Welcome to La Terrazza
Welcome to La Terrazza
Stories and recipes from a secret garden located in the ancient heart of Venice.
Did you know that almost half of Venice consists of gardens? In any part of our floating city, you’ll find green oases of all sorts and all sizes. Probably, not at first sight and not in a very prominent position, as they are mostly hiding behind red brick walls and inside private courtyard.
And mostly, you’ll just have to dream them up. Or perhaps surprised by a scent of blossoms, coming out of the blue while passing by one of those red brick walls that so often enclose paradise-like gardens. Why yes, the most frequent garden type you’ll encounter here is the walled garden, hortus conclusus. But these walled gardens are more than just green patches in a courtyard: Often, they’re sprawling, spreading over to terraces, balconies and even roof top terraces (called altane).
There are hundreds of tiny green oases in Venice, depending on how we define “garden”. The most emblematic type of garden is probably the hortus conclusus, of which the lower part of our garden is an example.
This Garden Magazine + Newsletter takes you on a secret journey into “the other half of Venice”, the realm of secret gardens hiding behind tall brick walls: Discover kitchen and palace gardens, hanging gardens and lush green courtyards. And you’ll virtually visit Nonna Lina’s paradise, the former San Zaccaria gardens, just five minutes from Piazza San Marco ..
One day in May 2012, I counted the plants growing on Nonna’s garden, consisting of a green courtyard, a main terrace, seven smaller terraces, and a rooftop terrace: 248 mostly edible plant species thriving in the sun but also protected in the shade, a little green jungle in the heart of Venice surrounded by the white facade of the former monastery San Zaccaria, its guesthouse and the former church of San Provolo.
This garden is just one of the many fascinating green oases in our city, sitting in the geographical center of a 550 km² sized Lagoon, the largest in the Mediterranean Sea.
It’s a garden with a long history which as I child, I used to explore step-by-step, like a treasure hunt patiently supported by my Venetian grandparents. Like they were leaving hints here and there, sharing a book from the library with me now and then, telling bits of stories that felt like pieces of a puzzle. This is Nonna Lina’s way of teaching someone something for life, by repeating and adapting the speed of learning to the circumstances.
It took me two decades to piece some of it together, with the help of grandparents, uncles, friends and neighbors, and yet, here’s still so much I’ll have to find out about this garden. Just two years ago I found out that it has a few surprising stories to tell, also connected to the mythical figure of Marco Polo. The garden was first mentioned in the year 468 AD as part of the newly founded monastery of San Zaccaria, five minutes from what should later become Piazza San Marco - Saint Mark’s square. You can also see it on the Venice map drawn by Jacopo de’ Barbari in the year 1501. Click here to view his map!
What I loved most about learning about Venetian gardens was that so many ingredients for delicious food are cultivated there, and Nonna’s garden is no exception:
Since 1968, she has been growing vegetables and herbs on the terraces, creating a sanctuary for forgotten Lagoon herbs and berries. Each has their own carefully chosen spot, a sprawling herb garden which can be reached from the kitchen via a black wrought iron staircase.
Three sharp turns on very narrow steps, it feels like climbing inside a narrow tower with no windows. And finally, you push open a dark green wooden door and step onto the sun-drenched terrace covered with beige stone flags, where laurel and red oleander plants were wisely positioned by my grandparents to shield smaller plants from the intense summer sun.
Here, we are all gardeners, Nonna Lina says. And she’s right because the San Zaccaria gardens are the home of three families where until 1968, the nuns used to grow vegetables, fruit, edible blossoms and herbs. Not just for themselves but also for the visitors staying at the little guesthouse connected to the church of San Provolo (a part of the San Zaccaria monastery) opening up onto the gardens.
“La Terrazza” tells a story which for the family began on 26 April 1968, when Nonna became the owner of these gardens. “Challenging times” because quite a number of the plants had been damaged or even died during the excessive high tide (acqua granda) of 4-8 November 1966.
Barely one and a half year later in April 1968, the gardens still hadn’t recovered from the floods, which was one of the reasons why the nuns had decided to leave. They approached Nonna Lina and asked her to take care of the garden and guesthouse because they had known her well as neighbor since 1945. For decades, Lina had been visiting on a daily basis, exchanging recipes and stories, and learning so much about their incredible gardening skills. They also taught Lina how to cook ancient spice-flavored dishes, which we’ll also be sharing as this substack magazine grows.
Lina didn’t hesitate a minute and on 26 April 1968 moved into the little guesthouse with her family. This was the start of an unusual and exciting adventure, setting out to learn more about ancient Venetian spice and monastery gardens, and their recipes. Come along on this journey in this Substack blog!
A few links for you to discover the garden in Venice:
Paradise Garden is about the botanical treasures of the garden.
In Home Tour, we write about the layout of the garden.
Do take a look at our About Page.
If you’re on Twitter, would you like to connect with us here @laspezeria?
I also set up an Instagram account. Click here to connect with us on Instagram.
