0:00:04 > 0:00:09'I have been travelling through Italy, exploring the country's loveliest
0:00:09 > 0:00:12'and most significant gardens, and the ideas and history that shaped them.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20'I've seen the astonishingly grand gardens of Rome, made by cardinals
0:00:20 > 0:00:22'vying for the papacy.'
0:00:22 > 0:00:23That's enchanting.
0:00:23 > 0:00:31'And discovered how the Renaissance made Florentine gardens into harmonious ordered works of art.'
0:00:31 > 0:00:32Down there you can see a line of trees,
0:00:32 > 0:00:36along here you can see a line of trees, along this access there's a line of trees.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40'I'll also be visiting the playful baroque gardens of the North.'
0:00:40 > 0:00:43Oh. Dead end. You got me.
0:00:43 > 0:00:45Now have your wicked way.
0:00:45 > 0:00:52'But this week, I'm in the South, where the gardens are mostly more informal, the planting more exotic,
0:00:52 > 0:00:56'and I get a glimpse into the glamorous hideaways of the rich and famous.'
0:00:56 > 0:00:59Keep out, unless you're invited you can't come in.
0:01:02 > 0:01:04'I'll be discovering how an 18th century
0:01:04 > 0:01:08'very English gardening movement utterly transformed Italian gardens.'
0:01:08 > 0:01:11Ah, that's just lovely.
0:01:11 > 0:01:17'And luxuriate in what's undoubtedly the most romantic garden ever made.'
0:01:17 > 0:01:19And then up here on the bridge
0:01:19 > 0:01:23you have one of the most stunning views in any garden, ever.
0:01:41 > 0:01:45I'm basing myself in Naples for this southern leg of my tour.
0:01:46 > 0:01:51It's a city that is a splendid tangle of anarchy, shabbiness
0:01:51 > 0:01:55and real architectural magnificence.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02Tourists have used Naples for centuries as a centre for exploring
0:02:02 > 0:02:09the area's classical history and the dramatic landscape set on the glorious bay of Naples,
0:02:09 > 0:02:15as well as the more rugged Amalfi coast, just a little further south.
0:02:15 > 0:02:20I hardly know this area of the country at all, but I do know that many of the gardens of the region
0:02:20 > 0:02:25are a radical contrast to most of the others I've seen elsewhere in Italy.
0:02:25 > 0:02:30Most people still think of Italian gardens as all being formal,
0:02:30 > 0:02:33symmetrical, straight lines and, above all, greenness.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36But actually, in the south, particularly around Naples, that isn't the case.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39There are an awful lot of gardens that are romantic and soft,
0:02:39 > 0:02:46and I want to see as many as I can and find out why are these gardens different in this part of Italy.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52The gardens I visited around Rome and Florence were often exuberant
0:02:52 > 0:02:59and playful, but nature was always seen as something to be tamed and tightly controlled.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06Here in the south, many gardens are comfortable with a wilder
0:03:06 > 0:03:09and more romantic vision of the natural world,
0:03:09 > 0:03:13matching the artistic freedom that the area inspired and nurtured.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19And reaching its sublimest expression
0:03:19 > 0:03:23in the garden created and in that the ruined medieval town of Ninfa.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29There is, rather surprisingly, a strong English persuasion at work here,
0:03:29 > 0:03:35and these very southern gardens have roots in the British landscape movement of the mid-18th century.
0:03:42 > 0:03:47I'm starting my visits halfway between Rome and Naples, in the province of Latina,
0:03:47 > 0:03:51by visiting a contemporary garden that wears its English influences proudly,
0:03:51 > 0:03:55and which I have a slight personal link to.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03Set around the ruins of a medieval castle,
0:04:03 > 0:04:06Torrecchia belongs to the daughter of Prince Carlo Caracciolo,
0:04:06 > 0:04:09the founder of the newspaper La Repubblica.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24There is absolutely none of the sub-hotel formality
0:04:24 > 0:04:28that can be the default position for many houses of the very rich.
0:04:28 > 0:04:33Everything is slightly shaggy and gently overflowing with flower.
0:04:33 > 0:04:39The form and geometry that we all associate with Italian gardens has been replaced by a sense
0:04:39 > 0:04:43of careless abandon, as though nature could reclaim it all at any moment.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49As someone who gardens in England, I can immediately
0:04:49 > 0:04:54see familiarities - the softness, the lushness, the greenness.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57But actually, as soon as you start to look closely,
0:04:57 > 0:05:00there are all kinds of things that couldn't happen in England.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04The quality of the light, for example, plant associations.
0:05:04 > 0:05:10Put all those elements together and what you get is a garden that belongs to the place.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18Torrecchia's very modern horticultural informality is the creation
0:05:18 > 0:05:24of an Italian, Lauro Marchetti, and the British garden designer, Dan Pearson.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28And today it's under the guidance of Stuart Barfoot,
0:05:28 > 0:05:32who was Dan's assistant and worked for me in my garden 17 years ago.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35This is the first time I've seen him at all those years.
0:05:37 > 0:05:42We have this idea that Italian gardens are crisp and formal
0:05:42 > 0:05:47and clipped. How do Italians feel in terms of letting things get loose?
0:05:47 > 0:05:52Some Italians would have a problem with this garden, I think, and I have had, we have had guests come who
0:05:52 > 0:05:58sort of look at the plants growing out of the cracks in the paving, and they've literally pulled them away.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01- Rushing after them to stop them. "Leave my garden alone."
0:06:01 > 0:06:02I had a very apologetic lady once who I stopped
0:06:02 > 0:06:05and she said, "Oh, I thought I was helping you."
0:06:10 > 0:06:16Although the plants might appear to grow untrammelled, self seeding themselves and spilling freely,
0:06:16 > 0:06:18it's none the less a highly designed space.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20What appears to be a jumble of flowers
0:06:20 > 0:06:25actually follows a restrained and carefully controlled colour palate.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32A lot of people will use a colour theme in a garden,
0:06:32 > 0:06:37but to work most effectively you need to use three dimensions,
0:06:37 > 0:06:41and in a big garden like this, of course, that can be done on a grand scale.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45So in the foreground you can have mixed whites, and you get your little white garden.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48But then here, the Philadelphus picks it up in the middle ground.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52And right in the distance, climbing up a stone wall, is a white rose,
0:06:52 > 0:06:58so that white just bounces away through the garden like an echo disappearing.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02And it's very subtle but actually quite powerful.
0:07:10 > 0:07:15The southern Italian climate means that there are combinations of plants that are familiar,
0:07:15 > 0:07:19but which you would rarely get to flower simultaneously in Britain,
0:07:19 > 0:07:22such as these foxgloves,
0:07:22 > 0:07:26aquilegias and tobacco plants.
