Many moons ago when I went to Sissinghurst to ask Nigel Nicolson (late of this parish) if I could write about his mother, Vita Sackville-West, he raised his hands, and eyebrows, in horror, ‘Oh! Not another book about my mother!’ These two titles on Italian gardens may provoke a similar reaction, for there has been a recent run of revisiting via Charles Latham’s vintage Country Life photographs, Edith Wharton’s Edwardian musings and Georgina Masson’s 1961 classic, now revived. But, on such a subject, can there be too many books? The miracle is that despite the vagaries of fortunes and two world wars, the gardens that Latham photographed for his 1905 book are still there for the cameras of Primrose Bell and Derry Moore.
Kirsty McLeod’s The Best Gardens in Italy exudes the good organisation required of A Traveller’s Guide: mapped and listed by region, each of the 126 gardens appear at the turn of a page, there is a comprehensive index and 13 additional pages give all the location and contact details, down to olive oil tastings and, occasionally, bed and breakfast. All the nostalgic names are here — Isola Bella, d’Este, Gamberaia, Lante, the Hanbury’s La Mortola — with lesser known treasures: Trauttmansdorff ‘the garden of glaciers and palms’, the Giardino Buon- accorsi with 105 personable statues of known provenance, and the botanical park with restoration in progress at La Casa Bianca near Porto Ercole.
The Guide luxuriates in remote havens of exotics, and cabinets of architectural delights, all endearingly photographed by Primrose Bell. McLeod has authority, she is a generous and unobtrusive guide, allowing her subjects to speak; at Villa Capponi, ‘visitors have always loved this exquisite but homely little garden, and successive owners have cherished it . . . ever since 1572’. She describes mouth-watering plantings and livens her texts with a colourful cast including John Evelyn, Dante, Goethe, Mark Twain, plenty of princesses and Hollywood stars. And, as Robin Lane Fox says in his introduction, ‘the most fascinating aspect of this book is its eye-opening awareness of all the gardening and restyling which Italian owners have undertaken during the past 20 years’.
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