Ischia Tour With Visit To La Mortella Gardens

The boat departs at 9.30am and the journey takes approximately 1 hour. On arrival customers will have a guided tour of the island by bus. Visit la “Mortella Gardens” (2-3 hours). One of England’s most important contemporary composers, Sir William Walton, spent much of his life in Italy. He particularly loved the area around the Bay of Naples and the Amalfi Coast where he found inspiration for much of his early music. In 1949, he and his wife Lady Susana purchased property on the hill of Zaro in an attractive corner of the island of Ischia. Here they could get away from London city life and William could start to work on his lyric opera “Troilus and Cressida”. Naming the site “La Mortella”, after the wild myrtles found growing there, they built a house carved into the native volcanic rock. The garden, started in 1956, was created on the site of a gigantic stone quarry, and designed by English landscape designer Russell Page, containing many beautiful and innovative concepts. Extending over an area of 16,000 square metres, these beautifully landscaped gardens complete with pools and fountains have thousands of unusual, rare specimens of Mediterranean climate plants from around the world. Sir William Walton died in 1983, and Lady Susana still lives at La Mortella. Guests will be transported back to Sorrento by boat. In Sorrento the guide will put guests back on the minibuses to their hotels.