The garden at Ninfa has a unique setting: the ruins of a medieval town near Rome. The site is one of sublime romantic beauty, where time seems to stand still. The garden has achieved cult status among the English and American gardening cognoscenti. An iconic garden in Italy too, Ninfa is the only one to appear on an Italian postage stamp. In this book, Charles Quest-Ritson draws upon his intimate knowledge of the garden and describes the events that led to the sacking of the town in 1381, after which its ruins lay entombed beneath the thickest ivy for centuries; its rediscovery 100 years ago by the Caetani family and its restoration in the 1920s by Prince Gelasio Caetani who created the garden's present structure.