going to tells that very vividly and graphically,
0:35:13 > 0:35:17all in a relatively small garden, tucked away in woodland.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26The garden I'm about to see is unlike any other.
0:35:29 > 0:35:33And certainly completely different from the other great gardens of the age.
0:35:35 > 0:35:41To get to it, I'm heading back north again, to a small hilltop town not far from Caprarola called Bomarzo.
0:35:46 > 0:35:50The town is dominated by a large palace
0:35:50 > 0:35:54belonging to the noble and ancient Orsini family.
0:35:54 > 0:35:57In 1552, one of the family created
0:35:57 > 0:36:01a Renaissance garden like no other.
0:36:01 > 0:36:03But it's separate from the palace,
0:36:03 > 0:36:06down in the valley below, hidden within a nearby wood.
0:36:13 > 0:36:18This is the Sacro Bosco, or sacred wood, and everything about
0:36:18 > 0:36:24it is completely different from the other great gardens of the period.
0:36:24 > 0:36:28Harmony and symmetry are replaced by twisting pathways.
0:36:29 > 0:36:35It's full of fantasies and visions that loom out of the trees,
0:36:35 > 0:36:38and for an age that believed absolutely in goblins,
0:36:38 > 0:36:44ghosts and woodland sprites, they are spiced with real horror.
0:36:52 > 0:36:55If you think of the more conventional gardens,
0:36:55 > 0:36:58they're laid out, they're imposed on the landscape.
0:36:58 > 0:37:02Streets are moved, areas are flattened, water is brought in
0:37:02 > 0:37:08by aqueducts, an enormous effort to bring mankind to dominate it.
0:37:08 > 0:37:14But you can't help having a feeling here that they walked round, had a look at it, saw the trees,
0:37:14 > 0:37:17saw these enormous lumps of rock and thought, "Oh, we could do something with that"
0:37:17 > 0:37:21and it is extraordinary that these great lumps of stone like this
0:37:21 > 0:37:25were just there, and they hacked into it on the spot.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37The Sacro Bosco was created by Duke Vicino Orsini.
0:37:37 > 0:37:41The Orsini family had included three popes and dozens of cardinals,
0:37:41 > 0:37:46but Vicino Orsini was a man of action - a soldier and a poet,
0:37:46 > 0:37:49as well as being distinctly hard-up.
0:37:49 > 0:37:53He married into the wealthy Farnese family, which did enable him
0:37:53 > 0:37:56to make the garden, but his resources remains limited.
0:37:56 > 0:38:01However, although his garden lacked in elaborate engineering or architecture,
0:38:01 > 0:38:03he loaded it with anarchic riddles
0:38:03 > 0:38:07and visual puns which no-one has ever fully deciphered.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23At the garden's heart is a giant mouth of hell.
0:38:23 > 0:38:26It's a reference to Dante's Inferno,
0:38:26 > 0:38:32but the inscription advises the visitor to abandon all "thought", rather than hope.
0:38:32 > 0:38:36There is this grotesque mouth with nostrils like cannons,
0:38:36 > 0:38:40and it's like a child going, "Grrrr!"
0:38:40 > 0:38:42And then when you go inside,
0:38:43 > 0:38:46it's rather charming. It's like a little picnic house.
0:38:49 > 0:38:54And you can imagine the Duke and his chums coming down here
0:38:54 > 0:38:59and having a bottle of wine and some cheese in this cool,
0:38:59 > 0:39:02rather elegant room.
0:39:02 > 0:39:05There is a building in the garden -
0:39:05 > 0:39:11a solid two-storey house, but it leans drunkenly into the hillside.
0:39:12 > 0:39:14Ooh.
0:39:14 > 0:39:20It has been suggested that it symbolises the collapsing fortunes of the house of Orsini.
0:39:33 > 0:39:37The house has been built at a slope.
0:39:37 > 0:39:39It's leaning.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42It's falling, and certainly the 16th-century visitor
0:39:42 > 0:39:47would've appreciated the pun on house, household, family,
0:39:47 > 0:39:51the name, you know, at a tilt.
0:39:51 > 0:39:57And of course, one of the ironies is that this falling, leaning house
0:39:57 > 0:40:00is still standing strong after 500 years.
0:40:00 > 0:40:04Try and stand up, and I get the wobblies.
0:40:04 > 0:40:07Really, really weird!
0:40:14 > 0:40:18What I absolutely love is the green.
