Archive for 'Parks & Gardens'

A villa on the Amalfi Coast means access to endless beautiful seaside towns, pretty beaches, and charming spots with incredible views over the coast. It is an innately scenic part of Italy and the world and if you're fond of wonderful panoramas and visiting impossibly picturesque attractions then it is a great option for your next holiday in Italy. Among all of the lovely things to see and places to visit in the region, however, one of the most magical of all has to be the Giardino della Minerva in the town of Salerno. Browse our vacation rentals on the Amalfi Coast and get planning your trip today to take in this gorgeous garden and the infinite list of other beautiful attractions in the area.

The Giardino della Minerva (or Minerva's Garden) is a rather special botanical garden located on a high terrace that boasts sweeping views over the city of Salerno and out over the coast. Found in the medieval core of the city, in an area that was once known as the Plaium Montis, the garden traces its roots all the way back to the 12th century and is a very special gem that is now open to the public to be enjoyed for its educational, aesthetic and therapeutic qualities.

Apulia is a famously beautiful part of Italy and if you find a villa in Apulia you will never be in want of things to see and do. You just need to rent a car, hit the road with no particular destination in mind, and then you will quickly find yourself just happening to stumble across all sorts of truly incredible surprises and wonders along the way. However, if you want to head our out with a destination in mind that you can be sure is certain to wow you with its impossible natural beauty, then we highly recommend a visit to Gargano.

Gargano is the name given to an area of Foggia in Apulia that is made up of a series of peaks and highland that projects out into the Adriatic. Much of the upland part of the area is located within the protected Gargano National Park that was founded back in 1991 and some of the peninsula is home to the remains of the Foresta Umbra, an ancient forest that is all that is left in Italy of the oak and beech forest that once covered much of Central Europe. Heading to the coastline, Gargano is also home to some fascinating rock formations and cave systems, pretty bays, charming beaches, and idyllic little towns. All of these different factors ensure that Gargano is, undoubtedly, one of the most picturesque parts of Italy and, thankfully, well-preserved.

As Rome is the capital of the region and there are also many other fascinating attractions in the surrounding area, a vacation rental in Latium or a vacation rental in Rome means that you'll never be short of incredible things to see and do. One such attraction that has been named as one of the most beautiful and romantic gardens in the entire world is the Garden of Ninfa, or Giardino di Ninfa, and it is a truly magical and stunning place. If you love outdoor spaces, garden design, and pretty settings that are far from your daily life then this is a must-see.

Italy is home to some truly unique and beautiful parks and gardens. However, most still confirm to certain aesthetics; green manicured lawns, pathways, fountains, trimmed hedges, neat flowerbeds, and more. While these stunning outdoor spaces are well worth exploring in their own right, if you are in search of a more specific and singular yet equally stunning garden and you have found a vacation rental in Sicily, then we recommend a visit to the Kolymbetra Garden in Agrigento, on the South Coast of Sicily.

Kolymbetra Garden, or Giardino della Kolymbetra, is a very Sicilian kind of garden. Located in the heart of the Valley of the Temples, and often overlooked but readily visited if you are already at that other famous attraction, it is a lush and fragrant space that hosts all sorts of events. The landscape of this area is made up of almond and olive tree groves, with irrigated citrus groves and orchards cutting through this. Kolymbetra is an example of an irrigated citrus garden but also boasts great historical and archaeological value. Situated in a small valley to the west of the Hill of the Temples, nestled between the Temple of Castor and Pollux and the Temple of Vulcan, the six hectares of garden are framed picturesquely by these great monuments of the distant past. It is also mentioned in ancient records, noted as the site of a Greek pool mentioned by Diodorus Siculus in the first century AD as the place where Carthaginian slaves were brought in to build aqueducts that delivered water to the sumptuous pool that they also built in the area. While this artificial lake has long since been destroyed and disappeared, the land remained fertile and the profitable fishing industry that had thrived there when it was a fish hatchery was replaced by the Moors with a business based on abundant trees yielding delicious fruits.

Sicily has a landscape that is not only often breathtakingly beautiful but is also full of lots of surprises and magical hidden gems. One particularly special example of this is the Gorges of Alcantara. A wonderful protected area near Taormina, this landscape of black volcanic walls in the typical prism shape that is characteristic of rocks formed from cooling lava and cut through with channels of gem-coloured waters, is an incredible feast for the eyes and a perfect place for photographers and those who love the great outdoors and the endless wonderful forms of nature. Come to trek, explore, swim, have a little bit of an adventure, and wonder at the great beauty of the world around you. Just browse our luxury villas in Sicily and our vacation rentals in Taormina to get planning your trip to this astounding natural gem to see it with your own eyes!

Located between Messina and Catania, this 50km long river channel is full of unique and unusual natural features. There is actually no one agreed upon origin tale for the Gorges of Alcantara, though there have been many hypotheses throughout the years. What we know for sure is that an outstanding lava eruption from Mount Etna flowed into the area in prehistoric times but what exactly happened next is still subject to study and debate. According to one theory, the glowing mass split due to internal tensions during the consolidation phase, though the heterogeneous structure of the rocks does not back this up. Another theory posits that the two branches of lava flow were recombined at the site of the gorges and surrounded a mass of much colder soil, which caused an abnormal cooling of the flow and saw it lose heat so quickly that it would have given off the crystalline material present in the magma. The movement of the river Alcantara through the area over thousands of years would have then dug away at the earth in the area, giving rise to the incredible canyons of the Gorges of Alcantara.