Italy

Beautiful Italy ... Travels in the Veneto

Grand Canal Venice Photo © Alice Joyce

Do check the site for upcoming features on magnificent sights in Venice, along with gardens and villas of the Veneto region, charming places to stay, travel resources, and more.

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Historic Gardens

Villa Lante: Touring Italian Gardens

Villa Lante Stone Table [Photo © Alice Joyce]

The elements of a Renaissance garden come together in a poetic harmony at Villa Lante, northeast of Rome in the village of Bagnaia. Often quoted author of Italian Villas and Their Gardens, the novelist Edith Wharton found the setting to be a magical place when she visited in 1903. The survival of these gardens is commendable, as so many of the period have now vanished. Attributed to the great Mannerist architect, Vignola, Villa Lante began as the dream of Cardinal Gambara in the 16th century. The conversion of a hunting preserve became the glorious landscaped grounds we see today. Cardinal Peretti-Montalto tales credit for the creation of the central Fountain of the Moors.

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Garden Touring

Villa Adriana: Hadrian's Villa

Outside Rome, a bit southwest of the town of Tivoli in Lazio Province, the monumental Roman ruins of Villa Adriana stand as a testament to the ambitions and fancies of Emperor Hadrian. Based upon the emperor’s design and built in the 2nd century A.D., the site presents a remarkable fusion of ostentatious architecture – a vast complex of buildings and courtyards, canals and thermal baths – cradled within hundreds of acres of green terrain.

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