A romantic Italian oasis that inspired literary giants
RARE plants, enchanting ruins and the tinkle of waterfalls: The English-style botanical oasis of Ninfa near Rome is a secret idyll billed as “the world’s most romantic garden.”
The exquisite garden dates back to the late 19th century when the aristocratic Caetani family took over lands deserted for centuries including Ninfa, a town that was abandoned in the Middle Ages.
The town once had 150 homes and seven churches — was ravaged by a civil war before becoming an artistic haven. “Ninfa is not just a garden, it is a long cultural history,” said Lauro Marchetti, head of the Roffredo Caetani Foundation, which manages the garden some 70 kilometers (44 miles) from Rome.
Caetani’s mother, an Englishwoman named Ada Wilbraham, was the founder of the garden. Caetani, a musician and a protege of Hungarian composer Frantz Liszt, came up with the streams and waterfalls to create bewitching melodies. “At night in the spot that we call ‘of the nightingales’, there is a real concert with the birdsong and the water,” Marchetti said.
Caetani’s American wife Marguerite Chapin added roses, irises, peonies and a bamboo pavil- ion to the garden and invited her literary friends.
Virginia Woolf, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote all visited, as well as Italian writer Alberto Moravia and cult filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Many were inspired by the ruins of the Roman bridge, the former customs house and waters teeming with rare trout and filled with aquatic flora.
Under the arched vault of the customs house — where reflections of the water dance on the walls — Italian author Giorgio Bassani wrote his famous novel “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.”
“Shortly before his death, he came back here one last time. He was very ill and he told me with a heavy sigh: ‘ Now I can die’,” Marchetti said.
The arrangement of plants from around the world is sophisticated but natural-looking, with 1,300 different species in total.
Among the rarities on display are giant rhubarbs from Brazil, witchhazel from the Alborz mountains in Iran and cedar trees North Africa. Banana trees, American tulips and Japanese maple can also be seen, along with a climbing rose wrapped 21 meters up a cypress tree.