There is a hidden British soul in Liguria
Discover the hidden English soul of the Ligurian Riviera: prominent members of the British community once lived here
Be inspired by historic villas, extraordinary gardens, rare botanical collections and breathtaking sea views.
Discover a different side to Liguria, where English heritage and Mediterranean beauty have been intertwined for generations.
Hanbury Botanic Gardens – Ventimiglia
Discovering the Hanbury Gardens in Ventimiglia, amidst blooms, colours and exotic scents
On the splendid Riviera dei Fiori, the Hanbury Botanical Gardens in Ventimiglia are home to over 5,800 species of ornamental, medicinal and fruit-bearing plants. In this enchanting corner of Liguria.
The Garden is divided into themed areas. From the entrance, you descend towards the sea, as if travel through one of Dante’s circles – though the garden feels more like Paradise than Hell – and, as you go, you pass through the areas of agaves, aloe, the fragrance garden, the rose garden, the Australian forest, the exotic orchard and many others.
It all began in the spring of 1867. Thomas Hanbury, a wealthy English merchant and keen botanist, was holidaying in France after spending many years in China. Having fallen in love with the ancient Palazzo Orengo, a place steeped in historic splendour – visited by Catherine of Siena, Machiavelli, Charles V of Spain and Napoleon – he decided to purchase it, along with the surrounding hill, in order to establish a botanical garden there, on the advice of his brother Daniel, an expert in pharmacopoeia. The Hanburys were philanthropists; they built schools and roads in Ventimiglia. They loved Mortola and regarded it as their home.
The Clarence Bicknell Museum Villa in Bordighera
In Bordighera, the home of the man who fostered the growth of knowledge
A splendid neoclassical villa housing hundreds of antique volumes, surrounded by a garden of exotic and centuries-old plants: this is the villa that Clarence Bicknell (1842–1918) owned in Bordighera. IAn internationalist, Esperanto enthusiast, botanist and scholar of English prehistory, Bicknell arrived in Italy in 1878 to serve as a vicar at the Anglican church in Bordighera, but after a few years he abandoned the mission to devote himself to scientific studies. He meticulously catalogued the flora of the Riviera and discovered the prehistoric engravings in the Monte Bego area of the Maritime Alps. In 1878, Clarence Bicknell transformed Villa Rosa, the house he had purchased, into a museum with an exquisite library where visitors could admire the archaeological and botanical collections he had collected, preserved and displayed. The library contains around 85,000 volumes and 14,000 engravings. The natural history section comprises more than 300 volumes covering flora, fauna and botany, as well as works by Charles Darwin on the origin and evolution of species. The museum is set amidst a lush garden filled with exotic plants, where a monumental specimen of Ficus macrophylla stands out.
Alassio, the Gardens of Villa della Pergola
In Alassio, immerse yourself in the colours and scents of thousands of extraordinary flowers and plants at the Gardens of Villa della Pergola
A stunning English-style garden at the height of its bloom: the Gardens of Villa della Pergola in Alassio are open for guided tours by appointment.
It was founded in 1875 by George Henderson Gibb and General McMurdo: these two Scottish gentlemen spent a winter in the jewel of the Riviera delle Palme and purchased two plots of land to build an oasis of peace called Villa della Pergola, in the style favoured by the English aristocracy, complete with a large and elegant park. In 1900, following McMurdo’s death, the villa was purchased by the Scottish baronet Hamilton-Dalrymple, and later in 1920 by the Hanbury family, who made the garden even more beautiful by bringing in rare plants from all over the world from the Mortola Botanical Garden at Villa Hanbury in Ventimiglia.
Spanning a full 22,000 square metres, the gardens feature unique botanical collections such as the Wollemia Nobilis, a prehistoric plant of which fewer than a hundred specimens exist worldwide, the extraordinary collection of Opuntiae and Cactaceae , including some rare and fascinating specimens such as the Myrtillocactus geometrizans crestatus, which owes its spectacular shape to a genetic mutation, and the citrus fruits, represented by a collection of more than 30 varieties, including local species.
The P.B. Shelley Literary Park in Lerici
A romantic and literary side to Liguria you wouldn’t expect
In 1822, Mary Shelley stayed in Lerici and San Terenzo in the period between 1822 and 1823, during a crucial yet tragic period marked by the death of her husband in a shipwreck. Liguria’s nature, sea, wind and the nights filled with silence became a space for the author of Frankenstein where she could reflect and write, almost suspended between the real and unreal. Mary Shelley writes about Liguria as a place of magic and imagination, where she could take her mind off everyday life and open it up to deep visions. The Shelley Literary Park was established to showcase this unique connection between the landscape of the Gulf of Poets and literature. Today, it brings to life a romantic and literary Liguria, offering a cultural itinerary that invites visitors to discover the region through the voice of a free, visionary and modern woman.