Description
With a Villa Rezzola entrance ticket you wander at your own pace through the terraced garden of a stately house in Lerici, where the grounds step down almost to the sea. The visit is self-guided and takes about an hour. No guide is included.
The garden is in the English style. A long wisteria pergola cuts through it and divides the groves and cultivated plots, with their rose garden, vegetable garden and orchard, from a large lawn crossed by a footpath, framed by hedges and dotted with ponds and fountains. Plants and cut flowers are grown on the spot, supported by a complex water system and dedicated buildings. Camphor and magnolia trees, cypresses, olives and a holm oak wood give shade along the way.
The terraces of the house look out over the Gulf of Poets, from Lerici to Portovenere, a coast that has attracted Shelley, Byron, Lawrence and many other writers and artists since the 19th century.
The villa has medieval military remains at its base and was documented as early as the 18th century. Helen Lavinia and William Percy Cochrane bought it in 1900 and changed most of it. A later owner couple finally left it to the FAI, to keep it protected and open to many visitors.