In the late 1800’s Mrs Trevelyan was “invited /encouraged” to leave Britain after she had a dalliance with Edward, the future king. An avid botanist and ornithologist, she came to Taormina and built a lovely garden of exotic plants and quirky buildings of follies and a small home. The property is now the public garden of the town. Her home and gardens are built overlooking the Ionian Sea and face toward Mt. Etna. They are situated below the Ancient Greek Theatre. Supposedly the gardens contain many exotic plants – but to our East Coast eyes, every garden here looks exotic. Anyway, as was common at the time, she used a mixture of building materials – some contemporary, others from the Greeks or Romans and recycled from the many ruins that the town was built upon. One garden folly was in the shape of a pagoda, the other was called “The Beehive” and it is a conglomeration of rooms or cells. It is cobbled together from Greek columns, Roman blocks, lava , bricks, rock disks and liberal use of arches. It was interesting to read (in another document) that Edward VII visited Taormina in the first decade of the 20th Century. Hmmmmmm, wonder if he paid his old “friend” Mrs. Trevelyan a visit?
In the late 1800’s Mrs Trevelyan was “invited /encouraged” to leave Britain after she had a dalliance with Edward, the future king. An avid botanist and ornithologist, she came to Taormina and built a lovely garden of exotic plants and quirky buildings of follies and a small home. The property is now the public garden of the town. Her home and gardens are built overlooking the Ionian Sea and face toward Mt. Etna. They are situated below the Ancient Greek Theatre. Supposedly the gardens contain many exotic plants – but to our East Coast eyes, every garden here looks exotic. Anyway, as was common at the time, she used a mixture of building materials – some contemporary, others from the Greeks or Romans and recycled from the many ruins that the town was built upon. One garden folly was in the shape of a pagoda, the other was called “The Beehive” and it is a conglomeration of rooms or cells. It is cobbled together from Greek columns, Roman blocks, lava , bricks, rock disks and liberal use of arches. It was interesting to read (in another document) that Edward VII visited Taormina in the first decade of the 20th Century. Hmmmmmm, wonder if he paid his old “friend” Mrs. Trevelyan a visit?
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