The Giardino dei Patriarchi dell’Unità d’Italia, a special garden made up of the “twins” of many of Italy’s most important monumental trees, has opened in Rome.
The garden is at the Villa dei Quintili on the Italian capital’s Appian Way. An ancient Roman villa, the Villa dei Quintili was built in the second century by two wealthy brothers, Sextus Quintilius Maximus and Sextus Quintilius Condianus, who were both consuls.
The trees planted in the grounds of the villa represent the most significant varieties found across all of Italy’s regions, in what is a tribute to Italian unity and the country’s diverse landscape. The garden includes olive tree varieties from Liguria, Veneto, Marche, Molise, Basilicata and Sardinia. There are also apple tree varieties from Piedmont, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trentino Alto Adige, fig trees from Abruzzo and Apulia, a cherry tree from Lombardy, a pear tree from the Valle d’Aosta, a quince from Emilia Romagna, a dogwood from Tuscany, a Poggiodomo nut tree from Umbria, a pomegranate tree from Lazio, and vines from Calabria and Sicily.
The garden has covered walkways marked by dividing hedges of native species such as gorse and broom. Many of the trees planted are rare and ancient varieties, and the initiative will help preserve Italy’s environmental and historical heritage.
