Rediscovering love for Isola Bella and Isola Madre and more
Twenty years ago, I picked up a book by Penelope Hobhouse and read about a fantastic garden called Isola Bella on Lake Maggiore.
I remember looking at the beautiful pictures of this garden, and saying to Loraine, “Wow, how I would love one day to stand there.”
Who knew that just a few years later, my dream would come true and...
Wonderful day spent exploring gardens on Lake Como
Lake Como, north of Milan, Italy, is shaped like an upsidedown Y with the town of Como at the bottom of the first leg and Bellagio at the junction between legs.
We loved Bellagio and wanted to spend more time there but first we wanted to see Villa Carlotta and its garden plus some of the smaller communities on the...
Magical time in Milan before start of Italy garden adventure
MILAN - I’ve come to Italy once again, this time to lead a 14-day Islands and Lakes Garden Tour, starting in Lugano and moving to the beautiful lakes just north of Milan before moving south to Sardinia, Naples and Ischia.
Most of the 35 people with me on this adventure are meeting me here in Milan. We came here two...
Brissago’s peaceful island garden is a gem on Lake Maggoire
We bid farewell to Lake Como and headed back over the top of Lake Lugano and down to Lake Maggiore and to the little town of Brissago, Switzerland to visit the beautiful garden on Isola Brissago.
There are two little islands off the shore in Brissago; the biggest one, San Pancrazio also known as Grande Isola, has a beautiful botanical...
Into Naples for pizza and to see more great gardens
We left Cagliari in Sardinia shortly after lunch to catch our flight to Napoli.
The flight was on time and went smoothly and we ended up arriving 15 minutes ahead of schedule.
From the air, I could see we were flying just west of Ischia and Procida, two islands off the coast of Naples. Both islands were easily visible from the...
