Ninfa (September 18)

Before we settled in at La Palma in Terracina, our double-decker bus stopped in Ninfa, home of the famous garden by the same name.  The garden includes the remains of the ancient city of Ninfa, perhaps founded by the Volscians at the feet of the Monti Lepini (Thanks Wikipedia!).

In 1159, Pope Alexander III was crowned there but later destroyed by order of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, after his enemy Pope Alexander III had taken refuge in the town.

Ninfa was repopulated by its inhabitants, under the seigniory of the Caetani, but in the 16th century remained deserted due to the expansion of the surrounding marshes and the arrival of malaria.  The castle and the area were renewed in the 20th century in the English garden style.






While the tour of the garden was leg by an official guide, Brad offers suggestions to the students of things to look out for while on the tour as possible topics for their next paper.







Here are parts of the remains of the city of Ninfa.  You may notice a slight bluish hue on the side of the 12th century cathedral.  That is due to natural pesticides used to preserve the nearly 1300 deciduous trees and other species over the 8 acres.





Our guide, Guilia (pronounced "Julia"), was fantastic.  Aside from knowing her stuff, her delivery made learning about the garden the ruins of Ninfa interesting.

At the right is a river that runs through the garden.  The water is comes from a natural spring, so clear and clean we were allowed to literally drink right from it.

The bamboo you see was amazingly high.  According to Guilia, it grows about 6 inches a day during the summer.  So they're constantly having to trim it down so that it doesn't overrun the garden.  As for the second bamboo picture, I found it humorous that the groundskeepers felt the need to put up this sign, which reads, "Do not write or engrave on the bamboo canes."  If you zoom in on the right side of the picture, you can see somebody's handywork.

Left: through the windows of the ancient castle at Ninfa.  Right: one of the many varieties of roses in the Ninfa gardens.










Left to right: Jasper, Roman, and Will chillin' on the waterfalls of Ninfa