Monty Don's Gardens

[Michael Grove]

  Monty Don's Italian Gardens is a four-part BBC documentary presented

  by Monty Don, following Monty Don's grand garden tour around Italy,

  from the retreats of the affluent north to the horticultural gems of the

  south.

  Monty Don begins his journey in Rome, power base of emperors and

  popes, to explore some of the most extravagant gardens ever created.

  In Florence Monty Don discovers how renaissance gardens were

  created as works of art, with Medici money, and how a group of

  Edwardian expats mistakenly reinforced the idea that formal Italian

  gardens were flowerless.

    In Naples Monty Don visits some of the most sublime, romantic

  retreats in southern Italy. He attempts to discover why, in the south,

  gardens are informal and filled with flowers.

  Finally, Monty Don concludes his garden tour of Italy in the wealthy

  north where, in the Veneto and Lucca, extravagant pleasure gardens

  were created for flirtation and fun.

.

[Michael Grove]

… and no better PROOF of the need for the PROTESTANT REFORMATION back in the 16th Century • in the context of THE DO WHAT I SAY not WHAT I DO mindsight of the Medici Bank backed Church of Rome; in juxtaposition to the present demise of the Grandeur That Was of one of the FOUNDING NATIONS of the EUROPEAN PROJECT • can be found by us all today by watching the four episodes of Monty Don's exemplary Italian Garden Series.