A fertile land and a mild climate that make all the difference, with a great passion that time has not affected. The Ravino Gardens are a happy and successful combination of all these elements. And indeed, 400 species of plants from the five continents grow there. Mostly tropical 'succulents', but also a large representation of Mediterranean flora, in deference to the specificity of the island.
The creator of this green masterpiece was Captain Giuseppe D'Ambra, who, on his travels around the world, began to develop a passion for 'succulent' plants in the 1960s. And he soon began collecting them, each time bringing something new to his returns to the island. Where the new arrivals, cared for by the captain who had become a great expert, were shown to find ideal conditions for growing and reaching sizes not unlike those of their many home areas.
From his travels, D'Ambra had accumulated three thousand constantly growing 'succulent' specimens at Villa Ravino. As chance would have it, a beautiful six thousand square metre vineyard in front of the villa was put up for sale in 2000. The ideal opportunity to arrange the collections. After years of work to move the thousands of specimens into the ground, the Gardens were inaugurated in 2005: the captain's creation became a reality with the support and input of his wife Edith, sons and daughters-in-law.Screenshot 2024 01 23 at 10.46.41
A botanical acclimatisation park, the Ravino Gardens now house the largest and most varied collection of succulent plants in Europe. A spectacular miscellany of shapes, colours, sizes and origins that evokes the spirit of a botanical garden and transforms a visit to the garden into an ideal journey, concentrated in time and space, to a multiplicity of habitats distributed in all parts of the planet.
Among all these botanical peculiarities is the Wollemia nobilis, a green fossil that was thought to be extinct until 1994, when a station of it was found in Wollemi National Park in the Blue Mountains in Australia. Two specimens of that species are found in the Ravino.
The seeds and fruits of the cacti, different in every season, become an original cocktail that can be enjoyed in the Cactus Lounge Café, while in an ancient cistern the Moby Dick Room hosts various cultural events throughout the year.
