The most remarkable thing about my hotel on the outskirts of Frascati was to see the walls lined with dozens of period garden engravings. Expecting Villa d’Este to have the greatest prominence, I was surprised to find it eclipsed by … Continue reading
In the American Mid-West prairie states spring starts late. There was still snow on the ground last year in mid-April, and ice on the lakes until early May, but by late June the air temperatures were in the upper 20s, … Continue reading
Italians just don’t get it. At the inappropriately named Villa Adriana (more the size of a city than a villa) the stifling bureaucracy of the Italian State manages, but not quite succeeds in strangling something that is hauntingly beautiful. Getting … Continue reading
As a precocious 17 year-old, intent on studying architecture, what could be more appropriate for me, than asking for a book on Mies van der Rohe as a school prize? I became a devotee, and when Mies died in 1969, … Continue reading
Late February and early March is the time to see winter gardens at their best, but a couple of sad borders of garish heathers, a bit of forsythia, a few camellias, and a sea of early daffodils don’t make a … Continue reading
Spring in England is pure delight, but nowhere more so than in Kent, the self-proclaimed ‘Garden of England’. My second career was as an restauranteur, and moving to Rye, on the Kent – Sussex border in spring, I was … Continue reading