Great gardens: Villa Cimbrone!

The last 10 days or so, I've been on an "elective" schedule, which basically means that you choose whatever learning related activity you would like to do.  I have made it a point to do electives that are useful but doable from home.  What I have re-discovered on this elective schedule is that I am also terrible at working from home.  I would be a terrible housewife or work-from-home entrepreneur.  How do you do it, all you people who work from home??  I mostly sit at home uselessly and then start to feel despondent about my uselessness and then when my hard-working husband gets home, I bemoan my boredom and despondency about such boredom, all the while feeling more and more anxious about the pile of work that I have not yet done. Poor husband.  Fortunately, tomorrow, I will actually be going to work (I cannot believe I am saying that) and bringing home some bacon too.

Today, instead of doing my work, I posted vacation photos on facebook, a task that took no less than 2hrs (I love-hate facebook).  And in doing so, I got to look at all my lovely vacation photos again, including the ones from the lovely Villa Cimbrone and its outstanding gardens, located in Ravello, Italy which is a town along the Amalfi Coast.

This seriously gorgeous Villa belonged to a string of "enormously wealthy and influential" Italian families starting the 11th century, was abandoned for awhile, and then rediscovered by an Englishman who overcame his depression over his wife's death by living here and restoring it.  As such, it is, according to the guide pamphlet, a "happy combination of traditional English and Italian landscaped gardens."

As a patio-bound container gardener, I personally love the Italian use of containers within their gardens.  This was something I saw throughout our travels in Italy -- enthusiastic container gardening on balconies, roofs, and within gardens!

They also accessorize their garden well with statues, fountains, and arches.  This is in contrast to the Dutch gardens I saw, which primarily use well-manicured lines of beautiful flowers and foliage.

Lastly, the Villa Cimbrone makes pretty nice use of the fact that it sits on a cliff overlooking the ocean.  This is called the Terrace of the Infinity and oh my, was it gorgeous!

Nowadays, the villa operates as a hotel and event site.  It is available for tours of the garden for a nominal fee, for overnight stay for a much much larger fee,  and if you're extremely wealthy, then you can even get married there.  If interested, here is the website.  

Oh Ravello...  one day, I hope to be back!