0:07:32 > 0:07:37When Stuart arrived, he encouraged them to leave as much grass as possible to grow long,
0:07:37 > 0:07:39just mowing paths where necessary.
0:07:39 > 0:07:44And his latest addition to the garden is a wild flower meadow.
0:07:44 > 0:07:51We sort of blitz this every autumn and we cut everything down, take it away, rotavate.
0:07:51 > 0:07:57- So it's an annual meadow. - It's an annual meadow, yeah, mainly corn chamomile,
0:07:57 > 0:07:59cornflower and a few poppies.
0:07:59 > 0:08:06Obviously, a bit of the garden like this will only look at its best for what, three weeks?
0:08:06 > 0:08:08A few weeks, yeah. But we've got a luxury in that sense
0:08:08 > 0:08:13because this space really wasn't being used and I thought, you know,
0:08:13 > 0:08:20let's do something that looks really amazing and it doesn't matter if it looks amazing for only a few weeks.
0:08:20 > 0:08:22- And how does this go down? - People love it. Yeah.
0:08:22 > 0:08:28- Do they? Oh, right, they don't think you're a barmy Englishman? - No, most people love it, yeah.
0:08:31 > 0:08:35Although Torrecchia was begun in 1992, this informal
0:08:35 > 0:08:39style of gardening first appeared in southern Italy much earlier.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43It goes back over 200 years, when the Bourbon dynasty ruled over what
0:08:43 > 0:08:50was then Italy's largest kingdom, stretching from north of Naples right down to include Sicily.
0:09:00 > 0:09:02This is Caserta.
0:09:05 > 0:09:10It was begun in 1751 for Don Carlos VIII, King of Naples,
0:09:10 > 0:09:14with the explicit aim of being the biggest and grandest garden in all Europe.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22It's certainly enormous and very grand.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26But it also contains one of the first examples of a new style
0:09:26 > 0:09:29that was to revolutionise Italy's formal gardens.
0:09:29 > 0:09:34By the time you've walked through the palace,
0:09:34 > 0:09:38it's so impressive that you're in a state of submissive shock, really,
0:09:38 > 0:09:43and then you come out into the light and the landscape,
0:09:43 > 0:09:51and everything is funnelled down to this extraordinary vista, just narrowed down to a point.
0:09:51 > 0:09:56And it's as though it takes your natural impulse to look out and forces it in.
0:09:56 > 0:10:00And of course that's all about power. It's doing it because it can.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03And it's just saying, you know, "Be amazed".
0:10:03 > 0:10:07Well, you can't be anything else. It's amazing.
0:10:07 > 0:10:13Whilst all your attention is focused towards the cascade, three kilometres away at the far end,
0:10:13 > 0:10:19to get down there and visit all the garden is a walk of over eight kilometres.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22So, I hire a bike to get around.
0:10:27 > 0:10:32These high walls of trimmed trees and hedges around the bosco,
0:10:32 > 0:10:38or ornamental woodland, are a regular feature in Italian gardens, but I never tire of them.
0:10:38 > 0:10:46The view is so compelling and steers you on so much that it's easy to overlook how wonderful the bosco is.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50And it's that combination of the clipped edge of the wood,
0:10:50 > 0:10:55like a hedge, and then the trees spilling over the top that is deeply satisfying.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58It's a lovely thing, a bosco.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08This is the epitome of high Baroque and rococo design.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11Dramatic, confident and elegant.
0:11:11 > 0:11:16And with nature always firmly under control.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18Do you know, I'm feeling quite excited about this.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21When I came here, I'd seen pictures and it looked very static.
0:11:21 > 0:11:23It had got this power statement.
0:11:23 > 0:11:27"Here I am, I can do this, admire it, now push off."
0:11:27 > 0:11:29It's not like that at all.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32It unfolds, and it's progressive.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36And as I'm cycling along there's a sense of a narrative,
0:11:36 > 0:11:38and I'm part of it.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40I'm not excluded.
0:11:45 > 0:11:49The scale of the garden is simply breathtaking.
0:11:49 > 0:11:55Just to bring the water into the canal and its fountains, Caserta's architect, Luigi Vanvitelli,
0:11:55 > 0:11:59blasted through six hillsides and built a 33-kilometre-long aqueduct.
0:12:04 > 0:12:09But this was a final flourish, because Caserta was the last
0:12:09 > 0:12:13palatial garden to be built in Italy in the formal style.
0:12:13 > 0:12:20It took 25 years to make, and by the time it was complete, gardens across Europe were being changed forever.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36The strange thing was that in 1786,
0:12:36 > 0:12:41just really little more than 10 years after the formal garden was finished,
0:12:41 > 0:12:45it was out of date and a new garden was started.
0:12:45 > 0:12:51And this new garden was exotic and absolutely the height of fashion,
0:12:51 > 0:12:54and it was called the English Garden.
0:13:00 > 0:13:05On a 50-acre plot, especially bought for the purpose, is a garden
0:13:05 > 0:13:09as different in style to its predecessor as could be imagined.
0:13:09 > 0:13:13It looks like nothing so much as an English country park.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27The whole style was based around taking the elements
0:13:27 > 0:13:31of the countryside and including them as part of the garden.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36This new style was based on the landscape movement.
0:13:36 > 0:13:44Rather than regulate nature in ordered ranks and lines, it set out to absorb and replicate it.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53It actually takes as much control and as much skill to make things to look natural
0:13:53 > 0:13:58as it does to make the garden look formal,
0:13:58 > 0:14:02and one of the key things is parkland, where you have large
0:14:02 > 0:14:06trees with grass underneath. But, of course, this is the baking south.
0:14:06 > 0:14:11Grass doesn't grow easily, and the large trees are not the ones you'd normally expect to see in England.
0:14:11 > 0:14:20I mean, I can see a huge Cork Oak, I think it is, and there are Cypresses, Stone Pines, palms.
0:14:20 > 0:14:26None of the elements would you find in the average English garden, but the general feel
0:14:26 > 0:14:28is certainly true to the type.
0:14:36 > 0:14:43This type was begun by William Kent 50 years earlier and then made popular by Capability Brown,
0:14:43 > 0:14:48and the new fashion transformed Britain's gardens before spreading across the continent.
0:14:48 > 0:14:52Ironically, this style of gardening was based upon paintings
0:14:52 > 0:14:56of imagined classical landscapes and was known as the picturesque.
0:14:56 > 0:15:04As a result, classical temples and fake ruins became highly fashionable garden accessories.
