Feature Article Italian Lake District Tales of Enchantment

by Fran Baccari

et in the foothills of the Alps, A meandering pathway weaves Italian National Trust, Fondo Ambiente Sthe northern Italian Lake District through a lush botanical cornucopia Italiano. Movie enthusiasts should note features spectacular, jagged mountain covering nearly 20 acres with over that Villa Balbianello is the location peaks; glacier-formed, deep-clefted 500 species. Although not in bloom, for James Bond’s 2006 Casino Royale valleys; and cold meandering mountain the sheer number, size, and variety of private hospital scene and the scene lakes. Small fishing villages and the mass plantings of azaleas form a of Anakin and Amidala’s marriage in towns, Neoclassical villas, lavish gently rolling wave tumbling down Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Renaissance palaces, ancient Roman the hillside toward the lake. A long Clones. ruins, and spectacular gardens garden trail leads to the back entrance create a kaleidoscope of colorful, of the villa, along which are two visual sensations. The HPS trip to clusters of 100-year-old single variety the Lake District was a ‘Tale of Rhododendron arboreum, 25 species of Enchantment’—a fairy-tale journey bamboo, a natural ravine, and a linden- that explored magical gardens, art, and plane tree-topped fern valley and architecture and was woven with extending through a hillside. stories steeped in the rich, colorful history of the region. photo ©Jim Bobb Tiered slab waterfalls at Villa d'Este photo ©Jim Bobb A hand-trimmed holly oak at Villa

photo ©Jim Bobb Balbianello The entrance to Villa Carlotta We traveled by private boat to We began on the shores of Villa Balbianello, built on a steeply

Lake Como, in the exquisitely sloped peninsula in 1784 by Cardinal photo ©Jim Bobb landscaped gardens of Villa Carlotta. Angelo Durina. The deconsecrated Detail of waterfall Franciscan monastery features a Villa d’Este, a Renaissance villa simple design with terraced gardens, and its 25-acre landscape, has been manicured lawns and graveled altered by the estate’s many owners. pathways lined with pollarded plane Manicured lawns cover the hillside and trees and soaring cypress and oak. The are interrupted by a waterfall of tiered mushroom-shaped holly oak (Quercus granite slabs bordered by a granite ilex) with its dense boughs trimmed double staircase. The fountainhead of by hand was a marvel. Today, the villa the waterfall is at the feet of Canova’s is a monument and museum to Guido sculpture of Hercules and Lichas. A Monzino, department store mogul gravel path leads to a fake fortress photo ©Jim Bobb and adventurer who, upon his death which provides perspective with Repentant Magdalene, a sculpture by in 1988, deeded the property to the stunning aerial views of the landscape Canova at Villa Carlotta Vol. 30, No. 6 Hardy Plant Society/Mid-Atlantic Group 3 and a clear view of the 500-year-old universality of the demons that plague plane tree (Platanus orientalis), the gardeners. English garden, the chef’s garden, Lake Como, and the facade of the villa. The resort was popularized since 1873, graced by the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, Mark Twain, Greta Garbo, and Elizabeth Taylor. Our visit to Villa Melzi provided a peaceful ambience along an allée with magnificently pruned plane photo ©Jim Bobb trees hugging the lake. The boughs Monkey puzzle cones at Heller Garden are pruned to create picture frames photo ©Jim Bobb Chaos was the theme of the day featuring the lake, the town, and One of many pathways and trails at and continued with a rainy afternoon Villa Carlotta on the opposite bank. Il Vittoriale Degli Italiani walk to the Heller Garden. Set on The pruning handiwork is evident Il Vittoriale Degli Italiani (The two acres of hillside with pathways of throughout the property elevating the Shrine of the Italian Victories), was colorful mosaic tiles, plants are packed beauty of the variegated dogwood, both a golden palace and cage for into the landscape, interspersed with rhododendrons, and azaleas as they adventurer-poet Gabriele d’Annunzio, whimsical art. The beautifully sculpted flow over the gently sloping terrain. an obsessive collector of art antiquities, drainage furrows were put to good use amulets, and war memorabilia. The as runnels of rain ran down the hill and villa maintains this feel with a labyrinth over the pathways and our feet. of dark, low-ceilinged, cluttered rooms. The landscape, with its circuitous pathways traversing the hillside, is eccentric, disorganized, overcrowded, but less somber. From his mausoleum, the royal battleship cruiser Puglia is forever in dry dock between the Valley of Wise water and the Valley of Crazy water which feed the Pond of the photo ©Jim Bobb Training young minds at Fondazione Dances. Growing on a stone wall at Minoprio School the lowest elevation, a caper plant with photo ©Jim Bobb Our road trip from Lake Como to bud, flower, and fruit symbolizes order, Whimsical artwork at Heller Garden Lake Garda gave us an opportunity hope, and the continuity of life. to visit Fondazione Minoprio School and Park and to speak with staff and students at the horticultural boarding school. Learning landscape maintenance, horticulture, and conservation to become the future artisans of the gardens, the high school students have a four-year course of study. An invigorating conversation photo ©Jim Bobb photo ©Jim Bobb with the laboratory entomologist, Gabriele d'Annunzio would fire canon virologist, and plant pathologist about Hidden art and plant treasures can be salutes from the warship Puglia, anchored discovered everywhere at Heller Garden. their research helped us realize the halfway up the hill. A perfect place to calm the senses and offer a brief reprieve was our hotel, the 1884 Grand Hotel Gardone. Starting at an umbrella-shaped magnolia, footed in a rainbow of red, pink, and white impatiens, the stone promenade lies between the sparkling Lake Garda and a series of small flowered niches. Between majestic windows, tall, thin lilac bougainvilleas

