Summary

Monty Don returns to our screens with an enchanting four part series that celebrates Italy’s world famous gardens. Over four luscious hours, Monty will be conducting his very personal ‘grand tour’ exploring sublime, horticultural hideaways of the romantic South to unravelling the riddles behind the austere formality and theatre behind the ostentatious papal gardens of Rome. In Florence Monty will be finding out how in the Renaissance, garden making became a high art and how a group of salacious Edwardian expats reinforced the idea that Italian gardens were flowerless. In the Veneto and the Lakes, Monty will be revelling in the luxurious gardens built on the fortunes of trade and he’ll discover how new plant introductions in the 16th century changed the way Italian gardens were created.

Along the way Monty will be meeting local Italians who are keeping alive the passion for the land and he’ll be peering over the fence of secret gardens belonging to the rich and famous.

In this beautiful, occasionally provocative, personal journey Monty Don will be learning about the history, the culture, the politics and the climate that have shaped Italy’s spectacular gardens; ranking them amongst the great treasures of the world.