0:15:17 > 0:15:23To go down an overgrown path and come across a fully blown temple is a surprise,
0:15:23 > 0:15:30which is absolutely in the spirit of the Picturesque style, which this garden is based on.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33Whereas in a formal garden you see everything literally for miles,
0:15:33 > 0:15:37and if you're going to have a temple, you put it on the top of a hill.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40Whereas with the new style, everything is a moving tableau.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44It's to delight you and surprise you or even horrify you, certainly to titivate you.
0:15:44 > 0:15:49So to brush through the undergrowth and come across a temple as though
0:15:49 > 0:15:54it's being lying there for years is exactly the required effect.
0:16:03 > 0:16:09This English garden at Caserta is contemporary with the New Romantic Movement that took the frisson
0:16:09 > 0:16:16of raw nature and celebrated it as a reaction to the industrialisation that was taking place.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23In the process, the romantic poets such as Wordsworth,
0:16:23 > 0:16:27Keats and Shelley created a new artistic language
0:16:27 > 0:16:29that valued the imagination and emotions
0:16:29 > 0:16:34as highly as the previous era had held rationality and the intellect.
0:16:36 > 0:16:37This is a nympheum,
0:16:39 > 0:16:44and any self-respecting English garden by the end of the 18th century had grottos
0:16:44 > 0:16:50and places where hermits might stay, and they were meant to evoke a response in the visitor.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54And, in fact, this is where the Picturesque moves into the Romantic period
0:16:54 > 0:16:57where it's all about feelings rather than about thoughts.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01This carried on right through the 19th century
0:17:01 > 0:17:03and you'd have little places where you could wander.
0:17:03 > 0:17:09Inside this rocky, rather wild place there is a statue...
0:17:09 > 0:17:11Whoops! And a... Oh, look.
0:17:11 > 0:17:16A complete...abandoned, lost piece of classical world,
0:17:16 > 0:17:21but this is not a ruin that has evolved through time.
0:17:21 > 0:17:23This has been manufactured to look ruined.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28Look at these statues.
0:17:28 > 0:17:33And what's a real shame is that the people that wander through now do seem, particularly around Naples,
0:17:33 > 0:17:35to have a desire to leave their mark,
0:17:35 > 0:17:39and nobody's stopping people do it, and no-one seems to clear it up. Maybe nobody minds.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48The great discovery of the Renaissance was classicism,
0:17:48 > 0:17:51with its humanism and order.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54But a couple of hundred years later in the romantic garden,
0:17:54 > 0:17:57classical civilisation is depicted as picturesque ruins,
0:17:57 > 0:18:03designed to deliciously thrill you with a display of mortality and decay.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10But not all the thrills of the garden are solemn.
0:18:15 > 0:18:22I like that because there you have a nymph washing decorously, and from the front she's covering herself up.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27But this is a peek at her bum and I like the sense of 'what the butler saw',
0:18:27 > 0:18:30that she doesn't know we're here and we're spying on her.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43The fashion for English landscape gardens lasted in Italy
0:18:43 > 0:18:48until the neo- Renaissance revival in Florence at the beginning of the 20th century.
0:18:48 > 0:18:54But the romantic influence remained particularly strong here in the south of the country,
0:18:54 > 0:19:00attracting artists, writers and musicians to escape the restrictions of northern Europe.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04And their influence in particular found its way into the gardens of the region.
0:19:14 > 0:19:16I'm now heading to the coast,
0:19:16 > 0:19:20for Sorrento on the far side of the Bay of Naples.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29Today, it's a popular modern resort, but it's ancient,
0:19:29 > 0:19:35and has been drawing of visitors here from all over the world for a very long time.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41Since Roman times, people have been building villas and houses in Sorrento
0:19:41 > 0:19:44because it's a lovely place. It's not hard to see why.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46But it's also attracted people from quite far afield.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50People come from northern Europe to this point because there's something
0:19:50 > 0:19:54about the place that gives them creative freedom, whether they're painters
0:19:54 > 0:19:58or artists or whatever, and I think it's because it's far enough south
0:19:58 > 0:20:03that suddenly you're liberated from all the ties of the north, and that applies to gardens, too.
0:20:03 > 0:20:05People have come from far afield to make gardens,
0:20:05 > 0:20:08and the next garden I'm visiting is just here.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11And because the view is so important,
0:20:11 > 0:20:13the garden is right up there on the cliff top.
0:20:19 > 0:20:24In the 18th century, which was the heyday of the Grand Tour, Naples was the southernmost
0:20:24 > 0:20:29point in Italy for the young and noblemen seeking out the visible remains of Italy's classical past,
0:20:29 > 0:20:34and eagerly taking on what entertainment they could on the way.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38A Napoleonic wall's put a stop to that, but by the end
0:20:38 > 0:20:43of the 19th century the area started attracting wealthy foreigners again,
0:20:43 > 0:20:46who not only visited, but also began to make homes here.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53This private garden is one such.
0:20:53 > 0:20:58Although not open to the public, I'd been allowed in to take a look.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01- Ooh!- 'Yes?'- Hello, it's Monty Don.
0:21:01 > 0:21:03- 'Yes, the gate is open.'- Whoops!
0:21:21 > 0:21:25It is called Villa Il Tritone.
0:21:29 > 0:21:35The 19th century villa was bought in 1905 by William Waldorf Astor -
0:21:35 > 0:21:41the American ambassador in Rome before becoming a British citizen and eventually a viscount.
0:21:44 > 0:21:50Astor enlarged the grounds and much of the existing garden was laid out by him.
0:21:50 > 0:21:56He loved the place and used it as a very private retreat from public life.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59A place where he could truly relax and be free.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05It's interesting that this piece of the garden,
0:22:05 > 0:22:09which is right by the house, so you'd expect it to be formal
0:22:09 > 0:22:13and an Italian way to balance the architecture of the house.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15It almost immediately gets fuzzy.
0:22:15 > 0:22:22The plants are allowed to roam free and seed themselves where they will,
0:22:22 > 0:22:26and then towards the end of the boundaries of this bit of the garden, it gets almost anarchic.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29And I think that's the key to the whole garden.
0:22:29 > 0:22:34It sort of bursts the constraints of the formal Italian garden, despite itself.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36It can't help itself but be free.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51Astor used Il Tritone's long history to make his garden.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57There had been a Roman villa on this side, looking out across
0:22:57 > 0:23:04the bay to Mount Versuvius and the town of Pompeii on the other side of the water.
0:23:04 > 0:23:09But in that spectacular view laid the Venus de Milos.
0:23:11 > 0:23:18When Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, burying the town of Pompeii on the other side of the bay,
0:23:18 > 0:23:26the tsunami that followed the quake swept across and knocked the villa straight into the sea.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30Remains and artefacts from the villa were recovered and Astor used them
0:23:30 > 0:23:35when making his garden, but the result was anything but conventionally classical.
