Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The English Garden
Other international influences were also gaining ground in the south at the Bourbon court
in Naples, where English prime minister Sir John Acton was a favourite of Queen Maria
Carolina (the daughter of Maria Theresia, Habsburg Empress and Duchess of Milan).
Under the English influence a section of the fabulous new gardens at the Bourbon palace at
Caserta, just outside Naples, were to be laid out in English style, that is under a seemingly
'natural' design of irregular paths and profuse plantings, rather than the more formal, geo-
metric French or Italian style.
This romantic English tradition suited the awkward Italian landscape far better and ap-
pealed to Italian tastes with its element of surprise and delight in the changing perspectives.
It was also easier to incorporate into traditional Italian schemes, and many gardens around
the lakes are now a hybrid of Italian and English styles; a more formal Italianate layout
fronting the villa or palace which gradually gives way to softer more varied planting
schemes incorporating thickets and clearings set around curvaceous ponds and paths.
Villa Carlotta, built in the 17th century on Lake Como, follows just such a design.
Around the villa itself the ordered layout suggests the Italianate approach, though as you
explore this changes radically. At one part of the northern end of the garden is the cool and
magical Valle delle Felci (Fern Valley), a dense forest full of ferns and trees, including
towering sequoias. This 'wilderness' is perhaps the best example of the English ideal on
the lakes. Villa Melzi d'Eril, in Bellagio, is another good example. Likewise, Villa Balbian-
ello, the most visually striking of Lake Como's gardens, follows the same pattern. Perched
on a promontory, the villa buildings have a neoclassical flavour with some lightly baroque
elements while the surrounding terraced gardens are a mix of Italian and English plantings.
But of all the gardens around the lakes, the most English is the romantic garden of Isola
Madre.
In 1801 Ercole Silva published
Dell'arte dei giardini inglesi
, the first treatise on the English garden, advising the
'artist-gardener' to abandon the architectural approach which hampered true creativity and genius.