0:40:18 > 0:40:22The way that you go from earth to stone to tree,
0:40:22 > 0:40:27with this one green that goes up through it and then, you know, a sculpture comes along too,
0:40:27 > 0:40:29but wood and natural stone and ground and sculpture
0:40:29 > 0:40:33all become part of the same thing, and that's just lovely.
0:40:33 > 0:40:37Presumably it wasn't like that when it was made, of course.
0:40:37 > 0:40:40Again, it's where time changes the garden for the better.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47It certainly would've originally looked very different,
0:40:47 > 0:40:52because all these beautiful, mossy and weather-worn sculptures
0:40:52 > 0:40:56would originally have been painted in bright, gaudy colours.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05Look how lovely this is. It's a good gardening lesson.
0:41:05 > 0:41:10If you want moss, you've got to have poor drainage, ie stone or bark,
0:41:10 > 0:41:13shade and water and then it'll flourish.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25Orsini was a soldier of fortune.
0:41:25 > 0:41:30A mercenary, fighting for the Pope amongst others,
0:41:30 > 0:41:33so it's no surprise that one of his main themes is the abuse of power.
0:41:33 > 0:41:38Here, the colossal figure of Hercules takes his righteous,
0:41:38 > 0:41:44if deservingly rapacious revenge on Cacus, who has stolen his cattle.
0:41:44 > 0:41:46And one message comes through loud and clear
0:41:46 > 0:41:52in this garden, which is that Orsini is challenging the over-weening confidence and pride
0:41:52 > 0:41:55displayed in the grand gardens of Rome's ruling class.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00I think this garden -
0:42:00 > 0:42:05it's almost a revolt against the attempt to apply order
0:42:05 > 0:42:09that the Renaissance had done to gardens and life in general.
0:42:11 > 0:42:14This idea that if you make everything symmetrical, then somehow life will become controlled.
0:42:14 > 0:42:17And what Orsini's doing here, I think, he's saying,
0:42:17 > 0:42:19"Well, life isn't like that."
0:42:19 > 0:42:22Life is uncontrollable and strange, and there's war and there's violence
0:42:22 > 0:42:27and, you know, you can be married and you love your wife, but you can have lots of lovers, which he did.
0:42:27 > 0:42:33You can lust after other people, you can...be a man of peace and of art,
0:42:33 > 0:42:36but go to war and kill people.
0:42:36 > 0:42:41And it's almost a stab at early psychology,
0:42:41 > 0:42:43and so he's built this place,
0:42:43 > 0:42:47which has some beauty, but then suddenly...
0:42:47 > 0:42:49looming out of the mist is a monster,
0:42:49 > 0:42:53a monster of the imagination, and I suspect that's a bit too
0:42:53 > 0:42:55fanciful, trying to interpret the whole thing in that way,
0:42:55 > 0:42:58but certainly, that element seems to be here.
0:43:01 > 0:43:07In the end, Bomarzo remains an enigma, and rightly so.
0:43:08 > 0:43:13It's a beautiful and disturbing tangle that would be diminished if it were unravelled.
0:43:22 > 0:43:26Bomarzo's eccentricity was a reaction against the pretension and pomp of the cardinals,
0:43:26 > 0:43:30and they were becoming political loose cannons,
0:43:30 > 0:43:33hell-bent on creating increasingly ostentatious gardens.
0:43:39 > 0:43:44I'm now heading 12 miles south of Rome, to the town of Frascati.
0:43:49 > 0:43:53Its cooler climate made it a popular spot for the cardinals to escape Rome's burning heat
0:43:53 > 0:43:57and build their summer villas.
0:43:57 > 0:43:59And this, of course, meant making gardens.
0:44:02 > 0:44:05But there was a major problem -
0:44:05 > 0:44:07insufficient water.
0:44:07 > 0:44:11The fashion for ambitious water features, like those of Villa d'Este,
0:44:11 > 0:44:14were literally running Frascati dry.
0:44:14 > 0:44:18The battle over water rights that followed was highly un-Christian.
0:44:19 > 0:44:23We think of cardinals as being good men,
0:44:23 > 0:44:26holy men, but actually, power corrupted them spectacularly
0:44:26 > 0:44:29throughout this period,
0:44:29 > 0:44:32and some of them were warlords, they were murderers, they were robbers.
0:44:32 > 0:44:36Every venial sin they could commit, they had a go at it.