0:23:48 > 0:23:53The overriding impression you get in this garden is of a greenness, a soft light coming through,
0:23:53 > 0:23:58and in this central avenue you have this tunnel of green.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02Most avenues are open to the sky, but this one, because it's closed over and with the Banksia
0:24:02 > 0:24:06rose growing across the top, in fact you just get glimpses of the light.
0:24:06 > 0:24:07They're like skylights.
0:24:07 > 0:24:12I like the fact they've used wood and it's not some metal construction.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16It's slightly wonky and accidental and that looks lovely.
0:24:16 > 0:24:22It's soft, and yet there are avenues going out to other things.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25There's an avenue going down there, and at the end you go down to light
0:24:25 > 0:24:32and the sea, and look down there, the way this green path, which is just moss, and bright sea beyond it,
0:24:32 > 0:24:36and it's designed in such a way as to make it seem much bigger than it is.
0:24:36 > 0:24:41These avenues radiate out simply to make the most of the space.
0:24:45 > 0:24:52In the early 1970s, the villa was bought by an Italian businessman - Mariano Pane and his wife Rita.
0:24:52 > 0:24:58Then just in her early twenties with small children, Rita found herself the custodian of the garden,
0:24:59 > 0:25:03although at the time, she wasn't fully aware of its historical significance.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07Luckily, I was so young when we came that I was not intimidated
0:25:07 > 0:25:13because otherwise, if I would have started now, of course I would feel intimidated.
0:25:13 > 0:25:17But as it grew slowly,
0:25:17 > 0:25:21I really absorbed the story of this garden, the past of this garden, the culture.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24What's your philosophy, in terms of gardening?
0:25:24 > 0:25:27My philosophy first of all is freedom.
0:25:27 > 0:25:33I think that at the end, you cannot fight against nature and in the end nature will always win,
0:25:33 > 0:25:36so I think you have to choose the right plants for the right place.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40The spontaneous plant, they're so beautiful. You need to discover them.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44They are not imposing themselves.
0:25:44 > 0:25:51I like the idea of the romantic garden, the garden of the poets, modern, the garden of the architects.
0:25:51 > 0:25:55Well, you've certainly achieved that, there's no doubt about it.
0:25:55 > 0:25:57This is about as romantic as a garden can get.
0:26:06 > 0:26:07William Waldorf Astor had commissioned
0:26:07 > 0:26:11the English garden designer Harold Peter to create his garden,
0:26:11 > 0:26:16and Peter build a wall, both as a screen to create privacy
0:26:16 > 0:26:18and simultaneously to intensify the burrowed landscape.
0:26:20 > 0:26:26I think this series of windows along the sea edge of the garden are a stroke of genius,
0:26:27 > 0:26:32because you might think that with this dramatic and beautiful landscape
0:26:32 > 0:26:35with the sea outside the garden, you want to have
0:26:35 > 0:26:39access to as much of it as possible, but actually by blocking it out
0:26:39 > 0:26:47and then revealing it in a carefully chosen series of framed pictures, you make it more precious.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51And at the same time it keeps out the hurly-burly of the town below,
0:26:51 > 0:26:53so you get the best of both worlds.
0:26:53 > 0:27:00You get the landscape intensified and made more precious, AND you get increased seclusion.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12Il Tritone is a green, green place.
0:27:12 > 0:27:17Even the paths are thick with a peachy green fuzz of moss
0:27:17 > 0:27:21and I couldn't resist slipping my shoes off to tread their delicious coolness.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24Ooh, it feels nice.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39It's attractive to see people doing things.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43I reckon the key to this garden is in the way that it's an escape from life,
0:27:43 > 0:27:48and think of who it was essentially made by, William Waldorf Astor,
0:27:48 > 0:27:51an ambassador in Rome, a rich American,
0:27:51 > 0:27:54beset all the time by the strangeness of the country,
0:27:54 > 0:27:58by diplomacy, politics and then money and art,
0:27:58 > 0:28:05and what that money bought him was a way of getting away from things when it got too much.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09Too much sun, too much noise, too many other people he didn't want to be with.
0:28:09 > 0:28:14And with creating a green retreat with windows out on to that world,
0:28:14 > 0:28:19not only was it a kind of barrier and insulating there,
0:28:19 > 0:28:21but a beautiful one. A beautiful bubble.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33In the early years of the 20th century, the trickle of foreigners
0:28:33 > 0:28:37buying homes here became a full flow,
0:28:37 > 0:28:39as Europe's rail network made the Amalfi Coast,
0:28:39 > 0:28:44just south of the Bay of Naples, a popular holiday destination.
0:28:44 > 0:28:49These holiday-makers found an area that was a very poor
0:28:49 > 0:28:57with the only living to be had from the sea or the ravishingly beautiful but harsh land.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01The hillsides above the sea are still cultivated in a thousand layered terraces -
0:29:01 > 0:29:06growing vegetables and fruit, but principally lemons, and the locals
0:29:06 > 0:29:12proudly claim that the lemons of Amalfi are the best in the world.
0:29:12 > 0:29:14I made a detour to visit Giovanni Ciuffi,
0:29:14 > 0:29:18who's been growing them here for 50 years.
0:29:22 > 0:29:26As you walk into the groves, every breath is zesty with lemon.
0:29:29 > 0:29:31That smells so good.
0:29:34 > 0:29:36SHE SPEAKS ITALIAN
0:29:36 > 0:29:39Ooh, I just squirted myself in the face.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42It's a...
0:29:42 > 0:29:43It's a joy!
0:29:43 > 0:29:45What makes them special? What is it about them?
0:29:45 > 0:29:46HE SPEAKS ITALIAN
0:29:51 > 0:29:54Lemon not round, but long.
0:29:54 > 0:29:59So if I want to grow lemons at home as good as yours, what is the secret?
0:29:59 > 0:30:02HE SPEAKS ITALIAN
0:30:02 > 0:30:09You have to choose the right plant from Amalfi,
0:30:09 > 0:30:12- and give it love.- Amalfi and love!
0:30:12 > 0:30:14- And love.- OK.
0:30:14 > 0:30:16HE SPEAKS ITALIAN
0:30:18 > 0:30:22You come next year and he prepare a plant for you.
0:30:22 > 0:30:23That's a date.
0:30:23 > 0:30:30The poverty of this region meant that comparatively wealthy foreigners could buy
0:30:30 > 0:30:35beautiful Italian estates for much less than their northern European counterparts.
0:30:37 > 0:30:42I'm on my way now to see one such place, perched high up above the cliffs at Ravello.
