Gillian Knows Best guide to Wisteria in Venice
My advice on where to find some of the prettiest purple blooms
Late spring in Venice means an explosion of flowers. Wisteria is the most romantic of blooms. The wisteria in Venice ranges in color from crisp white to deep violet. It falls from crumbling brick walls and climbs on iron fences filling the first warm afternoons with a SweeTART scent. I am extra lucky, my next door neighbors have a wisteria covered pergola that is underneath the window next to where I work. I get to enjoy all of the wisteria beauty and have none of the none of the wisteria work.
Called glicine in Italian the word has Greek roots that mean sweet plant. The word we use in English, wisteria, comes from a typo when the botanist Thomas Nuttall was trying to name the flower after his friend, Dr. Caspar Wistar. Because wisteria vines are so long lived they symbolize longevity, devotion, and love that transcends time.
Paid subscribers have access to an annotated map and details of the places I go to find the prettiest wisteria in Venice. (+ the songs that go through my heard during the hunt and where to have a drink or a meal with a wisteria view.)
