TWO GARDENS ON THE AMALFI COAST

Gardens of the Villa Cimbrone in Ravello (Italy)

There is a charming story behind the creation of this garden. At the end of the 19th century, Ernest William Beckett, Lord Grimethorpe visited the Amalfi Coast as part of the Grand Tour. He was grieving for the loss of his wife. He came across an 11th century villa and small estate in poor repair an determined to crate a beautiful garden there and at the same time heal his broken heart.

The result as we see it today should be charm itself. Lord G had a vision of a fusion between the then fashionable English style of Gertrude Jekyll and an Italian Classical landscape, and he engaged a local designer, Nicola Mansi to realise it. They laid out extensive areas of planting with specimen trees and blocks of similar plants - roses, shrubs, lavenders, palms, lawns, falling away to indigenous local forest. Along walks and at corners, they placed grottos, pillars and statues representing Classical personages.

This quirky combination has found favour with many and has meant that the garden makes a contribution to the UNESCO recognition of Ravello. For me, though, it fell rather heavily on the eye. I can’t see the glories of a Jekyll garden or the elegance of a true Italian Classical garden here. And time has not been kind to the concrete structures that hold it together. Sorry, Lord G. I hope it brought you happiness at a sad time in your life, but, on a sunny day in late October, it didn’t say much to me.

I have missed one very important aspect. At the far end of the garden, the walk takes a turn which runs above a sheer drop above terraces of lemon trees, and gives onto the most stunning view of the coast and the shining sea. A true sight for sore eyes and a wonder that touches the heart now as it has every generation since the 11th century.  

Villa Rufulo

The other garden in Ravello is quite different. By 11:00 at the very end of the season, it is full of people, with coach-loads queuing up behind. It’s only a small garden, but so charming that it has pulling power. The revenues gleaned from the visitors have been put to good use, and everywhere is very well kept.

Let’s start from the point at which we left Villa Cimbrone - the view of the sea and the Amalfi coast. It’s still here, shining today, but ever-changing, always with a new take on this wonderful view. We pull back through smallish shapes of garden, planted with successful selections of bedding plants, to the buildings, and without these, the garden would be ordinary, just a place to wander and to take shade from the heat or respite from the cares of the day.

The buildings are largely in ruins, the remnants of a once-grand palazzo. They have been recently skilfully renovated to provide a backdrop to the Ravello Festival, a summer-long affair of music and  visual art, which inhabits the nooks and corners, inside and in the open air.

It is this combination of the formal and the informal, the soft and the hard structures, the light and shade that created the atmosphere. The insouciant charm of these spaces enriches the spirit.