0:30:42 > 0:30:47Bought as a run-down farmhouse, it was transformed into a famous,
0:30:47 > 0:30:52but very private retreat for a fascinatingly eclectic mix of celebrities.
0:30:52 > 0:30:56You have to walk to get here. The streets get narrower and narrower.
0:30:56 > 0:31:00No swooshing up in your Bentley and making a grand entrance.
0:31:00 > 0:31:02But when you do get here,
0:31:02 > 0:31:05the entrance itself is about as grand as it could be.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08It's rather intimidating, actually, because it's like a castle.
0:31:08 > 0:31:13The steps leading up, this great big door, the thick walls. Now, all that's saying is, "Keep out!"
0:31:13 > 0:31:16Unless you're invited, you can't come in.
0:31:35 > 0:31:39Villa Cimbrone was bought in 1904 by Ernest Beckett,
0:31:39 > 0:31:43Second Baron Grimthorpe, who was a banker and a Tory politician.
0:31:43 > 0:31:48Grimthorpe wasn't an especially great gardener, but he was a champion womaniser
0:31:48 > 0:31:51and is said to of been the father of Violet Trefusis,
0:31:51 > 0:31:56who famously became the lover of Vita Sackville-West.
0:31:57 > 0:32:03Grimthorpe was a wealthy man, but he bought Villa Cimbrone for 100 lire,
0:32:03 > 0:32:09which, in today's money, works out at the grand sum of just £300.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17Hiring a local architect, Nicola Mansi,
0:32:17 > 0:32:22Grimthorpe set about transforming the agricultural vineyard and walnut groves
0:32:22 > 0:32:27into a grand, glamorous garden, with breathtaking views and vistas,
0:32:27 > 0:32:32framed by a mix of temples, grottoes, balustrades and statues.
0:32:40 > 0:32:45The wisteria is absolutely lovely.
0:32:45 > 0:32:48What is a joy, and really the reason you come to Italy,
0:32:48 > 0:32:51is here you've got all the freshness of these flowers,
0:32:51 > 0:32:55weather that feels like the best English summer's day,
0:32:55 > 0:32:59fantastic scenery, and it's sort of distilled into a garden.
0:32:59 > 0:33:03Actually, what's interesting is to see a Judas tree,
0:33:03 > 0:33:10pruned right hard and then breaking from the stem, so you get this floral stick, bright colour.
0:33:10 > 0:33:15I'm not sure whether it's as good as just a normal tree, but it's certainly dramatic.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31Grimthorpe died in 1917,
0:33:31 > 0:33:36but his daughter Lucille enlarged the garden and made it the centre on the Amalfi coast for writers,
0:33:36 > 0:33:39such as DH Lawrence and at the Bloomsbury set,
0:33:39 > 0:33:43as well as musicians, politicians and film stars.
0:33:43 > 0:33:51It was a place where the very famous could come and be glamorously private and uninhibited.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55And it was here in 1938 that Greta Garbo,
0:33:55 > 0:34:00the most famous film star of the age, holed up with her lover,
0:34:00 > 0:34:02the conductor Leopold Stokowski,
0:34:02 > 0:34:09and first issued her famous plea that she "wanted to be left alone".
0:34:14 > 0:34:18That's a long walk for a garden.
0:34:18 > 0:34:20There's sort of an element of a motorway about it
0:34:20 > 0:34:21and it's a bit themeless.
0:34:21 > 0:34:25But, actually, I get it now, because it's directing you down here.
0:34:25 > 0:34:27It's saying, "Come on, get down here,"
0:34:27 > 0:34:30because when you do get here, that's...
0:34:30 > 0:34:32Well, it's a pretty scary view,
0:34:32 > 0:34:35but it's just stunning, stunning, stunning!
0:34:35 > 0:34:39And I suppose if you've got a view as dramatic as this,
0:34:39 > 0:34:42then your garden is just funnelling the visitor,
0:34:42 > 0:34:46you know, "Through the gate and get down the end and have a look,"
0:34:46 > 0:34:50and it's stately, and the sky's blue, and it's just lovely in every way.
0:34:50 > 0:34:56And as I was walking down, I was thinking about, you know, Greta Garbo coming here,
0:34:56 > 0:35:02and if you want to be private, there's a sense of enclosure.
0:35:02 > 0:35:05And yet this garden, you know, is dramatically open,
0:35:05 > 0:35:09and standing on here feels a bit like a stage,
0:35:09 > 0:35:11and if the public aren't allowed in,
0:35:11 > 0:35:13you're completely private, but you can be seen.
0:35:13 > 0:35:18And I think there's something about that with celebrity.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21They WANT to be seen, they WANT to be noticed, but on their own terms.
0:35:21 > 0:35:25And, of course, this garden does that absolutely through and through.
0:35:25 > 0:35:27"Look at me, but from a distance."
0:35:32 > 0:35:38The garden juts out on a finger of land high above the rocky slopes to the sea.
0:35:38 > 0:35:45Magnificent stone pines and yew hedges grown anarchically free-form
0:35:45 > 0:35:49provide shelter, as do the pergolas laden with wisteria.
0:35:49 > 0:35:52It all creates a secluded, romantic setting,
0:35:52 > 0:35:54yet the backdrop and buildings
0:35:54 > 0:35:57are theatrical to the point of melodrama.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06There's no doubt this is a lovely garden and certainly worth visiting.
0:36:06 > 0:36:10It's such a dramatic location and the way that it's laid out is terribly theatrical,
0:36:10 > 0:36:16which is an irony really, because when you think of the people that came here, the Greta Garbos
0:36:16 > 0:36:19and the DH Lawrences and the Salvador Dalis and Churchills,
0:36:19 > 0:36:23these are big, dramatic people, coming as an escape,
0:36:23 > 0:36:26but actually, they've come as a performance,
0:36:26 > 0:36:30and I think what would make this garden come alive would be a party.
0:36:40 > 0:36:44If you have this as a location to have a great big bash,
0:36:44 > 0:36:49the garden would join in, the setting would become absolutely perfect.
0:37:06 > 0:37:12By the 1960s, the Amalfi coast was becoming increasingly a tourist resort,
0:37:12 > 0:37:14and musicians, writers and artists
0:37:14 > 0:37:17coming here for a cheap sunny retreat
0:37:17 > 0:37:19had to travel further afield.
0:37:26 > 0:37:31So, I'm now taking the ferry across the Bay of Naples
0:37:31 > 0:37:36to the small volcanic island of Ischia, 15 miles from the mainland.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47Nowadays, Ischia is a popular day trip for tourists who come
0:37:47 > 0:37:51not just to enjoy the island's beaches, but to visit a world-famous garden.