photo ©Jim Bobb photo ©Jim Bobb climb ochre stucco walls, before Inside a greenhouse at the school Rain and mosaic path in the Heller Garden spilling into mounds of lavender and 4 Hardy Plant Society/Mid-Atlantic Group November 2016 monks, and Dante and other poets The Sacred Mount of Orta, a could be heard whispered in softly UNESCO World Heritage site, is a muted words. Tiny rain droplets, pilgrimage destination for the faithful. captured on the bald cypress trees, A spiral, tree-lined, sloping pathway shimmered silver in the sunshine, and leads to the 20 chapels with life-size, the mild breeze created gracefully terra cotta figures and colorful frescos moving shadows at our feet, as we depicting the life of St. Francis of meandered through the forested area, Assisi. This is a place of quiet, solitude, which provides a privacy barrier for the and reverence. villa. photo ©Jim Bobb The view from a Grand Hotel Gardone balcony white impatiens. On the white posts of the railing, fragrant, white alyssum lollipop globes are perched in pots, hidden by cascading violet petunias flowing toward the water’s edge. photo ©Jim Bobb

photo ©Jim Bobb A tasty spread for tasting at Frantoio Waterlilies at Villa Táranto Manestrini olive oil farm In the westernmost Lake Maggiore region, on 40 acres of land transformation, the 1875 Villa Táranto is the expression of love by Scotsman Neil McEacharn. The garden overwhelms us with beauty and smells, photo ©Jim Bobb rare plants, meticulous formal gardens, The Villa at Isola Del Garda and a maze of dahlias over six feet Romantic Isola Del Garda is an high, planted in a serpentine to hide island with a Venetian neo-Gothic- visitors as they coo at the myriad colors style marble and reinforced concrete and shapes. Spectacular specimens photo ©Jim Bobb villa, and the ancestral home of our include Amazonian Victoria cruziana, At Belllavista, Sue Slim calculates how guide, Alberta Cavazza. Italian and the largest water lily measuring two many bottles of sparkling wine she can fit English garden themes mirror the past meters in diameter. Two towering, in her wine cellar. inhabitant’s preferences. Olive and deciduous conifer Metasequoia A trip to Italy would not be fruit trees abound, and the numerous glyptostroboides, thought extinct complete without food experiences. boxwoods require over three weeks of and ‘rediscovered’ in China in 1941, During a brief visit to the Frantoio extensive pruning to create the crisp were gifts given by the Borromeo Manestrini olive oil farm, staff outlined gardens and De Ferrari family family to McEacharn in 1949. A huge lectured while we tasted. Located on emblem on the lower front terrace. Emmenopterys henryi, which first top of a knoll overlooking fields of Stepping off the private boat, a fellow bloomed when it was 24 years old, is a parallel grape vines, Bellavista winery traveler felt the morning crispness possible goal for those who marvel at was our site for tour and tasting of as the earth and plants released their the unusual adaptations of nature. quality sparkling wine. Gelato may wonderful scents after the rain. Talk not have been the highlight during the of family history, bygone Franciscan medieval period for the townspeople of Orta San Giulio, but two members of our group eagerly consumed 12 different varieties in the 45 minute visitation to the town. Mmmm. Villa Cicogna Mozzoni, the ancestral home of our guide Iacopo Mozzoni, provides challenges and opportunities for preservation and

