We call it Paradise Garden. But for centuries, it was simply called "El Brolo".

In Venice, each garden and plant could tell a story, and the garden I grew up in is no exception. It’s an ancient, inspiring, and energizing garden that taught me, above all, that there are two Venices. And it tells me that the ancient Venice still exists.

Take a look beyond the familiar façades of our town and you’ll discover that there’s a whole private city behind the scenes, consisting of horti conclusi, forgotten courtyard gardens. 

They hide behind red brick walls and are never visible to passersby. It’s an unknown city where the true vocation and origin of Venice have survived, after all. This unknown city is rather large because private gardens make up almost half the surface of Venice!

Exploring the hidden, private Venice has been my favorite pastime since I was a child. During the long school summer holidays, I used to slip away from the house on hot afternoons and spend hours on end in the cool and leafy courtyard of the Greek Orthodox Church, San Giorgio dei Greci, reading or chatting with friends.

 Sometimes, I sat on a white marble bench under an olive tree, recalling the stories my father had told me the evening before. He used to tell all kinds of stories, of Venice and Constantinople, spices and Levantine gardens built around exotic and forgotten recipes. 

As a child, you get the opportunity to bond with the city even deeper, and I did make use of this privilege, exploring every nook and cranny of my neighborhood, which is San Zaccaria and San Giorgio dei Greci. By the time I was ten years old, I had made up my mind that I was going to explore and write about this second, private Venice, the city I couldn‘t recognize in guides or art books for tourists. 

Venice, this lively, kind and humane city, the last remaining polis of the world as one of my best friends calls her, still exists. Yet, most visitors just don’t know where to start to look for it. In the maze of calli and campielli, one can get lost so easily but then, there’s a red thread to follow, but you must be prepared that it will lead you in a surprising direction.

Venice, this lively, kind and humane city, the last remaining polis of the world as one of my best friends calls her, still exists. Yet, most visitors just don’t know where to start to look for it. In the maze of calli and campielli, one can get lost so easily but then, there’s a red thread to follow, but you must be prepared that it will lead you in a surprising direction.

In my opinion, if you really wish to explore Venice, the first tool you need is a map in your mind consisting of stories opening the doors to this secret, forgotten world, where the authentic Venice has survived.

Venice can be very crowded, but her core is still here, untouched and hiding from prying eyes. Especially my neighborhood, the part of Venice I know best, could tell a few memorable stories. The one I’m telling you here is how you can step back in time in a special garden. It was created in the fourth century AD, which makes it the oldest garden in Venice, and for a few centuries, it was also the largest in town. All you need to do is enter a little red house overlooking a narrow campiello, walk up a white marble staircase, and there it is, lush and green and filled with flowers, just like it must have looked hundreds of years ago.