The right to nature: visiting Italy's great gardens
Not just open and accessible parks, but new urban areas converted to green. Stroll among ancient trees, orchards and areas designed according to the principles of biodiversity and microclimate.
The history of the European landscape can also be read through that of its gardens. From the geometric design of the Renaissance parterres to the compositional freedom of the 19th century and contemporary naturalistic experiments, each era has built its own idea of nature in the green. In Italia, where the garden has been a refined form of cultural expression for centuries, the heritage is experiencing a new season of attention. Not only thanks to the restoration and opening of historic parks and the rediscovery of residences immersed in greenery, but also with interventions that rethink the role of plants in the daily life of cities. The new edition of the guide by Grandi Giardini Italiani, the network founded in 1997 by Judith Wade and now led by Bianca Passera, brings together some 150 gardens, all of which can be visited. "The project selects those that share rigorous quality standards in botanical, artistic and historical terms," explains the president.
Historic gardens as well as vegetable gardens and vineyards in an interweaving of art, landscape, history and biodiversity to which Ca' del Bosco in Franciacorta, the Limonaia del Castèl in Limone sul Garda and Villa La Quiete in Treia, in the Marche region, have been added this year. "Grandi Giardini Italiani is the first private network to bring gardens closer to the horticultural tourism market. We help owners by offering services to increase visitors including promotion, on and offline communication and digital ticketing," Passera continues.
Even cities are rethinking their relationship with trees. In Milan, the Milano Green Circle 90/91 project is transforming the trolleybus loop into a long urban ecological infrastructure. The initiative involves the City of Milan with the collaboration of Forestami, a format conceived by architect Stefano Boeri with the support of the Armani Group. "It is not only an ornamental intervention, but also a functional one," explains agronomist Laura Gatti, who is leading the project. "We want to create a botanical corridor to increase biodiversity and improve the microclimate. For the former, given the intense traffic conditions of the routes, there is a combination of hardy plants, including shrubs and perennial trees, such as Elaeagnus x submacrophylla Compacta, an evergreen that flowers in late autumn, when there is little else for bees. Then, among those that act as a filter against fine dust, there are plants with small leaves and dense foliage or very broad leaves, but with accentuated veins or trichomes,' concludes Gatti, listing the most useful: 'Phlomis fruticosa, Teucrium fruticans, Cotoneaster franchetii and Rosa rugosa.
In Genoa, the Dune Park, along the Pra' coastal stretch, created by AG&P greenscape, was inaugurated a few months ago. "The park gives people back something that had been lost here: the relationship with the sea and nature. The project introduces a new landscape made up of dunes, Mediterranean vegetation and paths by the sea. The principle that guides all our projects is The Right to Nature, which is also the title of our latest book," explains Paolo Palmulli, landscape architect and partner of the studio. The Park, selected for the Italia Pavilion at the last Biennale Architettura, develops along a sequence of bays with different identities. The inspiration is Mediterranean, with typical maquis species such as mastic tree, phillyrea, strawberry tree and cistus, able to adapt well to the climate, wind and saltiness. "Some trees, such as holm oaks, pines or carob trees, are ideal when the goal is, in addition to shade, to break the winds from the sea and create a resilient, low-maintenance ecosystem," Paolo concludes.
In the Emilian countryside, the Romantic Park of the Magnani-Rocca Foundation (the scene, for the record, of a very recent theft) in Mamiano di Traversetolo, Parma, recently underwent restoration work as part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan: twelve hectares of historic park rethought by a team composed of landscape agronomist Elisa Marmiroli and architect Alberto Bordi with three different visions: a landscape park, an Italian-style garden and a more contemporary one. "Three ways of imagining the relationship between man and nature, which today can also become sources of inspiration for private gardens," explains Elisa Marmiroli of Studio Arbora. "The landscape garden, called the English garden because it originated in England between the 18th and 19th centuries, requires space and breathing space. We work on the sinuosity of the paths, create small groups of trees instead of regular rows and design a sequence of green rooms to be discovered while walking. Another typical element is water, which today can be interpreted, for example, with a bathing bio-lake built for us by Umor Acqueo.
