Lady Walton, vivacious widow of composer Sir William Walton, loves to play a mischievous game with British visitors to her exotic tropical garden on the dreamy Mediterranean island of Ischia. With her purple earrings jangling, she sweeps up her guests from the ticket office and past a giant magnolia to a towering tree with broad, fan-like leaves that guards a tinkling stream. The couple bought a piece of land high up a lush valley below Mount Epomeo with spectacular views of the Tyrannian Sea. Their friends Sir Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh begged them not to. 'Larry said: "It's just a quarry. You'll never get anything to grow," ' confesses Lady Walton. Today, she has turned 'the quarry' into one of the great gardens of Europe. Giardini La Mortella, named after the purple myrtle that grows wild here, is visited by more than 60,000 tourists every year. Read more: ixzz4Nj89hT53
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