Italian Garden Style

 Landscaping your backyard is a big, fun undertaking. But just like starting on a home renovation, you need to gather inspiration before you do anything else. To do so, we encourage you to think outside the local garden box. We love looking to the polished and symmetrical gardens of France, the lush, overflowing flower beds synonymous with the English countryside, and, of course, the regal and manicured gardens of Italy for ideas. If you're thinking about setting up your own Italian-inspired garden at home, here are some of the key design takeaways to remember, plus a quick history lesson.

Know the History

                                            

Art and design exploded during the Italian Renaissance, giving the world the Sistine Chapel, the Mona Lisa, and this garden aesthetic. Aristocrats in the 15th and 16th centuries displayed their wealth and power with majestic villas connected to symmetrical garden "rooms" that were divided by ivy-covered stone walls, sculpted boxwood hedges, and cypress trees that stretched skyward like arrows. Within each space were hallmarks like romantic pergolas, ornate fountains, mosaics, grottoes, and tranquil reflective pools. Flowers like canna, nasturtium, and sweet-smelling jasmine, which thrive in the hot, dry Mediterranean climate , supplied color.

By the 1700s, when tourists from other countries started visiting, these fluttery blossoms had faded away, leaving stately green spaces that continue to captivate. As Edith Wharton wrote in her design treatise Italian Villas and Their Gardens, travelers would return home with "eyes and imagination full of the ineffable Italian garden magic."

Italian Garden Architecture is another style that evolved after the Persian Gardening Style… This added another element of interest in the “Development of  the Modern Garden Architecture”.

                                                           

The possibility of building a villa arose at a time when control of the hinterland by cities rendered fortified rural settlements unnecessary. Existing country houses belonging to the large land owning town nobility could be converted and newly built villas built solely for enjoying rural life did not need to be defensible as a castle. Both types represent the cultural ideal of rural life the so called villeggiatura.

Italian gardens are characterized by the abundance of architectural features or built features in the garden. Staircases, balustrades, cascades pavilions and pavements – even the cypress avenues are imitations of colonnades. The origins of the style are to be found in ancient Rome. They took the pains to site their villas on the countryside with exceptional views, where cooling breeze would reach them above malarial valleys. Within the villas there were courts and colonnades designed for every phase of wind and weather.

A cloister for exercise would face the southeast to catch the low winter sun but escaped the summer heat. With outdoor dining rooms and swimming pools that were heated the interpenetrating of house and garden was total. Spanish patios give some idea of the principle. Today California has examples of such outdoor living areas in gardens e.g., Hearst estate.

As the renaissance gathered force, in Florence under the Medici Family, percepts for gardenin were gleaned from the classics, notably by the architect Leone Batista Alberti (1404-72). The artificial arrangement of nature was dictated by the cultural world of a ruling class.

The most revolutionary garden was the Villa Medici built in 1460 at Fiesole. The garden was enclosed with grottos, statues along a linear axis. The full-fledged renaissance garden first emerged as a prelude to building St. Peters.

                                                

In 1503, Pope Julius II commissioned Bramante, who was later to draw up the plans for the Basilica., to build the Vatican Gardens – and build was the word. The Cortile del Belvedere at the Vatican became the prototype for imaginative roofless architecture.

The elements are stairs colonnades, stairs, and statues in niche and fountains. Bramante’s successors, Ligoria and Vignola brought the Italian garden to its climax with their masterpieces of mid 16th century – The Villa d’Este at Tivoli and the Villa Farnese at Caprarola and the Villa Lante (1566) near Viterbo.

As time went by, the dominance of nature in the garden once again took hold. In the 17th century, the French eclipsed the Italian style.

Learn the Lingo

There are two terms to know when it comes to Italian gardens: Pergola and Bosco. Pergolas, which date back to ancient Roman times, are tunnel-like structures often covered with vining plants, like climbing roses or honeysuckle. They were meant to guide visitors and provide shade and coolness. The name Bosco comes from the Italian word for wood, and describes a grouping of trees, often framing decorative structures and statues. The Sacro Bosco, in Bomarzo, Italy, is a classic example.

                                           

                                    

Bring It Home

For a touch of Tuscany in your own yard, create small defined spaces (your "rooms") using manicured shrubs like boxwood, or plant a terra-cotta pot or two with a lemon tree. We like Meyer-lemon trees from Four Winds Growers. The intoxicating scent of the flowers and bright fruit will delight through the warmer months. Just plant them in one of the gorgeous, classic rolled-rim terra-cotta pots from Seibert & Rice for a simple yet statement-making look. If you live in an area that freezes, be sure to move them into a sunny room for the winter.

                                            

Italian Gardens to Visit

If you're really feeling inspired, plan a trip to one of the many stateside Italian-inspired gardens for even more ideas. You don't have to go far thanks to the Biltmore House & Gardens in Asheville, North Carolina. This Vanderbilt estate, tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains, has an Italianate room with three striking pools. Another local option is the Mount, Edith Wharton's home garden in Lenox, Massachusetts. The novelist, who believed landscapes should be as architectural as houses, drew heavily from her time in Italy. You can also get a little sun while taking in culture at the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami. They're world-famous for their glamorous pools, stone terraces, and grottoes.

                                                            

                                               

                                         

                                             

Should a trip to Italy be in your future (lucky you!), don't miss the stunning walk of a hundred fountains at Villa d'Este in Tivoli. And whatever you do, don't even try leaving without a visit to the epic Villa Lante in Bagnaia, which has remained virtually the same since the 1600s.