0:44:36 > 0:44:42And in fact, they used to scupper each other's gardens by destroying the water supply.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45If you couldn't have water, you couldn't have a decent garden.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52In 1598, Pope Clement VIII gave his nephew,
0:44:52 > 0:44:56Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, this site,
0:44:56 > 0:45:01dominating the town, on which to build himself a villa,
0:45:01 > 0:45:05and critically he also provided the money - 50,000 scudi,
0:45:05 > 0:45:07£5m at today's value,
0:45:07 > 0:45:09to fund a brand new aqueduct
0:45:09 > 0:45:14that gave the town a reliable water supply, but only after the garden
0:45:14 > 0:45:15had taken its fill.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29I arrive on hedge-trimming day.
0:45:29 > 0:45:33The Italians are invariably expert when it comes to pruning trees.
0:45:33 > 0:45:34This 200-yard-long tunnelled avenue,
0:45:34 > 0:45:37whose exterior has been clipped
0:45:37 > 0:45:40to a monstrous hedge,
0:45:40 > 0:45:43is, I think, topiary at its finest.
0:45:43 > 0:45:48From the outside, this looks like a solid block of hedge.
0:45:48 > 0:45:51Now, from the inside, these are great big trees,
0:45:51 > 0:45:56and I'm pretty sure they were planted as a hedge and they've been allowed to grow out massively for,
0:45:56 > 0:45:59I don't know, 100 years or something, I suspect,
0:45:59 > 0:46:02and then have been clipped back, so what you have is a halfway house.
0:46:02 > 0:46:06You've got great oak trees and inside all the bones showing,
0:46:06 > 0:46:09like the inside of a beached whale
0:46:09 > 0:46:14and then on the outside, this box front of foliage...
0:46:15 > 0:46:18..and only time will bring this.
0:46:18 > 0:46:22Only time and neglect can make something as beautiful as this.
0:46:32 > 0:46:37The heavy skies open, and the rain sends me on up to the shelter of the villa.
0:46:37 > 0:46:40This was given to Cardinal Aldobrandini as a reward
0:46:40 > 0:46:43for negotiating a peace treaty with France.
0:46:43 > 0:46:45It was an extremely generous gift,
0:46:45 > 0:46:50and also a canny one because popes aren't allowed to own property.
0:46:50 > 0:46:54So it was a way that Clement was able to keep it in the family.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58The peace treaty gave Rome control of the key town of Ferrara,
0:46:58 > 0:47:02along with a sizeable chunk of the d'Este family fortune.
0:47:02 > 0:47:06These spoils allowed Aldobrandini to create a villa and a garden
0:47:06 > 0:47:10to outshine all those of his Frascati neighbours.
0:47:10 > 0:47:14The villa isn't usually open to the public,
0:47:14 > 0:47:18so it's a rare privilege to be allowed inside.
0:47:18 > 0:47:21Inside the villa is a painting
0:47:21 > 0:47:25of Cardinal Aldobrandini.
0:47:26 > 0:47:30And there he is - a surprisingly young man really.
0:47:30 > 0:47:36Apparently, he was a man of great power and intellect and organisational skills...
0:47:36 > 0:47:40and this was all made for him.
0:47:48 > 0:47:53By the time Cardinal Aldobrandini came to build his villa,
0:47:53 > 0:47:56a new movement had replaced the Renaissance.
0:47:56 > 0:47:58This was the Baroque.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05Baroque was a style of architecture
0:48:05 > 0:48:09and garden design that was dramatic, elaborate, triumphant
0:48:09 > 0:48:14and very confident, and was underpinned by the desire
0:48:14 > 0:48:19to re-assert the supremacy of the Catholic Church over Protestant enemies.
0:48:24 > 0:48:29One of the interesting things when you look at gardens is that you obviously do your homework.
0:48:29 > 0:48:32You see photographs, you look at books...but nothing,
0:48:32 > 0:48:35nothing prepares you for the reality.
0:48:37 > 0:48:41And, of course, the honest response
0:48:41 > 0:48:43is to be flabbergasted.
0:48:43 > 0:48:46Can't really think of anything sensible to say,
0:48:46 > 0:48:49because just the scale of the thing...
0:48:52 > 0:48:55Whilst at first glance, the water theatre might seem to be decorated
0:48:55 > 0:49:00with a series of anonymous mythical characters from classical Rome,
0:49:00 > 0:49:05it is in fact a celebration of papal ,power and the Aldobrandini name...
0:49:05 > 0:49:11with a symbolism all of their contemporaries would have recognised immediately.
0:49:11 > 0:49:15So Atlas bearing the world on his shoulders represents Pope Clement...