0:37:56 > 0:38:01But as recently as 50 years ago, the island was remote, with no mains electricity or water,
0:38:01 > 0:38:08and it was 60 years ago that a young woman in her 20s came here and began to create a remarkable garden.
0:38:14 > 0:38:16Hello?
0:38:25 > 0:38:29Immediately you enter the garden, you're struck by the lushness of the planting...
0:38:31 > 0:38:33..which is flagrantly tropical!
0:38:37 > 0:38:43Which is something of a culture shock on this bone-dry Mediterranean island.
0:38:46 > 0:38:51La Mortella is the life's work of the Argentinian Susana Walton,
0:38:51 > 0:38:54who married the enormously successful English composer
0:38:54 > 0:38:56Sir William Walton when she was just 22.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59Looking to escape the English winter,
0:38:59 > 0:39:03they rented a house Ischia in 1949, neither of them ever having been there before,
0:39:03 > 0:39:05and fell in love with the island,
0:39:05 > 0:39:09deciding that it was the ideal place for Sir William to compose in peace.
0:39:24 > 0:39:27They bought the land for the garden in 1956.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30It was an old quarry with no water supply,
0:39:30 > 0:39:35but Susana, an instinctive plants woman, was undaunted,
0:39:35 > 0:39:38and started planting straightaway with exuberant enthusiasm.
0:39:38 > 0:39:42Following her instincts, she selected exotic plants
0:39:42 > 0:39:46from around the world and against all the odds, the garden quickly flourished.
0:39:46 > 0:39:54It's interesting that Ischia, with its volcanic rock and its heat and its moisture, is so conducive
0:39:54 > 0:40:00to things growing fast, so you get this dramatic response, and the show is operatic.
0:40:00 > 0:40:04There's drama, there's colour, there's bigness, there's flamboyance,
0:40:04 > 0:40:07and you can't really have that in the north.
0:40:07 > 0:40:11It's to do with the south, and you needed someone from Argentina
0:40:11 > 0:40:14with Latin in her soul to make that come alive.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25From the first, it was a major undertaking.
0:40:25 > 0:40:30Russell Page, the pre-eminent English garden designer of the day, created the layout of the garden
0:40:30 > 0:40:36and the landscape was on a heroic scale. Terraces were cut into the volcanic rock.
0:40:36 > 0:40:3975 lorryloads of topsoil were poured into the ravine
0:40:39 > 0:40:45and huge cisterns for irrigation were filled with water, shipped in by tanker from the mainland.
0:40:47 > 0:40:51As the trees grew, it created a benign microclimate,
0:40:51 > 0:40:57which allowed Susana to create a subtropical garden with plants from all over the world,
0:40:57 > 0:41:02where bromeliads happily rubbed shoulders with slipper orchids
0:41:02 > 0:41:05beneath a canopy of tree ferns and palms.
0:41:08 > 0:41:14La Mortella's head gardener, Alessandra Vinciguerra, came to Ischia in 1997
0:41:14 > 0:41:18and worked with Susana until her death in March 2010.
0:41:20 > 0:41:25From the start, the choice of plants was hers and this is why it is so tropical.
0:41:25 > 0:41:27She liked bold plants, she liked colours,
0:41:27 > 0:41:30she liked the plants that came from Argentina,
0:41:30 > 0:41:34plants that were different from what you would find in gardens
0:41:34 > 0:41:35at that time in this area.
0:41:35 > 0:41:42And when Susana saw a plant she liked, she HAD to have it and would go to extraordinary lengths
0:41:42 > 0:41:45to bring it back to La Mortella, as the story behind
0:41:45 > 0:41:48this huge silk floss tree, Chorisia speciosa, displays.
0:41:49 > 0:41:57That was planted by Lady Walton in 1983 from a seed that she took in Buenos Aires.
0:41:57 > 0:42:02She went there for a concert and she noticed there were some chorisias growing there, so anyhow,
0:42:02 > 0:42:06she climbed on top of a taxi and picked one of the fruits,
0:42:06 > 0:42:10and from that fruit, from that tree, came that plant.
0:42:15 > 0:42:20This story seems to have been entirely typical of her way of living and gardening,
0:42:20 > 0:42:24and that energy and vivacity runs like electricity through the garden.
0:42:24 > 0:42:26It is a performance.
0:42:26 > 0:42:32A garden wearing a stylish hat and a brilliant smile whilst talking 19-to-the-dozen!
0:42:34 > 0:42:37It is a very passionate garden. It's full of life,
0:42:37 > 0:42:43compared to the typical, formal, historical Italian garden that people sometimes don't understand.
0:42:43 > 0:42:47This one is understood or is loved by everybody.
0:42:53 > 0:42:58Above the subtropical tree line, on the exposed old quarry walls,
0:42:58 > 0:43:02the garden transcends its recent history and becomes rooted deep in place.
0:43:02 > 0:43:08Although this garden is PACKED with plants, a lot of them unusual,
0:43:08 > 0:43:13I have to say, none are nicer than the Mediterranean natives like this rosemary,
0:43:13 > 0:43:16prostrate, drooping down the hillside.
0:43:16 > 0:43:18It's beautiful.
0:43:18 > 0:43:23And the cistus, and the myrtle, and of course La Mortella is taken from the name "myrtle".
0:43:23 > 0:43:28These are native plants, as common as anything you'll find in the whole Mediterranean,
0:43:28 > 0:43:32but they absolutely look right at home.
0:43:32 > 0:43:34This is where they live,
0:43:34 > 0:43:36so they're comfy.
0:43:44 > 0:43:50The garden is an expression of one remarkable woman's flamboyance and deep passion for plants.
0:43:50 > 0:43:53It sings with energy and colour.
0:43:53 > 0:43:58But the garden began and ends as a testament to the love of Susana
0:43:58 > 0:44:02for her husband William, who died in 1983.
0:44:02 > 0:44:08High up above the quarry, she created a monument overlooking his favourite view.
0:44:10 > 0:44:14Here is the rock which is the memorial to William Walton.
0:44:14 > 0:44:16His ashes are underneath here.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19But I think the real memorial is the garden itself.
0:44:19 > 0:44:21It's a memorial to both of them, William and Susana,
0:44:21 > 0:44:25and although Russell Page is always credited with designing the garden,
0:44:25 > 0:44:31which obviously he did, that was his job, but the thing that brought it to life was Susana's planting.
0:44:31 > 0:44:37And I read that she quoted the famous remark that you consult the genius of the place to inspire you.
0:44:37 > 0:44:39The genius of the place is the love.
0:44:39 > 0:44:44If you like, the whole garden is a monument to them and their love for each other.
0:44:55 > 0:45:01I headed back from the calm of Ischia to the chaotic streets of Naples.