photo ©Jim Bobb restoration with the dichotomous

photo ©Fran Baccari Sculptures at the Sacred Mount of feelings of love-loathe, amid the ever The De Ferrari family emblem hedge at Orta depict the eventual approval of the present financial concerns. Built as a Isola Del Garda aims of Francis by Pope Innocent III. hunting lodge and expanded in 1530, Vol. 30, No. 6 Hardy Plant Society/Mid-Atlantic Group 5 The visit contiued from the Bitter Oranges Allée of beautifully palace into the garden at the Atrium globed citrus trees with its central of Diana where the beautiful stone avenue. Looking over the side of the huntress regally stands in her fern- high terrace, tiered, espaliered walls covered niche—a profusion of crimson of the hanging gardens with their feet begonias, potted in terra-cotta, in narrow flower beds blossom in a surrounding the pool at her feet. A potpourri of color that can be enjoyed stone balustrade draws the eye upward, from above and when sauntering down and the two curved stone staircases to the exit. beckon one to continue ever upward. Villa Borromeo on Isola Madre photo ©Fran Baccari Passing through the ornate iron gate was built 1518–1585 as a summerhouse. Two pools adorn the gardens of Villa and standing under the boughs of the Fruit and nut trees and grapevines Cicogna Mozzoni. majestic 197-year-old Cinnamomum have been cultivated since the the villa, with its Lombard Renaissance camphora, we stop and stare at the middle 16th century. Lovely botanic architecture, grand staircase, and man-made, monumental Teatro gardens of azaleas, rhododendrons, fruit-frescoed courtyard and loggia, is Massimo (Maximum Theater), which and camellias are visited by colorful balanced by the beauty of the formal terminates the field of vision on the peacocks. The most striking feature is late 16th-century Florentine- and southern garden axis. a majestic Kashmir cypress (Cupressus Roman-styled gardens, which are still cashmeriana) planted from seed in maintained as originally designed. 1862. Toppled by a tornado in 2006, Like two paintings side by side, the tree was truly resurrected by Italian meticulously manicured boxwood ingenuity with cranes, harnesses, frame a central circular fountain in a and guy-wires and stands today as a lawn with flashes of ruby begonias. testament to man and his love of nature. Framed again by a high hedge of bay laurel, two rectangular balustrade pools, a stone grotto, and the open courtyard, the garden paintings send a siren call and beckon one to view, photo ©Jim Bobb smell, and taste the fruit of centuries Teatro Massimo at Isola Bella of loving care. Behind the villa, a Shaped like a bell curve, the 16th-century water staircase, double amphitheatre pays homage to the bordered by cypress trees, cascades to surrounding, life-giving waters with a drain where, by gravity, the water is the center section composed of three shunted as the irrigation system for the large exedras, separated by pilasters photo ©Fran Baccari gardens. Centuries have diminished into nine niches containing allegorical The majestic Kashmir cypress, adored the impact, yet, with imagination, the figures representing Lake Maggiore, by all of Italy, resurrected after a tornado. touches of faded elegance sing to the the Rivers Ticino and Torce, and Believing that “living means heart and soul of any visitor with a seashells. Bisecting the two boxwood- making our lives a memorable love of art, manifested in nature and edged lawns often visited by white experience,” it is with appreciation that architecture and echoed in the voice of peacocks, the central promenade leads we celebrate the people, gardens, art, our host. to the theatre. Veering either left or architecture, and history of the Italian In 1501, the Borromeo family right, we can climb two flights of stone Lake District. became owners of Isola Madre steps leading to a terrace at the highest Our special thanks to Brightwater and later purchased Isola Bella. point on the island. Here, the 3600 Holiday tour guide Kate Williamson, Generations of Borromeos and their view is awe inspiring. Rugged-peaked whose knowledge, professionalism, architects and landscape designers mountains, rippling water dotted with passion, and enthusiasm enhanced our have left their imprint on the villas small boats ushering people to and experience enormously. and gardens of both islands. This is from other islands, and towns provide a family with the financial ability to the backdrop. The protected southern maintain the grandeur of the past. The side of the island provides a warm Fran Baccari and her husband Al are Isola Bella palace expansion, begun in microclimate for the Garden of Love. retirees from the Department of Biology at 1659, created domed, barrel, or miter- In the formal Italianate Renaissance Montgomery County Community College vaulted, ornately stuccoed ceilings theme, four symmetrical boxwood- (MCCC). They adore all things Italian, with clerestory windows illuminating edged flower beds enclose a central having organized many trips to Italy for the the interior with sunlight. Beautifully circular nymph-adorned basin located MCCC students. Al produces many fine wines and his own pasta from only the fin- crafted Murano crystal chandeliers at tier five, its north side protected by est flour. Fran spends her days reading and compliment the ambiance in different Teatro Massimo. To the east, leveled basking in her beautifully coiffed garden— themed rooms. closest to the water's edge, is the linear sipping wine and eating Al’s pasta. 6 Hardy Plant Society/Mid-Atlantic Group November 2016