Italy Garden Tours

Italy is the birthplace of the European garden tradition. The Renaissance villa gardens of Tuscany and the Veneto, the baroque terraced gardens of Rome and Lazio, the grand romantic landscapes of the Italian lakes — each represents a chapter in a story that runs from the fifteenth century to the present. For garden travellers, Italy offers a depth and grandeur that is unmatched anywhere in the world.

Italian gardens are inseparable from their setting. Villa Gamberaia above Florence, Isola Bella rising from Lake Maggiore, La Mortella on Ischia — in each case, the relationship between the garden and the surrounding landscape is as important as the planting itself. Visiting with a guide who understands both the history and the horticulture makes all the difference.

Tuscany and Florence

The villa gardens of Tuscany and the hills around Florence represent the purest surviving expression of Renaissance garden design. Villa Gamberaia at Settignano, Villa Petraia, Villa Medici at Fiesole and the Boboli Gardens in Florence each illustrate a different aspect of how the Medici and their circle reimagined the ancient Roman garden ideal for the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The terracing, the giochi d'acqua, the walled enclosures and the long views over the Arno valley are as moving as anything in European garden-making.

Beyond Florence, the Villa d'Este at Tivoli and the Villa Lante at Bagnaia represent the high point of the baroque Italian garden — engineered water features and geometry on a scale that astonishes even now.

The Italian Lakes

The gardens of Lake Maggiore and Lake Como are among the most romantically situated in Europe. Isola Bella, on a small island in Lake Maggiore, rises in ten baroque terraces from the water's edge, planted with citrus, camellias and theatrical topiary. Isola Madre, nearby, is a more relaxed garden of extraordinary plant collections. Villa Carlotta on Lake Como is renowned for its spring display of camellias, azaleas and rhododendrons. These gardens are best visited in late April and May when the spring planting is at its peak.

The Amalfi Coast

The Amalfi Coast and the islands of the Bay of Naples offer a Mediterranean garden tradition shaped by the volcanic soil, the sharp terrain and the warm sea climate. La Mortella on Ischia, created by William Walton and his wife Susana, is one of the great twentieth-century gardens — a rock garden and subtropical woodland of exceptional richness built on unpromising ground over forty years. The Villa Rufolo and Villa Cimbrone at Ravello, dramatically sited above the Tyrrhenian Sea, offer further layers of garden history in one of Italy's most beautiful landscapes.

When to visit

Late April and May offer the best conditions for Italian garden travel. Spring bulbs, wisteria, camellias, azaleas and roses are at their finest, and the temperatures are comfortable for garden visiting. The Italian lakes are particularly spectacular in May when the azaleas and rhododendrons are in full colour. Summer heat can make extended garden visiting uncomfortable and some gardens reduce their visiting hours.

Our Italy garden tours

All our Italy tours are small-group and escorted, with an expert garden-specialist tour leader throughout. Groups are typically 15–20 guests. Accommodation is in carefully selected hotels close to the gardens on each day's programme.