0:45:03 > 0:45:08The overcrowded city seems to be spreading in an unregulated, predatory way,
0:45:08 > 0:45:10swallowing in its path scores of small farms
0:45:10 > 0:45:15on the outskirts that, for centuries, have supplied the city.
0:45:15 > 0:45:20There are now only a few survivors farming high on the slopes
0:45:20 > 0:45:24of an extinct volcano where it is too steep to build.
0:45:24 > 0:45:31Taking me to meet one of these last-remaining semi-urban farmers is the writer and campaigner
0:45:31 > 0:45:33Bruno Brillante.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38- Hello, how are you?- Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you. Bruno.
0:45:38 > 0:45:43Well, it's lovely to be here, but tell me what is special about this place?
0:45:43 > 0:45:45What makes it different to others?
0:45:45 > 0:45:51Because this is one of the last places where you can find the original farmers.
0:45:51 > 0:45:55They still work in the traditional way.
0:45:55 > 0:46:03No pollution, no chemical, and you can find the flowers and plants that you cannot find in other places.
0:46:03 > 0:46:07- Pepino!- 'Pepino Polverino farms ten acres of land on the hillside
0:46:07 > 0:46:12'behind his house, where he grows superb fruit and vegetables.'
0:46:12 > 0:46:15- Pepino.- Nice to meet you.
0:46:15 > 0:46:17These are fantastic. Look at that.
0:46:17 > 0:46:19Lemon from this place.
0:46:19 > 0:46:21- You grow these?- Yes.
0:46:21 > 0:46:26Beautiful. And look at all this. And all this grown on the land here?
0:46:26 > 0:46:29Those are broad beans. Wow.
0:46:29 > 0:46:31HE SPEAKS ITALIAN
0:46:31 > 0:46:33It's beetroot.
0:46:33 > 0:46:35- You will try after...- Good. OK.
0:46:35 > 0:46:37- Very fresh.- Very fresh.
0:46:37 > 0:46:40- I can't wait.- Taste that.
0:46:40 > 0:46:44HE SPEAKS ITALIAN
0:46:44 > 0:46:46- It's very good.- Bueno.
0:46:46 > 0:46:49Bueno. All this is harvested this season?
0:46:49 > 0:46:52Only fresh, and only seasons.
0:46:52 > 0:46:54So just up here?
0:46:56 > 0:46:59'Although almost sheer in places, the land on the slopes
0:46:59 > 0:47:06'has been worked for at least 300 years, but Pepino is one of the last remaining growers here.'
0:47:06 > 0:47:08You won't get any machinery up here.
0:47:08 > 0:47:10HE SPEAKS ITALIAN
0:47:10 > 0:47:11He come with the tractors.
0:47:11 > 0:47:14Gosh, if he brings his tractor up here, he's a braver man than I!
0:47:14 > 0:47:19- So the soil here, what is the soil like?- Volcanic.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22- Volcanic soil, so very fertile. - Si, very fertile.
0:47:22 > 0:47:29I have visited a lot of allotments in my time, but this is certainly the steepest.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39The city is right there, isn't it?
0:47:39 > 0:47:42- Yes. Just... - Right there, and there is Vesuvius.
0:47:42 > 0:47:45And how do you feel when you look out?
0:47:45 > 0:47:46HE SPEAKS ITALIAN
0:47:46 > 0:47:49Fortunately, it has now stopped.
0:47:49 > 0:47:56Only 20 years ago, there were fields of orange and lemon trees, cherry tree.
0:47:56 > 0:48:02'Is seems depressingly likely Pepino's land will sooner or later also disappear
0:48:02 > 0:48:06'under the remorseless, lava-like flow of urbanisation.'
0:48:06 > 0:48:12- Beans, plums, apricots, you know each individual plant.- Si.
0:48:25 > 0:48:29Although the spread of Naples is eroding these allotments
0:48:29 > 0:48:36and market gardens, Pepino's land is no quasi-rural affectation. It is the real thing,
0:48:36 > 0:48:40And a perfect model for small urban farms of the future.
0:48:42 > 0:48:47This feels like a garden, even though it's ten acres of intensive veg, you could say.
0:48:47 > 0:48:55The fact that it's loved and cared for as much as any garden of any description, I think does the trick.
0:48:55 > 0:49:00There is that kind of human magic that works, and it's been going on here for 200 years,
0:49:00 > 0:49:03but I wonder, really, how long this can last.
0:49:03 > 0:49:10There's Naples encroaching in, like an angry sea, and it would be a real shame if I were to come back here
0:49:10 > 0:49:15in 20 years' time and find that where I'm sitting now is a block of flats.
0:49:20 > 0:49:24Pepino wouldn't let me leave without sharing a meal with his family,
0:49:24 > 0:49:28every scrap grown and harvested from his ten acres.
0:49:28 > 0:49:34Here, at the table, is the real heart and soul of Italian gardening.
0:49:35 > 0:49:41- This is your wine?- Yes.- So everything here is made by Pepino?
0:49:41 > 0:49:45- The wine too.- The wine too.- OK. - To your very good health.
0:49:45 > 0:49:47- Cheers.- Cheers.
0:49:47 > 0:49:53Naples is very different from the rest of Italy and so are its gardens,
0:49:53 > 0:49:57that have evolved over the past 200 years to become looser, softer
0:49:57 > 0:50:02and more obviously romantic than its northern Renaissance counterparts.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05But there is one garden here left to visit in the south
0:50:05 > 0:50:10that is not just more romantic than any other that I have EVER visited
0:50:10 > 0:50:17but simply one of the loveliest, most magical gardens of any kind anywhere in the world.
0:50:19 > 0:50:23I'm travelling 120 miles north of Naples
0:50:23 > 0:50:27to the hilltop town of Sermoneta that lies above the marshy plain
0:50:27 > 0:50:31in which is set the gardens of Ninfa.
0:50:31 > 0:50:35When people discover that I've visited a lot of gardens, they suggest ones
0:50:35 > 0:50:41that I haven't been to, and a name that has cropped up over the years more than any other is Ninfa.
0:50:41 > 0:50:45So last year, I did go and see it, and I was staggered.
0:50:45 > 0:50:46It is just simply gorgeous.
0:50:46 > 0:50:52And whilst, of course, there's great debate about which is the most beautiful garden in the world,
0:50:52 > 0:50:55there's no doubt which is the most romantic.
0:51:05 > 0:51:11For 1,000 years, Ninfa was an important town on the main road between Naples and Rome.
