Visiting the most romantic garden in the world

Ask and you shall receive! When I polled on Instagram, everyone said they wanted to see a photo diary from my visit to the Gardens of Ninfa. I tagged along with my friends on this one and didn’t do much research, and in my honest opinion probably wouldn’t go back, though my host family was very jealous I went.

The garden is built over the medieval city of Ninfa, which actually has a very important history. But, not much of the original city is visible, and if you’ve explored a site like the Roman Forum you’ll know that it’s often hard to envision what something was in the past just by viewing one column or one crumbling wall.

In addition, the garden can only be viewed by guided tour, and each tour group is around 50 people. It was so hard to snap a photo without a person in it, and I got tired of stopping and waiting for everyone, standing in the hot sun listening to the guide and not being able to explore at my leisure. I do also think that the season itself really matters. The spring would be the best time to go, although if you have allergies I probably wouldn’t recommend it (hah).

Despite all of that, Latina (the city where the gardens are located) is beautiful, surrounded by mountains with the tiny town of Norma visible at the crest. There was no shuttle or bus to get to the gardens, so be prepared to take a taxi. Even though I didn’t love the experience, I learned that I’m capable of calling a taxi successfully in Italian. What a great feeling! Hope you enjoy the following fotos from my day (always trying to capture the beauty even if I’m hot and bothered).

My favorite parts of the garden were the pomegranate trees and the area inspired by a Monet painting (I’m sure you can find it easily in the photos above). Flowers upon flowers upon flowers! Looking back on this day it’s easy to see the beauty of the garden.