gardens of Fondazione Cini, Palladian courtyard (left), Cypress courtyard (center), Jorge Luis Borges labyrinth (right)

…on the Venetian island of San Giorgio Maggiore is where I have come to visit an Italian designer friend (working with Michele de Lucchi on one of his many design projects for the foundation, whom we had the pleasure of sharing a dinner with tonight at a neighborhood trattoria in San Marco), exploring the ex-monastery now home to the foundation’s cultural center – featuring an impressive sequence of outdoor green spaces, including the original monastic formal garden courtyard with facades designed by Palladio, a spare cypress courtyard which today is carpeted with pretty purple flowers, a just-opened labyrinth garden to mark the 25th anniversary of the death of Jorge Luis Borges, and finally the comparatively hidden and overlooked modest kitchen garden tended by the monks who have moved next door into smaller quarters, but still seem to be growing some of their own food.