La selva bianca nel centrocittà - A white blossoming wood next to San Marco

The Giardini Reali - white flower cascades on a stage between a thousand hues of green - aralias, pines, cedars, ginko, ivy, oleanders, wisteria ...

There are six public gardens counted here in Venice, totalling 120,000 square meters. The Giardini Reali is the most central one of them - really giving the impression of a small wood or copse, and what is more, this little treasure is located next to Piazza San Marco. In May, it is draped in a veil of white blossoms as you will see ... I can only convey the pictures to you, but not this unique white spring fragrance ...

A gingko tree at the Giardini Reali, fresh green spring foliage,

Now is the season of the WHITE fragrant blossoms in Venice - this post title may sound strange, but you when you peek through the open wrought-iron doors into the Giardini Reali next to Piazza San Marco, you really get the impression you are entering forbidden ground, so very much off-limits to the tourist crowds passing by just beyond the towering pine trees, and the walls made up of pittosporum, elderflower, figs, and acacia trees. 

You can sit down and fully inhale the scents of the white blossoms ...

... and take in the diffuse light filtering through the trees

Sweet, honey-scented acacia flowers - the trees are literally covered with white flower cascades

Which are the blossoms that make up this white wonderland: First it is the towering acacias, then it is elderflower, white wild roses, deutzia, and the sweetly scented pittosporum. The flowers and plants in general grow particularly lush this spring, it seems they soaked up all the moisture that winter has been lavishing upon us ...

Wild roses with sweetly scented white blossoms

This garden is not only beautiful to look at, what is more is its intoxicating fragrance which is enhanced when one takes a stroll through this garden in the warm morning sun.

Only a few early risers are taking in the cool morning air, plus a few tourists waiting for the vaporetti, away from the crowds

This is our beloved fragrant pittosporum

This is what the Giardini Reali look like these days. These gardens are located just behind St Mark's square. You cannot miss them, from the Piazzetta procede on the molo into the direction of the pine trees lining that point towards the unmistakable Church of Santa Maria della Salute. 

Acacia flowers, in the background is the Hotel Luna Baglioni, a five-star-luxury hotel with a unique view upon the gardens

Another view, with the pittosporum and acacia

Weather permitting of course. The weather from mid-May onwards has been back to unpredictable, and the ONLY advantage of cooler weather to me is that the white blossoms draping Venice these days will last a little bit longer. 

Even the flower beds are white - this year, white impatiens have been planted in May following the pansies profusion 

The thick shrubbery intermingled with white and fragrant blossoms: acacia, pittosporum, white roses ...

Elderflower blossoms spreading their frangrance, intermingled with other white fragrances ...

A few years ago, these gardens, which have always been a haven to birds in our city, at times looked rather barren and even unkempt. Disappointing to me as I remember very well the well-tended state of the gardens with the oleander shrubs growing along the canal.

Il Canale delle Procuratie Nuove and the entrance to the Hotel Luna Baglioni in the background

These gardens were created during Napoleonic times, next to the Palazzo Reale, at the spot that opened up when the granaio di terra nova (the wheat storage house, warehouse and adjacent commercial buildings) that had been built during the times of the Serenissima Repubblica, was torn down after following the year 1797. Until 1310, a squero had been there in its place, and even a prison during the war with Genoa (1380 approx.).

Wisteria, intermingled with aralia, reflecting the diffuse morning light 

But last week it was paradise. At the entrance of the park, guarded by a black wrought iron door, almost hidden by the numerous souvenir and ticket stands, painters and the usual throughway crowded with tourists, I was greeted by the cinguettio (singing) of the birds. Blackbirds singing their melodious themes in the crisp morning air, doves cooing and gabbiani reali (huge sea gulls) walking up and down the paths, and sparrows twittering, like they were all celebrating the advent of spring. By now, the groviglio di alberi quasi imbianchiti di grappoli di fiori, that is thick shrubs with lush and evergreen foliage, heavy with cascades of white shimmering flowers, is breathtaking. 

The aralia copse, with wisteria in the background

Towering, sweet-smelling acacia

With the rays of the morning sun stroking the leaves, I was lucky to take the pictures I would like to share with you. A spring day looking like it was wrapped in mystery, and all the lights for which the lagoo is famous for, coming out at their best.  

I took these pictures last week when the weather was somewhat better and we could enjoy a day of sunshine or so. I had the gardens almost to myself, and shared its beauties only with a gardener trimming the paths and a few visitors sitting quietly on the red-painted benches.

Red-painted benches hiding under lush spring foliage with grand deutzia scabra blossoms - of course they would be white ...

In the foreground you can see the lush pittosporum plants and their fragrant flowers lining the paths

... and beyond these trees is the Campanile ...

A quiet paradise to treasure, where you can hear nothing but the characteristic noise the nearby arriving and leaving vaporetti make once in a while, and of course to the concerts the birds are giving.

A place to stop and inhale very deeply and enjoy the fragrance of white spring flowers ... in Venice