Few people know that the gourmet vegetable garden—as we conceive it today, a garden for growing edible plants, but also a symbol with strong cultural and social significance—became a veritable trend in 16th-century Venice, when what we know as a city of marble lace and trachyte floors was a completely green place, covered with grass and gardens.

It’s no coincidence that the Venetian squares are called “campi” (fields) and the streets “salizade” because they were, in fact, paved (“selciate”). From its very foundation, Venice was, in fact, self-sufficient in growing fruit, vegetables, and aromatic herbs; an activity that, during the heyday of the Serenissima Republic of Venice, became a veritable phenomenon, the subject of studies, publications, and major investments. The Botanical Garden of Padua, the oldest in the world, was founded in 1545 under the rule and by will of the then Republic of Venice.

Orto di Venezia

Sant’Erasmo has always been Venice’s vegetable garden par excellence, where most of the vegetables consumed in the city have been grown since the Middle Ages. The second largest island in the lagoon after Venice, it was described as early as the 16th century by Francesco Sansovino as extraordinarily rich in vegetable gardens and vineyards thanks to its exceptional fertility. Some of the world’s most famous Venetian early vegetables are produced here, such as the celebrated “castraure,” small artichokes with a distinctive purple color. Today, another addition to the island’s vegetable delights is added: Sant’Erasmo is home to one of the few wineries producing Venetian wine, aptly named “Orto di Venezia”. This small estate with a rural-chic charm, the brainchild of entrepreneur Michel Thoulouze, produces an excellent white wine aged for five years and produced using strictly organic methods. Sant’Erasmo, easily reached by vaporetto from Treporti or Fondamenta Nove in Venice, is well worth a visit for a tasting at the Orto di Venezia winery or a bike ride to purchase delicious early produce from one of the island’s small farms and visit the Torre Massimiliana, built in the 19th century on the foundations of an ancient fort, the only example of its kind still standing in Italy.

Dopolavoro, Isola delle Rose

One of Venice’s most beautiful private vegetable gardens is located on Isola delle Rose. Artificially created in 1870 with soil from the excavations of the Santa Marta port, the island is home to the luxury JW Marriott Venice resort, which also includes Dopolavoro, the gourmet restaurant managed by the two-Michelin-starred Agli Amici. Here, on a strip of land surrounded by the sea, the team has created a beautiful vegetable garden. Thanks to the unique microclimate and nutrient-rich soil, over 25 types of fruit and vegetables are grown without the use of pesticides, which are used to prepare the dishes served in the beautiful restaurant. In addition to the garden, around a hundred olive groves produce the only oil produced in Venice, which is also available for tasting. The small 16-hectare island offers a variety of leisure options, such as a relaxing visit to the spa, the largest in Venice and one of the most beautiful in the world, or a cocktail at the rooftop bar with a panoramic view of St. Mark’s Square, truly remarkable at sunset. The resort can be reached via a free transfer from St. Mark’s Square.

Madonna dell’Orto

This… is a vegetable garden that doesn’t exist, and it is precisely this characteristic that makes it so secretive and fascinating. In the far north of Venice, in the Cannaregio district, there is an area once devoted almost exclusively to the cultivation of vegetable gardens and gardens, where the Church of the Madonna dell’Orto now stands. Legend has it that in 1377, in a vegetable garden in front of the church, a statue of the Virgin was found that emitted strange glows in the night, later the author of many miracles. The church is worth a visit to see the statue, now housed in the Chapel of San Mauro, but above all some of the most beautiful works by Tintoretto, an artist who was born and lived nearby. In Campo dei Mori, you can still see the statues of four legendary Moors, now set in later buildings, which are thought to have formed part of the wall of a huge vegetable garden belonging to a wealthy merchant family, among the most beautiful in Venice. Here, you can stop for a meal at Orto dei Mori, in the rooms that were once the workshop of Tintoretto’s father (a dyeworks, from which the artist took his nickname), a small restaurant particularly beloved by artists and celebrities.

In Venetia Hortus Redemptoris

Now the most beautiful garden in Venice, in 2021 the Provincial Curia of the Capuchin Friars Minor, with the authorization of the Holy See and the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Municipality of Venice and the Lagoon, entrusted its restoration to the Venice Gardens Foundation. The Garden of the Convent of the Church of the Redeemer has a very ancient history. Its Franciscan friars have been at the Redeemer since 1535, playing a central role in the community as they were the ones who sent the sick from various epidemics that reached the Lagoon. Therefore, when the Church of the Redeemer was built in thanksgiving for the end of the plague in 1576, it was entrusted to them. To realize the In Venetia Hortus Redemptoris project, the Foundation commissioned a truly star landscape architect, Paolo Pejrone, renowned for his other stunning works, including the Agnelli family’s Villar Perosa park and Valentino’s Tuscan villa. The architectural restoration was entrusted to architect Alessandra Raso. Inside, the garden houses the Caffè In Venetia Hortus Redemptoris, with a beautiful terrace overlooking the lagoon and the islands of San Clemente, Sacca Sessola, and Delle Grazie.

Useful Info

If you’d like to explore this topic further:
The Notebook of Venetian Gardens (2009) by Elisabetta Tiveron
Kellermann Editore