0:51:11 > 0:51:15At its early-14th-century peak, before the Black Death
0:51:15 > 0:51:20ripped through Europe, it was owned by the Caetani family and had a castle,
0:51:20 > 0:51:24seven churches, 14 towers,
0:51:24 > 0:51:30a town hall, mills, 150 houses and around 2,000 inhabitants,
0:51:30 > 0:51:33all of which made it a substantial town.
0:51:34 > 0:51:39Then, disaster struck.
0:51:39 > 0:51:45In 1381, Ninfa was sacked by mercenaries and pillaged by neighbouring towns.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48The remaining inhabitants, much reduced by plague
0:51:48 > 0:51:55and riddled with malaria from the surrounding marshes, evacuated it for healthier, safer ground.
0:51:55 > 0:52:00The Caetani family retained ownership, but for nearly six centuries,
0:52:00 > 0:52:06it lay abandoned, with the buildings submerged like sunken wrecks beneath the tangled undergrowth.
0:52:10 > 0:52:16This is a town where people lived for hundreds and hundreds of years,
0:52:16 > 0:52:19where people died by the hundred,
0:52:19 > 0:52:20and there are ghosts in here.
0:52:20 > 0:52:22You're walking the streets
0:52:22 > 0:52:27where Romans walked, where medieval man, where people fought,
0:52:27 > 0:52:31and there are just layers upon layers of memories
0:52:31 > 0:52:37in amongst the buildings, just like there are layers upon layers of plants.
0:52:37 > 0:52:39You don't want to speak too loudly,
0:52:39 > 0:52:44not because you're disturbing other people, but you don't want to disturb your own sensitivity.
0:52:48 > 0:52:51Ninfa was not wholly ignored.
0:52:51 > 0:52:56Visitors came to admire its melancholy decay and the nonsense writer and painter Edward Lear
0:52:56 > 0:53:02described it in 1840 as "one of the most romantic visions in Italy".
0:53:06 > 0:53:12The transformation into a garden began in 1905, under the guidance of Prince Gelasio Caetani.
0:53:12 > 0:53:19Gelasio took on the enormous task of clearing the buildings from the undergrowth.
0:53:19 > 0:53:23But the garden as we see it now was started by his sister-in-law,
0:53:23 > 0:53:26Marguerite, who planted on a grand scale.
0:53:26 > 0:53:32And her daughter Lelia expanded Ninfa into its modern state after the Second World War.
0:53:38 > 0:53:42In medieval times, they repeatedly would get plague,
0:53:42 > 0:53:45and this was a low-lying area, so there was lots of malaria,
0:53:45 > 0:53:48and the town would be isolated from time to time.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51And to get food in, it had to come by the river,
0:53:51 > 0:53:53but they couldn't come right through,
0:53:53 > 0:53:57so this bridge was adapted to cater for that eventuality.
0:53:57 > 0:53:59And if you come up here...
0:54:05 > 0:54:08You can see that they built into the bridge -
0:54:08 > 0:54:11and these are the town walls, so this is the edge of the boundary -
0:54:11 > 0:54:13no-one could go out, no-one could come in.
0:54:13 > 0:54:17But they built, in the bridge, these vents, these openings,
0:54:17 > 0:54:20and what they did was lower baskets down on ropes
0:54:20 > 0:54:24to boats that would come from nearby with supplies.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27And then up here on the bridge,
0:54:27 > 0:54:29from the edge of the town looking in...
0:54:31 > 0:54:36..you have one of the most stunning views in any garden, ever,
0:54:36 > 0:54:37in the world.
0:54:51 > 0:54:55The way that Ninfa is maintained is a brilliant balancing act.
0:54:55 > 0:55:00Preserving the picturesque sense of ruin and loss with great subtlety,
0:55:00 > 0:55:05whilst scrupulously maintaining the fabric of the place.
0:55:10 > 0:55:15I've gone off-piste a bit. If you visit the garden, you go on a set route
0:55:15 > 0:55:22and admire all the obvious best bits, but I like it if you can get behind the scenes a little bit.
0:55:22 > 0:55:27The whole place is gardened really carefully, and in fact,
0:55:27 > 0:55:30all this, I know, is very carefully assessed and considered.
0:55:30 > 0:55:32You know, how much weed do you leave in it?
0:55:32 > 0:55:35They don't want it looking too spick-and-span,
0:55:35 > 0:55:38and that would lose that sense of history, but on the other hand,
0:55:38 > 0:55:43they don't want to damage the fabric of the buildings, and it's all carefully weeded and selected
0:55:43 > 0:55:49and looked after, and what you get are these layers of perception.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52It's as though history's mulching the garden.
0:55:54 > 0:55:58Now, as I was talking to you just then, I looked up and there,
0:55:58 > 0:56:04in the oak tree, is the most beautiful rose.
0:56:04 > 0:56:06Ah, that's just lovely.
0:56:14 > 0:56:21I think that the secret of Ninfa, as perhaps with all truly great gardens, is that it enlarges us.
0:56:21 > 0:56:26You go in to admire and enjoy, which of course you do, but you come out
0:56:26 > 0:56:30with a whole new set of parameters with which to measure life.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33It really is that good.
0:56:33 > 0:56:39It may well be that there are bits of Ninfa that you think could be improved or bits you don't like,
0:56:39 > 0:56:44but, for my money, and I have visited an awful lot of gardens,
0:56:44 > 0:56:48this garden encapsulates the performance of a garden,
0:56:48 > 0:56:52the idea of a garden, better than anywhere else.
0:56:52 > 0:56:56And that's a result of this extraordinary partnership between
0:56:56 > 0:57:011,000 years of history of mankind,
0:57:01 > 0:57:05and the creativity of plants, nature renewing itself all the time,
0:57:05 > 0:57:11of people nurturing it and responding to it, that can make a garden into high art,
0:57:11 > 0:57:18and I think that, where you have man making something beautiful in partnership with nature,
0:57:18 > 0:57:23then it becomes something completely life-enhancing.
0:57:38 > 0:57:45These gardens that I have visited in the south have a very distinct character.
0:57:45 > 0:57:48They're quite different from the rest of the country.
0:57:48 > 0:57:52The combination of bright sunshine, a sense of freedom of expression,
0:57:52 > 0:57:53and a simpler way of life
0:57:53 > 0:57:57has been the inspiration for gardens of a more liberated, looser spirit,
0:57:57 > 0:58:01than I have seen anywhere else in Italy so far.
0:58:05 > 0:58:09Next time, I'll be in the Veneto and the lakes of the far north,
0:58:09 > 0:58:12visiting gardens rich with plants,
0:58:12 > 0:58:16as well as looking in on the gardens of the very rich and the very famous.
0:58:16 > 0:58:22- What's this one here? - Mr Clooney's place.- Yeah, I can see why he might want to live there.
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