Country Life

Gardens are like people–most don’t age well

WHEN I was 18 and waiting to go up to the Varsity (as my grandmother called it), I hitchhiked out to Italy in search of all those new excitements that young men hope to experience. Culture, mainly, in my case—the girls were unassailable in those days. It was my first solo trip abroad and I fell deeply in love with Baroque churches, olive landscapes and classical gardens.

I had a lightbulb moment when I visited Isola Bella, the

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