0:49:18 > 0:49:21and at his feet, triumphantly rising out of the sea,
0:49:21 > 0:49:24is the heroic head of Hercules,
0:49:24 > 0:49:28symbolising Cardinal Aldobrandini.
0:49:30 > 0:49:35They loved this idea of masque, which was one-off theatre.
0:49:35 > 0:49:41Enormously expensive, put on as a performance to impress those in power. And this is what this is.
0:49:46 > 0:49:50It's gardening as grand display for a select few,
0:49:50 > 0:49:53and it's very symbolic that it's not open to the public.
0:49:53 > 0:49:58It's still just you and I looking at this and a handful of other people, and the performance is for us.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14Above the water theatre, a cascade flows and bounces down steps
0:50:14 > 0:50:16to the balustrade below,
0:50:16 > 0:50:20with a tall pair of columns flanking it.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33It was designed so that it is wider at the top,
0:50:33 > 0:50:37and the foreshortening makes it appear steeper and more dramatic,
0:50:37 > 0:50:39especially when viewed from the villa.
0:50:44 > 0:50:49Pietro Aldobrandini and his guests would look across
0:50:49 > 0:50:52and applaud the water spiralling down the columns into the balustrades
0:50:52 > 0:50:54either side of the cascade,
0:50:54 > 0:50:58and then down into the theatre as a performance and spectacle
0:50:58 > 0:51:02as dramatic and entertaining as any opera.
0:51:06 > 0:51:10The cascade as it stands is impressive.
0:51:10 > 0:51:13A roar of water coming down, but actually it's only half the action,
0:51:13 > 0:51:17because the two columns at the top have got spirals,
0:51:17 > 0:51:22and originally water came out the top, worked its way round,
0:51:22 > 0:51:24came splashing down,
0:51:24 > 0:51:28spilling into the pool below.
0:51:33 > 0:51:35And so you had the central cascade,
0:51:35 > 0:51:39you had the spirals at the top whizzing around like firecrackers
0:51:39 > 0:51:42made out of water, and then the balustrades coming over the edge.
0:51:42 > 0:51:48So the whole thing... was wildly over the top, very kitsch and probably really good fun.
0:51:54 > 0:51:58Huh! Here we go.
0:51:58 > 0:52:03You see the channel...
0:52:03 > 0:52:06that comes round, it's really quite big.
0:52:06 > 0:52:11So quite a lot of water would come down here, picking up speed as it went, throwing light onto the mosaic
0:52:11 > 0:52:14and coming down to go down these balustrades and...
0:52:16 > 0:52:21the important thing is that you have that fantastic aspect of the villa,
0:52:21 > 0:52:25that they have a brilliant view of what's going on, particularly from the top,
0:52:25 > 0:52:29which was the viewing platform for the cardinal and his friends,
0:52:29 > 0:52:34because it wasn't just the theatre down below they wanted to see, but also this.
0:52:35 > 0:52:39Up here on this level is as much again, if not more.
0:52:47 > 0:52:51The top of the garden has been derelict since the Second World War,
0:52:51 > 0:52:56when it was badly damaged by American bombers during the Allied invasion.
0:52:56 > 0:52:58That's enchanting.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06This is the only grand papal garden not owned by the state.
0:53:06 > 0:53:08It remains in private hands,
0:53:10 > 0:53:15still owned and still lived in by the Aldobrandini family.
0:53:15 > 0:53:19Looking after a garden and villa like this is a mammoth undertaking,
0:53:19 > 0:53:23however, the current owner Prince Camillo Aldobrandini
0:53:23 > 0:53:27is embarking on the formidable job of restoration.
0:53:27 > 0:53:29Well, you see, there is some scaffolding
0:53:31 > 0:53:38and we are hoping to make a quite important work of restoration, especially for the fountains,
0:53:38 > 0:53:41which are in a very bad state.
0:53:41 > 0:53:46- It was bombed during the war.- Yeah.
0:53:46 > 0:53:50My father restored it, but having new cement, it's now in a very bad state.
0:53:52 > 0:53:55Everything has to be repaired again.
0:53:55 > 0:53:57- And of course, the water...- Yes.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00..is a huge issue because it's still quite a big thing
0:54:00 > 0:54:04- to have that water running, isn't it?- Yes. We have an aqueduct,
0:54:04 > 0:54:07actually, and the water then was used for this villa,
0:54:07 > 0:54:11and we sell the water to the villages around here.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16Right. So does the garden always have a good supply of water?
0:54:16 > 0:54:20No. There are some moments in autumn when there is no water in the fountains.
