When constructing a monastery, the Franciscan order considered the vegetable garden a precious asset to be tended with great care and fruitful work – both for the produce it would furnish, and for the meditation and prayer it would encourage. For centuries it also represented an essential source of sustenance for the monastic community with its constituent parts: orchards (pomaria), herb gardens (herbaria) and wooded areas that referenced the forest mentioned in the first Capuchin constitutions.

The small and the large olive groves, the grapevines, the old fruit trees, a few unusual aromatic herbs, are the cornerstones of a project that shapes the site, whose in- tent was to lend it unity through a weave of paths that would connect preexisting elements.

The first courtyard one encounters upon entering the monastery complex is a place of tranquility and sobriety. It immediately conveys a feeling of having entered a sheltered and secluded world of silence, concentration and respect. The small olive grove, flanked by the bold Palladian building, serves as an intermediate space where visitors are welcomed and gradually brought closer to the site’s true heart – its garden.

The garden is articulated by a series of perpendicular intersecting paths that section out the cultivated plots in keeping with a rational design, suitable to a place of work and meditation. Here the exuberance of the vegetation and the irresistibly changeable character of the garden serve to disrupt order and bear witness to the vitality of an uninterrupted dialogue with nature.

A colourful world of herbs and vegetables spreads wherever possible, in rhythm with the well-known and necessary sequence of crop rotations and fallowing. Flowering borders of scented Mediterranean species such as lavender (Lavandula sp.), helichrysum (Helichrysum italicum), sage (Salvia officinalis), iris (Iris sp.) and catmint (Nepeta x faassenii) flank the walkways in a play of chromatic interactions with the foliage of olive trees and artichoke plants (Cynara cardunculus subsp. scolymus), another of the garden’s leitmotifs. The contraposition between their grey velvety tones and the nervous dark greens of the cypresses represents one of the fundamental contrasts knowingly employed to animate the site, like the contrast between the verticalness of the tree plantings and the horizontal spread of collections of gourds (large and small, climbing or spreading over the ground). Small strawberries (Fragaria sp.) and violets (Viola odorata) spread with generous ubiquity.

As a testimony of the old garden of simples, Hortus simplicium, that was present and active at the Redeemer for the cultivation of plants that were indispensable for their healing virtues, aromatic and medicinal species such as mallow (Malva sylvestris), flax (Linum usitatissimum), chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla), artemisia (Artemisia arborescens), verbena (Verbena officinalis) and valerian (Valeriana officinalis) have been scattered among the vegetables.

The intensely sunlit southern wall of the convent is lined with flowering plants that are traditionally present in monastic gardens and were destined for altar decorations. Varieties of roses and lilies, whose symbolic meanings are clear, are interplanted with old flower species, such as zinnias, dahlias and asters. As evening falls, the air is filled with the evocative scent of Mirabilis jalapa and Cestrum nocturnum.

On the opposite side growing around the Old Workshops that run parallel to the lagoon and thus face north, are clumps of hellebores (Helleborus sp.) and autumn-blooming cyclamens, the well-known eastern sowbread (Cyclamen coum) and ivy-leaved cyclamen (C. hederifolium). Along the garden’s eastern boundary, under the cypresses, a border of hydrangeas (Hydrangea quercifolia and arborescens “Annabelle”), gardenias (Gardenia jasminoides) and ferns shade the paths during the summer months. On the western flank, instead, the garden’s intimacy, its sense of meditation and its special microclimate are protected by groups of cypress trees (Cupressus sempervirens).

Other trees and large shrubs have been planted to con-nect the orchard with the large olive grove, and create pleasant shady places to stop along the walkways: black cherries (Prunus cerasus), azaroles (Crataegus azarolus), persimmons (Diospyros kaki), quinces (Cydonia oblonga), figs (Ficus carica), mulberries (Morus alba), jujubes (Ziziphus jujuba), almonds (Prunus dulcis), pomegranates (Punica granatum), medlars (Mespilus germanica), rowans (Sorbus domestica) and greengages (Prunus domestica) are some of the species selected.

The long main paths, symbolically articulated to resemble a cross, are shaded by pergolas that provide comfort during summer walks. The latter have been covered with grape vines and climbing roses accompanied by wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) and bignonias (Bignonia sp. / Campsis x tagliabuana).

Marking both the centre of the garden and the point where the walkways cross, there is a water basin. Among the plant species in the basin are lotus flowers (Nelumbo nucifera) and water lilies (Nymphea); a true homage to the Serenissima’s long-standing fascination with the Orient, while tufts of Farfugium japonicum pleasantly decorate the basin’s border.

Finally, the ultimate, unmissable destination is a small, secluded, shady garden on the bank of the lagoon. Protection from wind and salt air is offered by the compact evergreen foliage of pittosporums (Pittosporum sp.) The deliberately natural quality of this garden, enhanced by the presence of mosses, ivy, violets, and irises, was high-lighted by the introduction of patches of Hedera helix and a few speci- mens of Pittosporum tobira nanum.