SEMINAR. The Happiness of Gardens: The extraordinary lives of women garden designers (2025. Nov. 21)

Join us (in Italian) on Friday, November 21 at Villa La Quiete for a half-day seminar and garden tour: ‘The Happiness of Gardens: The extraordinary lives of women garden designers’ scheduled from 9.30am to 1.30pm. This lecture series, organised by the University of Florence, as part of the ‘Eredità delle Donne’ festival, focuses on several noteworthy women who lived and worked in the 19th and 20th centuries, creating gardens – either in reality or in literary fiction – that continue to enrich our heritage and cultural imagination today. There will be a tour of the Villa La Quiete garden, following the lectures. The garden was restored and opened to the public in the spring of 2025 thanks to PNRR funding in support of historic parks and gardens.

PROGRAMME

Please note: All lectures are in Italian 

9:30 to 10:00, Donatella Pegazzano, University of Florence

A princess in the garden: Marguerite Chapin Caetani and the Paradise of the Nymph

10:00-10:30, Maria Chiara Pozzana, Firenze Greenway Association

The garden and freedom. The writing of Elizabeth von Arnim and Vernon Lee

10:30-11:00, Katia Lysy, Villa La Foce

A century of history: Iris Origo’s garden at La Foce

11:30-12, Anna Lambertini, University of Florence

Maggie Keswick Jencks. The garden’s therapeutic power

12-12:30, Emanuela Morelli, University of Florence

The gardens of Jane Austen

12:30-1pm, Emanuela Paglia, University of Florence

Vita Sackville West and her garden

1-1:30pm, Linda Falcone and Federica Parretti, Calliope Arts and Il Palmerino

Painter Lola Costa and her garden at Villa Il Palmerino

13:30, tour of the restored garden of Villa La Quiete, curated by Inge Iacoviello, University of Florence, University Museum System

For more info: edu@sma.unifi.it

Admission is free. Spaces are limited.