In 2009, when I was working for The Vancouver Sun as the garden columnist and New Homes editor, my publisher called me into his office and asked if I would like to take a group of people around gardens in Italy.
My response was to ask: “You mean, instead of working here?” He laughed and said, “No, we thought you could take people on a cruise around Italy and visit gardens on the way.”
And that is what I did. Forty people signed up for the October tour. We all gathered in Rome and visited the famous garden of Villa d’Este in Tivoli before boarding the ship at Civitavecchia.
From there, we sailed north to Portofino and Livorno for Florence, and then headed back down the coast to Sicily and around the tip of Italy into the Adriatic and up to Venice from where we went to Padua to see the famous botanical garden.
From Venice, we sailed over the Adriatic to Croatia to visit the beautiful city of Dubrovnik. From there, we headed back down and around the boot of Italy and back up to Rome.
This was my first garden tour. It was successful but I was less happy with the arrangement that meant we were part-time in Italy and much of the time on the cruise ship, which was really like being in a luxury North American hotel.
Neverthless, we had great fun in Rome and Florence and we were entertained by a hotel-friend in Taormina, Italy, and we, of course, all loved seeing Venice and Padua and Dubrovnik.
There was only one incident of misadventure that stands out in my mind as I look back: two ladies on the tour went to Florence for the day and took the train back to the ship, only to be told as they sat in their compartment examining all their wonderful purchases, that they were, in fact, on the wrong train and were on their way to Milan. In a blind panic, they got off at the next stop and took a taxi all the way back to Livorno. But they made it in the nick of time, just as they were pulling up the gangplank.
Some of the people who came on this tour asked me at the end: “So where are we going next?” Which got me thinking about future tours. I decided if indeed I did do another tour, it would be a land-based tour which would eliminate the back-and-forth of one minute being immersed in the country with the gardens we wanted to visit and then next being on a cruise ship.
My next tour was totally my choice – and to one of my most favourite places – the West Country region of England.
MORE PHOTOS FROM THE TOUR
