11358 Just joined

Hello all,
Looks like an interesting forum - thank you for all being here.

My wife and I have traveled a bit through Italy and look forward to returning. We've been to Genoa (Liguria); Siena, Pienza, Sinalunga, Multipulciano (Tuscany); Rome (Lazio); Naples, Ischia (Campania); Palermo (Sicily).

Not Italian at all (though many presumed that my wife was Italian when they passed us on the street, and started speaking to her in their local dialect!), but we really enjoyed the places, culture, cuisine, and people.

My wife works as an interior designer and Italian style is of interest to us both.

As a landscape consultant with a specialty in mediterranean climates, I found lots of interesting things to learn almost anywhere we were - from the local weeds (often the same as our weeds in California!) to how gardens were created, to the wild plants growing around the fringes of towns and in the hills.

We saw many projects happening that would have been interesting to be involved in - it was all we could do to hold ourselves back from being too nosy!

While were were visiting Italy in the fall of 2000, we were the guests of Lady Susana Walton, at her wonderful Giardini La Mortella, Isola d'Ischia, in the bay of Naples. I was there to chronicle the garden and publicize it to Americans. It was an wonderful treat! If you have not visited, do make a point when you are in the area.
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Some day I will need to visit Capraia, an Island in the Tuscan Archipelago (not to be confused with Capri, in the Bay of Naples) - home of a rare, endangered plant I've been researching, [I]Centaurea gymnocarpa[/I], 'fiordaliso della Capraia'.
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