Walk down the gravel path with us towards the grotto. The artistry of light and shade!

In 1904, Italian Villas and Their Gardens by Edith Wharton was published.  She had spend part of her childhood in Italy and had just build her private home and garden (The Mount) in the Berkshires based on lessons learned in her travels abroad.  In February 1903 she visited these lovely gardens of Italy once more to write her series of essays  that became the book.  We will be in these gardens 112 years after Edith walked these paths with delight.  As she noted, “Aesthetic impressions were considered, and the effect of passing from the sunny fruit-garden to the dense grove, thence to the wide-reaching view, and again to the sheltered privacy of the pleached walk or the mossy coolness of the grotto – all this was taken into account by a race of artists who studied the contrast of aesthetic emotions as keenly as they did the juxtaposition of dark cypress and pale lemon-tree, of deep shade and level sunlight.”

Registration is closed for our 2015 retreat in Italy.  Please sign up for emails from The Quiet Garden for dates to be announced for our 2016 retreat.  We would love to have you join us!

warmly, Barbara and Linda