10 of our favourite villa gardens
“And the Spring arose on the garden fair”. This week’s newsletter takes its cue from Shelley’s line and from the floral fun that May brings: in Sicily this weekend, Noto celebrates spring with its annual floral art festival, the Infiorata; the Chelsea Flower Show opens next week; the finalists of Britain in Bloom have been announced; and the gardens of our villas are burgeoning, blossoming and blooming under the life-giving rays of the Mediterranean sun.
To celebrate the vibrant colours, the heady fragrances and the sensuous delights that our villas’ gardens bring to a holiday, we’ve chosen 10 of our favourites (a very difficult task!). Head below for some horticultural inspiration and picture yourself snoozing under a shady olive tree, playing with the kids on the emerald lawns, watching the sun set behind the palm trees, and dining late into the night under a canopy of scented jasmine.
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Linera’s venerable age is reflected in its gardens, which are a magical oasis of mature, luxuriant greenery. Alternating with terracotta terraces, and criss-crossed by lava stone walls, a carpet of lawn provides the perfect canvas for a splendid array of palm trees, succulents, flowering plants, pergola-shading climbers and ornamental shrubs. Al fresco dining and lounging areas dot the grounds and a glorious pool sits in pride of place at the centre.
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The grassy meadows and olive groves beyond Trullo Rosmarino’s dry-stone walls flow into the lower reaches of the property’s gardens. Gradually, they are transformed into well-tended lawns and borders of shrubs, fruit trees and flowering plants that wrap around the pool. Roses and bougainvillea frame the white walls of the old trullo, while a leafy walled kitchen terrace with an array of aromatic herbs provides a glorious spot for al fresco dining.
Panayia View is very much at one with nature: sculptural olive trees camouflage the villa’s white and burnt sienna façades in a dappled green-grey hue, a palette that continues throughout the gardens, where creepers, climbers and aromatic herbs offset silvery stone walls. Drowsy terraces, connected by seemingly hidden paths, bask in the sun, offering gentle views out to sea and space to unwind, repose and dine in exquisite seclusion.
Don Venerando has a significant horticultural pedigree: its owners run one of the Mediterranean’s largest plant nurseries (at the edge of which the villa sits) and are founders of the Radice Pura garden festival. The villa’s handsome façade is set off by a formal parterre presided over by towering palms, while on the sea-facing side, lawns, low-lying shrubs and vibrant bougainvillea provide a polychromatic background for the pool.
Occupying 10 acres and boasting 400m of private coastline, Akrothea’s grounds are more like a private seafront park than a mere garden. Immediately surrounding the villa are a series of floral terraces, a herb-scented al fresco dining area, and an electric blue infinity pool. A path leads from this little slice of heaven down a grassy bank and through a shady olive grove to the sea gate, beyond which the crystalline waters of the Ionian Sea await.
Ortensia’s gardens have been lovingly created by the owner, an eminent Italian architect. The extensive lemon groves surrounding the house give way to a pristine green lawn framing the cyan pool, while Mount Etna’s fertile soils nourish numerous varieties of flowers, shrubs and trees. Vigorous climbing plants scale the exterior walls and swooning foliage cascades from the roof terrace, uniting house and gardens in a cohesive whole.
The owners of Trullo Terra Dolce, an artist and a potter, have created a beautifully designed garden that is a feast for the senses: planted borders are busy with a vibrant variety of shrubs, leafy fig trees and centuries-old olives cast sun-dappled shade, bountiful vines envelop al fresco sitting and dining areas, fragrant jasmine perfumes the air, and geometric honey-stone paths traverse ultra-green lawns, leading to the glistening cerulean pool.
Nestling just below the beautiful little town from which it takes its name, Villa Specchia guards a secret: despite the impressive façade, little prepares one for the extent and beauty of the secluded gardens. Towering cypresses rise from the well-tended lawns around the pool, eucalyptus trees and Mediterranean pines give the sensation of being in a private park, while fountain grass and a lily-pad pond add delicacy and finesse.
Kolokithi Bay’s gardens ingeniously combine the natural features of Alonissos’s coastline - wild aromatic oregano and rosemary, fragrant sun-baked earth, whispering olive trees, shady umbrella pines and time-sculpted rocks – with subtle landscaping featuring a sinuous weave of paths, low-lying ornamental shrubs and grasses, a series of convivial terraces, a breathtaking infinity pool, and private access to the paradisiacal bay below.
For the great Arab civilisations, gardens were a question of perfection, of creating an earthly paradise of sensuous delights. They should inspire wonder, induce a sensation of total well-being, envelop visitors in fragrant tranquillity, evoke unworldly pleasures, and offer sanctuary from the mundane. Welcome to the gardens of Don Arcangelo all'Olmo, which have been designed with such principles in mind.
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