ItalyTraveller experience.

On his return from China in 1866, the English cloth merchant Sir Thomas Hanbury set about searching for a special place where to live and where to realise his life-long dream of creating a botanical garden in which to acclimatize extra-European exotic plants. The following year, whilst sailing along the Franco/Italian Riviera, he dropped anchor opposite the Mortola promontory close to Ventimiglia, and for Hanbury it was love at first sight.

Here, just a few kilometres from the French border, he purchased the Orengo Palace and, assisted by his brother Daniel, a famous botanist and pharmacologist, and the eminent landscape artist, Ludwig Winter, he transformed its 18 hectares of olive groves and vineyards in botanical paradise, in which he planted some 5800 ornamental species. The mild climate of Italian Riviera did the rest and today, more than 150 years later, the Hanbury Botanical Gardens are one of Liguria's major tourist attractions. The estate, declared a regional protected area in the year 2000, is now managed by the University of Genoa. In addition to the fabulous collections of eucalyptus, bamboo and citrus fruits, the fragrances garden, exotic orchard and Italian gardens are all more than worthy of visit.

Traversed by an intricate network of pathways and causeways, the gardens offer a charming mixture of indigenous Mediterranean scrub and exotic plants of various origin, amidst which to find fanciful ornamental features such as a fountain with bronze dragon from Kyoto, and the Moorish Mausoleum, the tiny temple in which the ashes of Sir Thomas Hanbury and his wife are conserved.

Opening hours:
Spring/autumn:
from March 1st to June 15th and from September 16th to October 15th
entrance from 09.30 to 17.00hrs. Garden closes at 18.00hrs
Summer: from June 16th to September 15th
entrance from 09.30 to 18.00hrs. Garden closes at 19.00hrs
Winter: from October 16th to February 28th
entrance from 09.30 to 16.00hrs. Garden closes 17.00hrs

Giardini Botanici Hanbury
Corso Montecarlo, 43
18039 La Mortola - Ventimiglia (Imperia)
Tel.: +39 0184 229507
www.giardinihanbury.com