Flowers can convey calm and wellbeing with their colours and scents; trees like beech and Aleppo pine fill the air with monoterpenes, particles that have a positive effect on the immune system; small leaves can become active ingredients for drugs and plant therapies. Plants have been seen to have “superpowers”, something our ancestors realised a long time ago, and today are the subject of neurobiology, the study of the nervous system of plants and the benefits we can gain from interacting with them. The best way to explore this interaction is to visit gardens and try what the English call horticultural tourism.
BEAUTY THERAPY
Walking in parks and gardens is good for our health, in fact more than we think. Centuries-old trees, exotic plants, flowers, clean air and paths cloaked in silence, where all we can hear is the sound of our footsteps. This great exterior beauty has a soothing effect on all the cells in our body. After just half an hour of walking, our senses are sharper, more active and receptive, the levels of cortisol (the famous stress hormone) in our blood are lower, our heart rate slows down, our blood pressure drops and we can think more clearly. So it’s no surprise to learn that in the past few years parks and gardens have become popular places to meditate, do yoga, learn to paint, photograph and observe nature with the help of botanical guides. After an experience like this, you feel regenerated because plants bring out a person’s true self. Gardens can be private spaces where emotions like sadness and happiness are extremely natural because nature teaches us to be ourselves and not judge. But gardens can also be social spaces we can share with friends and family, enjoying a delicious picnic, for instance, sitting under a tree together.
PLACES OF LOVE
You can experience these emotions on the west coast of Liguria in the brightly coloured Hambury Botanical Gardens, designed by Arthur Foster, which organise cocktails and picnics on the lawn after your visit. In Trentino, at an altitude of 1540 metres, you can take part in workshops at the Viote Alpine Botanical Garden on Mount Bondone, where you learn how to prepare herbal teas using the flowers, herbs and roots that grow there. The Serra Moresca, a hothouse at Villa Torlonia in Rome, on the other hand, is a colourful, therapeutic experience as you stroll through the building with its multi-coloured glass which looks like something straight out of a storybook. And, lastly, you can lose and then find yourself again in over 300,000 bamboo plants in the ‘Labirinto della Masone’, the maze in Fontanellato inspired by Franco Maria Ricci. While it’s fun to enter this star-shaped network of hedges, it’s also a challenge. You’ve got to find the way out without any help from signs, just your senses. And the garden’s wisdom.