0:54:20 > 0:54:24- Right.- We're now starting to put a recycling outfit,
0:54:24 > 0:54:28so that the same water can be used over and over again.
0:54:28 > 0:54:32And to what extent would you ever consider restoration
0:54:32 > 0:54:34to a particular date?
0:54:34 > 0:54:38Are you putting the garden back to the 16th century, or...?
0:54:38 > 0:54:41I wouldn't. It would be a pity to cut down trees.
0:54:41 > 0:54:45In the Italian mentality, countryside villas
0:54:45 > 0:54:49were usually a repetition of urban houses,
0:54:49 > 0:54:51and so they didn't want to have too many trees,
0:54:51 > 0:54:54just wanted to have a house,
0:54:54 > 0:54:57and very low gardens and statues.
0:54:57 > 0:55:02And presumably, some things have been lost from this?
0:55:02 > 0:55:07Yeah. There were statues all over this balustrade, and they were taken by Napoleon.
0:55:07 > 0:55:12Napoleon took all the statues and belongings of his brother-in-law,
0:55:12 > 0:55:14and his brother-in-law's brother,
0:55:14 > 0:55:18which was my great-grandfather, and he said he would pay them
0:55:18 > 0:55:20after he would come back from Russia.
0:55:20 > 0:55:25Unfortunately, things didn't turn out...as planned.
0:55:25 > 0:55:29Not quite. It's a very good story.
0:55:33 > 0:55:38At the garden's highest point is the main water supply, still flowing
0:55:38 > 0:55:43from the same aqueduct Cardinal Aldobrandini built 400 years ago.
0:55:46 > 0:55:51The last cascade is the most natural and, I think, the most charming, too.
0:55:51 > 0:55:54It's got real elegance, and of course, that was the idea -
0:55:54 > 0:55:56that as you got away from the palace,
0:55:56 > 0:56:02everything became more natural and blended into the wild, but very, very controlled.
0:56:02 > 0:56:05This was wilderness absolutely under the thumb of man.
0:56:05 > 0:56:10In the 21st century, nature's taken over, places have been cleared,
0:56:10 > 0:56:17trees have grown, they've decayed, and because it's a private garden, it feels intimate.
0:56:17 > 0:56:21It feels that you're seeing something very personal,
0:56:21 > 0:56:24and I'm not sure I'd like this to be fully restored and made public
0:56:24 > 0:56:27and gleaming, and a historical document.
0:56:27 > 0:56:31I think part of the magic is that it almost feels
0:56:31 > 0:56:34like it could disappear at any time.
0:56:34 > 0:56:37So it's more precious.
0:56:46 > 0:56:50Villa Aldobrandini is still astonishingly grand,
0:56:50 > 0:56:53but age has given it an air of engaging scruffiness
0:56:53 > 0:56:56that I think makes it all the more charming.
0:57:05 > 0:57:09On my tour around these great gardens of Rome,
0:57:09 > 0:57:12I've seen gardens designed to entertain and to shock,
0:57:12 > 0:57:14but above all, to impress.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19And how they succeeded,
0:57:19 > 0:57:22although not perhaps as they intended,
0:57:22 > 0:57:27as they continue to impress and influence gardeners and tourists for the next 400 years.
0:57:27 > 0:57:30And it remains an astonishing thought
0:57:30 > 0:57:34that they were all made within such a brief period of time.
0:57:36 > 0:57:40During this 50-year period at the end of the 16th century,
0:57:40 > 0:57:44the cardinals vied with each other for the papacy like dogs in a pack,
0:57:44 > 0:57:50and the gardens that they were making were not for a love of plants or horticulture, as such.
0:57:50 > 0:57:53They were primarily to impress each other, to show their power
0:57:53 > 0:57:57in order that they could become the Pope themselves, and the irony is,
0:57:57 > 0:58:01of course, that none of them, none of these great garden makers
0:58:01 > 0:58:03ever made it to the top table.
0:58:03 > 0:58:07But what they left behind were not so much a piece of history
0:58:07 > 0:58:09showing how powerful they were,
0:58:09 > 0:58:12but a set of some of the most beautiful gardens
0:58:12 > 0:58:15the world has ever seen.
0:58:17 > 0:58:19Next time, I'll be in Florence,
0:58:19 > 0:58:24where the creative revolution of the Renaissance not only changed art
0:58:24 > 0:58:29and architecture, but also transformed gardens of every kind.
0:58:38 > 0:58:42Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:42 > 0:58:47E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk