Botanical gardens of rare and precious plants, villas with an eclectic and international taste dot the Italian Riviera together with the equally daring lives of their owners, Queens, Lords, travellers, writers, archaeologists, botanists, sportsmen.
H.E. the Italian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Inigo Lambertini, paid a symbolic tribute to the Chelsea Flower Show, a must for royals, VIPs and lovers of greenery, with an event dedicated to nature: on 25 May, at 6.30 pm at the Italian Embassy in London, Alessandro Bartoli and Francesca Centurione Scotto Boschieri presented “Englishmen in Liguria: Castles, Villas, Gardens, Stories” (ed Sagep 2023), edited by them, the result of two years of intense work by the main scholars of the subject to reconstruct the presence of the English in Liguria and their incessant activity as creators of gardens, wonderful villas and charities for the population.
The event, held in collaboration with ENIT, was attended by numerous prestigious guests including Theresa May, former British Prime Minister, Michael Mainelli, future Mayor of the City of London with his wife Elisabeth, Denise Dardani, British Honorary Consul in Genoa, Gianluca Saba (International Relations of the Municipality of Genoa), Lady Carolyn Hanbury (Vice-President of the Hanbury Botanical Gardens), Tom Richardson, former British Ambassador to Italy, Niccolò Biancheri, son of the famous Italian Ambassador Boris Biancheri, Silvia and Antonio Ricci, owners of Villa della Pergola, , Marcus Bicknell, descendant of the archaeologist and botanist Clarence Bicknell.