VILLA LANTE LOVELIEST ITALIAN GARDEN @ 25 Nov 2011

 

The 2011 award for Italy’s most beautiful garden goes to Villa Lante at Bagnaia, Lazio. The Villa, situated 4 kms from Viterbo, is one of the finest examples of a cinquecento Italian garden, with splendid pavilions, terraces and fountains.

The Villa was created by the powerful renaissance Cardinal Gambara as his country retreat, complete with hunting reserve. It is especially admired for its series of magnificent fountains and cascading waterways that start at the top of the hill with the Fountain of the Flood (also known as the Mountain of Rain) and flow down to feed the Fountain of the Chain, the Fountain of the Giants, featuring the statues of the rivers Arno and Tiber, the Fountain of the Cardinal’s Table, the Fountain of Lights and ending with the Fountain of the Moors, that rises in the middle of four pools containing boats with cherubs.

The National Competition of Parks and Gardens was set up in 2003 in order to bring the public’s attention to Italy’s vast heritage of historic parks and gardens. The first winner was the Garden of Valsanzibio of Galzignano Terme, followed by La Mortella, Ischia in 2004, Castello Trauttmansdorff in Merano in 2005, Villa d’Este, Tivoli, in 2006, the Gardens of Isola Bella in 2007, Villa Pisani at Stra in 2008, the Royal Palace of Caserta in 2009 and the Castle of Racconigi in 2010.

For information: www.ilparcopiubello.it   

 


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