No.There is no better season than the others to visit Garden of Ninfa, but for those who come here for the first time, the most obvious question: “When?” could have as an answer: “spring”. In fact, whether it has just begun or in its prime, the season in which everything awakens has a special charm in a place like this which is already, in itself, poetry.
The Garden of Ninfa, where nature is queen
The local guides are right when they say that Ninfa should be visited every 15-20 days, to be able to grasp the time that goes by, marked by the colors and scents of the blooms. Located in the Municipality of Cistern of Latina, before the Pontine Agro becomes dunes and the sea, the Garden of Ninfa turned 100 years old in 2020, but the boom that every weekend brings hundreds of visitors to this little corner of paradise (on Saturdays and Sundays, with reservations required: www.giardinodi ninfa.eu) is relatively recent.
Merit, also, of the New York Timeswho defined it a few years ago “The most beautiful and romantic in the world” andEuropean Garden Award won in 2018. The magic of Ninfa, however, does not lie in the awards, albeit important, but rests entirely on the inseparable union of the ruins of a city, Ninfa, in fact, and nature, which year after year has made space between ruins.
The Garden of Ninfa in spring © Antonella Rossi.
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The history of the ancient Nymph
The history of the lost ancient city is as fascinating as that of the garden. Built in Roman times, it owes its name to a nymphaeum which, it is supposed, stood where today there is a small lake. The city began to experience a moment of great splendor in the eighth century, when it became strategic for the papal state. Governed by various noble families, in 1159, it hosted the adornment to pope of Alexander III, born Rolando Bandinelli.
The fortune of Ninfa, however, is due to the Caetani. It was Benedetto Caetani, who became pope with the name of Boniface VIII, who bought the city for his nephew Pietro II, marking, in fact, the beginning of the presence of the Caetani in these lands. Plundered and destroyed in 1381 in the context of religious disputes following the Western Schism, it was never rebuilt.
The tower of the Caetani di Ninfa Castle, built in the 14th century, seen from the Archaeological Park of ancient Norba © Getty Images.
Ada Bootle Wilbraham, Marguerite Chapin and Leila Caetani: the enlightened women of Ninfa
At the end of the nineteenth century the Caetani returned to their lands and only then did they decide to build the Garden, which today is a natural monument of the Italian Republic. The first credit goes to Ada Bootle Wilbraham, British and wife of Onorato Caetani, who with his sons Gelasio and Roffredo reclaimed the marshes and started planting the first trees, but also different varieties of roseswhich here in May explode in all their beauty.
Wherever you look, in Ninfa this season roses bloom everywhere © Antonella Rossi.
New species were added from Marguerite Chapin, wife of Roffredo. The American princess born in Waterford, Connecticut, bought the most beautiful species from the English “nursery” of Hillier & Sons: on his first visit to famous British nurserymen he ordered 128 different cultivars.
Marguerite was also the first to open the doors of the Garden to the writers who were part of Commerce (to be understood as “trade of ideas”, ed) And Dark Shops, two magazines she founded. Much of what we see in Ninfa today, then, is due to Leila Caetani, daughter of Marguerite and Roffredo. She is a painter, expert in botany, she introduced different species, building the Garden as if it were a painting. A harmonious agreement where each piece tells an idea, an intuition that has become reality.
The wisteria on the Roman bridge: the most “instagrammable” corner of Ninfa
Today in Ninfa you can see about 1300 varieties of plants. From ornamental cherry which welcomes visitors at the entrance, in front of the remains of the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, the three-nave cathedral of which today you can see the apse and the remains of two frescoes, cypresses, on the old Via del Ponte, from lavender, that draws a path that opens onto the Piazzale della Gloria, to the Roman Bridge, on which in late spring a splendid wisteria overflows. Located almost at the end of the guided tour, Ninfa’s wisteria is undoubtedly the protagonist of the season, as well as being decidedly “instagrammable”: there is always a bit of understandable crowding, but groups made up of a few people allow everyone to bring home the most coveted shot.
In addition to colors, scents and a regenerating silence. Despite the large turnout, in fact, once you cross the threshold of this enchanted world, the voices are lowered, thoughts subside and there is only room for wonder.