Chelsea Flower Show

London and Kent Gardens Tour

Day 1

meet our representative Prof. Danilo Bitetti-Trontelj, expert in gardens, landscaping and teacher in Rome University, at 2.00 pm in our London 4 Stars sup. central (Zone 1) hotel’s hall. Transfer by private coach to the Royal Botanic Kew Gardens, where we will perform a guided tour of the most famous and largest botanical gardens in the world, extended on a more than 300 acres area, with several greenhouses recreating different types of climatic environments for the growth of many plant species. The Royal Kew Gardens are, with good reason, considered the world's largest collection of living plants.They were founded in 1720 by the Prince of Wales George II and Princesse Caroline. Later, in 1772, they were expanded by Sir Joseph Banks, a companion of Captain Cook's expeditions. Among small lakes and meadows are housed the Japanese Garden, the Rhododendrons Corner, the Bamboo Garden, the Azalea and the Orchid Garden and, moreover, the Palm House with hundreds of rainforest plants, the Alpine House and the Temperate House. The most innovative part of the gardens is represented by the Princess of Wales Conservatory, firstly named after Princess Augusta, founder of Kew, and in 1987 opened by Diana, Princess of Wales.The building houses 15,000 plants in ten computer controlled climatic zones. After the guided tour we will reach our hotel by private coach. Free dinner, and overnight.

Day 2

breakfast at the hotel and then transfer by our private coach at the Chelsea Flower Show, the annual event organized by the RHS - Royal Horticultural Society, renowned as the most important flowers, plants, gardens and horticulture show in Europe (someone says in the world) and would be extremely simplistic to describe it in a few lines, surely reducing it to a mere, altough astonishing, list of numbers. We just prefer to say that during the visit You will enjoy an incredible variety of plants and flowers, many of which are specifically created for the Chelsea Show. Moreover You will enjoy a stunning display of highly original gardens, and the most celebrated works of world famous landscapers, which may suggest You some interesting ideas for Your garden, and moreover pavilions dedicated to Flower Design and Arranging Art (Floristry), to gardening, to garden furniture, etc.. : in short, all the best, all the newest and all the most interesting things the Old Continent can offer every year to botanical lovers from all the world. The Chelsea Flower Show is very important and interesting for England and so every year The Queen Elizabeth II opens the exhibition with a small bouquet of flowers in Her hands. Many coffee shops and restaurants will allow You to have a snack or a lunch during Your visit, as You can stay in the premises all day long being our ticket the “full day one”, so You will be free to come back at the hotel at the time You prefer and, after the free dinner, for the overnight.

Day 3

after the breakfast, meeting at the hall with our professional Blue Badge Guide in English and with Prof. Danilo Trontelj Bitetti, then transfer by our private coach to reach Cranbrook area, to visit the famed estate of Sissinghurst Castle, considered by many the most beautiful garden in the United Kingdom, by far.
Created by Vita Sackville West, “writer and gardener” as she liked to call herself, a woman who lived in a romantically casual and eventful life, very close friend of Virginia Woolf and Violet Trefusis. She and her husband, Harold Nicolson, landscaped and made what became immediately the source of inspiration for most of the “English gardens” in the following years. There are several areas, and different rooms, where the hand of Vita has left its mark in a peculiar way: these include the border purple, orange and yellow garden, the famous "White Garden" which still is a lighthouse example for landscapers and gardeners all around the world, the Rose Garden a riot of roses skillfully mixed with Ceanothus, clematis and hydrangea, the garden of aromatic herbs, the Delos garden, and the literary garden near the bedrooms, all dominated by the old Tower. At the end of the garden’s tour, after a free snack or lunch on-site, we will move to Tonbridge, to visit Penshurst Place and Garden, very interesting because is the best preserved fortified medieval manor house in the United Kingdom and because of the the beautiful garden, created in the same age, and subsequently modified in the last seven centuries. The garden is divided into a series of separate rooms, each very different from one other, offering a wide variety of formal compositions of foliage colors and of flowers blooms in every season, to ensure that such a show is always different but always fascinating. Beautiful, among the other things, the Italian fountain Garden, the Rose Garden, the Union Flag Garden, The Blind Garden, the herbaceous multicolored plants borders, the Spring Flowers Garden, the lake and the forest trail. At the end of the excursion, we will return to our hotel. Free dinner and overnight.

Day 4

after breakfast at the hotel, we will devote the remaining time before the end of this tour (that can be extend by adding one of our garden tours in Italy) to a visit of London in full freedom, leaving the luggage at the hotel. So You will have the time to wander around immersed in the cheerful, lively and exciting atmosphere of the “still swinging" London, doing a little shopping in the biggest stores or in the smallest shops. Just to mention some among the many ones, the Harrods Department Store, or the shopping center of trendy Brunswick, Bloomsbury (different closure times for the various shops), the Burlington Arcade in Mayfair, the famous shops of Selfridges, Marks & Spencer and John Levis in the area of Oxford Street and Regent Street, the elegant boutiques of the leading coolest designers and Sotheby's Cafe in the Old and New Bond Street, Fortnum & Mason in Piccadilly, and, going on, Leicester Square, Covent Garden, or the Chelsea Antiques Market, King's Road ... .. and many more places, which make London one of the most coveted place if You want to buy the most original and most refined items. You may, alternatively, visit one of the Art Galleries and Exhibitions, or perhaps just take a long walk in the shady alleys through the parks or among the glittering windows of the main shopping streets of this very old city that shows every day more new pictures of itself, always cheerful, always bubbly, always original and make London a place to discover any time, even if this is the umpteenth time that You come here. Particularly significant are the changes that have occurred recently in the British capital in order to prepare it for the Olympic Games hold last year, which saw new buildings of modern architectural design alongside the old, familiar landmarks like Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, or St.Paul’s Cathedral. Just some examples: the “London Eye”, the highest ferris wheel in Europe, or the Swiss Re Tower, nicknamed by Londoners "The Gherkin" (the "pickled cucumber"), or the “Walkie Talkie”, the ”Cheesegrater”, the “Helter Skelter”, and many others. As we told before, if You would like to stay some more days in Europe, at the end of the Chelsea Flower Show “Centenary” tour You can ask us to add one of our tours in Italy, as, for example, the Rome and Latium garden tour, or the Lucca and Lucchesia Villas’ one, in Tuscany, or the Sicily’s one, or the Umbria’s one…just ask and we will be happy to give You all the information about updated itineraries and prices. During our Italian garden tours You will visit the most important and beautiful historic gardens, as the legendary Ninfa and the Landriana, and Villa d’ Este in Tivoli, and some very charming “secret” private gardens too, as well as the most fascinating and interesting Italian “Cities of Art”.