Country Life: Sicilian Gardens

We depart from London Gatwick and arrive in Catania Airport at midday. We first visit the home of Rossella Pezzino de Geronimo for a tour of her luxuriant autobiographical garden, Le Stanze in Fiore. Rossella will lead you through the story of her life as depicted in her garden - an exceptional experience. We will then enjoy a lunch of Sicilian specialities, many made from recipes passed down from Rossella’s grandmother. Later, we drive to our 5-star accommodation in Taormina and relax before dining together in the hotel restaurant.

We journey south to Il Biviere for a guided tour of Princess Borghese’s extraordinary family garden, created on land once occupied by a lake. After a delicious lunch we are invited to San Giuliano, a citrus growing estate renowned for its delightful English-style gardens, filled with exotic plants, which has belonged to the family of Marchesi Paternò Castello di San Giuliano for more than 800 years. Return to Taormina with time to rest, or alternatively visit the Greek Theatre or the Trevelyan Gardens before dinner.

On the outskirts of Catania we find a private garden designed and owned by the late Marchese Ettore Paternò del Toscano, Sicily’s most important twentieth-century landscape architect. We are invited to lunch with his daughter, Barbara Notarbartolo, before we travel across the scenic island to Palermo, stopping en route at Villa Palagonia. The garden wall of this extraordinary, eccentric palazzo is decorated with grotesque caricatures and bizarre creatures carved in stone. We then check into Hotel Villa Igiea with time to settle before dining in the hotel’s spectacular restaurant.

We start the day with a visit to Palermo’s world-famous Orto Botanico. Established in 1789, this important botanic garden holds collections of cycads, palms, majestic trees and a huge, aerial-rooting Ficus macrophylla which is nearly 200 years old. We then walk through the old town for lunch at a local restaurant followed by a visit to a sumptuous private Palazzo. Later in the afternoon, we drive to the outskirts of Palermo for a special visit to the house and gardens of Villa Tasca, home of the illustrious Sicilian wine making family of the same name. A garden that has successfully embraced change, this 20 acre park is filled with citrus trees, majestic centenarian trees and lush, subtropical planting.  We are invited to drinks and Sicilian canapés and an early evening meal before returning to our accommodation.

We drive to Catania Airport for our return flight to London Gatwick, passing the exotic Palazzo Cinese (Chinese Palace) built by King Ferdinand III, historic Montepellegrino (now a nature reserve), the beaches of Mondello and the private estates of Palermo’s millionaires, .