A Renaissance Garden

In 1406, Provolo Giusti moved his family from Tuscany to Verona to further their interests in the wool dyeing industry, Verona’s main source of wealth at the time. He bought land for his enterprise. Later on in the 15th century, Agostino Giusti replaced the wool dyeing buildings with an elegant palazzo and a formal garden that would become a regular part of the Grand Tour. Among the famous visitors were Mozart, Ruskin, Addison, Tsar Alexander I of Russia, and Goethe. The last so admired an enormous cyprus (now over 600 years old and referred to as the cipresso di Goethe) that he mentions it in his Italienische Reise (Italian Journey) of 1817.

The Giardino Giusti is an oasis of tranquility about a 25-minute walk (a slow walk today because it was hot) from Piazza Brà. Perhaps that’s why it was so pleasantly uncrowded on a Saturday late morning.

Contrary to the usual practice of placing the villa at the highest point overlooking the garden, Agostino Giusti placed his house at the lowest point so that it is overlooked rather than overlooking.

The geometric symmetry of the Italian Renaissance lower garden is beautifully balanced with the natural wooded part at the back, which rises by means of steps and steep paths first to a belvedere on top of a grotesque mask that was designed to amaze and frighten visitors by belching out fire and smoke. From the belvedere, you climb to a tower with a spiral stone staircase that takes you to the upper garden from which there are some stunning views of the city and the garden below.

Formal gardens without too many flowers are my preference, and today’s visit to the Giardino Giusti is one of the highlights of my time in Verona.Read more