Some travellers are not content with doing what everyone else does on holidays. They don’t want the standard photos or to line up for hours for famous attractions or to mill in crowds of people. Instead, they want to explore, get off the beaten tourist path, and see beyond the brochures and Instagram to find the hidden gems that a destination has to offer. If you have found a vacation rental in Liguria and are exploring this beautiful coastal region of Italy, then we recommend heading to one beach, in particular, and not because it is a popular tourism spot but, rather, because of something that lies beneath the waves…
Noli, a pretty seaside town around 50km from Genoa, in Liguria, is home to a rather fascinating garden. This may seem like a bold claim in a country like Italy where there are endless beautiful gardens belonging to ancient estates, hidden amongst winding streets in city centres, housing incredible works of art and rare blooms, and much more besides but this garden is truly worth being set aside as something extra special. Why, you may ask? Well, for one thing, it’s an underwater farm. That’s something you don’t see every day, that’s for sure!
Noli, a pretty seaside town around 50km from Genoa, in Liguria, is home to a rather fascinating garden. This may seem like a bold claim in a country like Italy where there are endless beautiful gardens belonging to ancient estates, hidden amongst winding streets in city centres, housing incredible works of art and rare blooms, and much more besides but this garden is truly worth being set aside as something extra special. Why, you may ask? Well, for one thing, it’s an underwater farm. That’s something you don’t see every day, that’s for sure!
Nemo’s Garden is an underwater farm that was established by a father and son team, Sergio and Luca Gamberini, just off the coast of Noli back in 2013. The idea for the farm came to Sergio, the founder of diving equipment firm Ocean Reef Group, in 2012 while he was holidaying on the Italian Riviera and was chatting with friends about his interests. Another of his favourite topics came up, gardening, and he wondered if it would be possible to create the perfect growing conditions for basil, an immensely popular local herb that is an essential ingredient for pesto, an immensely popular local dish.
Basil flourishes in protected, sunny spots that have well-drained soils and a stable temperature and, as he gazed out at the water, he suddenly realised that underwater conditions might just be perfect for such purposes. He began experimenting and the project went from a random idea and whim to an ambitious vision of the future. Suddenly, Nemo’s Garden was more than one man’s experiment in gardening and, instead, a potential “alternative system of agriculture, especially dedicated to those areas where environmental conditions, economical or morphologic reasons make plants growth extremely difficult” and a project that “aims to create a system that utilises natural resources already available, the foremost important one being the oceans and other bodies of water.”
Today, the project consists of 6 biospheres that are connected by a central “tree of life” or control tower. With carefully monitored temperature and humidity, the biospheres are transparent plastic domes that were placed 20 feet below the surface of the sea and filled with air and which utilise the near constant temperature of the sea to make growing plants easier. The garden offers an economically viable, long-term alternative form of agriculture that is eco-friendly and self-sustainable, using renewable energy harnessed from the sun and fresh water obtained by the desalination of seawater and does not affect the surrounding marine environment and related ecosystems, other than creating a shelter-like effect that helps support the repopulation for the surrounding marine areas. In addition to this, the farm has had additional applications and ideas for applications crop up through its use such as eco tourism, fish farming, seaweed farming, use as scientific research labs and underwater stations for monitoring wildlife, and more.
The gardens are now home to more than 700 plants, including tomatoes, basil, and strawberries and, best of all, can actually be visited! If you are a certified diver and have found a vacation rental in Liguria, just head to Noli for a rather unique diving experience, indeed. Diving trips can be organised with Dive Enjoy by emailing them at info@divenjoy.it and September is the ideal time to visit, as it is during harvest season, but a visit anytime is a great option for those who want to get well and truly off the regular beaten tourist path in Italy…
Basil flourishes in protected, sunny spots that have well-drained soils and a stable temperature and, as he gazed out at the water, he suddenly realised that underwater conditions might just be perfect for such purposes. He began experimenting and the project went from a random idea and whim to an ambitious vision of the future. Suddenly, Nemo’s Garden was more than one man’s experiment in gardening and, instead, a potential “alternative system of agriculture, especially dedicated to those areas where environmental conditions, economical or morphologic reasons make plants growth extremely difficult” and a project that “aims to create a system that utilises natural resources already available, the foremost important one being the oceans and other bodies of water.”
Today, the project consists of 6 biospheres that are connected by a central “tree of life” or control tower. With carefully monitored temperature and humidity, the biospheres are transparent plastic domes that were placed 20 feet below the surface of the sea and filled with air and which utilise the near constant temperature of the sea to make growing plants easier. The garden offers an economically viable, long-term alternative form of agriculture that is eco-friendly and self-sustainable, using renewable energy harnessed from the sun and fresh water obtained by the desalination of seawater and does not affect the surrounding marine environment and related ecosystems, other than creating a shelter-like effect that helps support the repopulation for the surrounding marine areas. In addition to this, the farm has had additional applications and ideas for applications crop up through its use such as eco tourism, fish farming, seaweed farming, use as scientific research labs and underwater stations for monitoring wildlife, and more.
The gardens are now home to more than 700 plants, including tomatoes, basil, and strawberries and, best of all, can actually be visited! If you are a certified diver and have found a vacation rental in Liguria, just head to Noli for a rather unique diving experience, indeed. Diving trips can be organised with Dive Enjoy by emailing them at info@divenjoy.it and September is the ideal time to visit, as it is during harvest season, but a visit anytime is a great option for those who want to get well and truly off the regular beaten tourist path in Italy…