Last weeks’ blog about the transformation of the front yard and pool area of the old Baron’s Estate we are turning into an authentic Italian vacation destination got a lot of positive responses.

Thanks for that.

And, if you think what we’re doing in the front yard was cool, you’re gonna love what’s going on in the back yard.

We’re calling our second location in the town Torre de’Passeri in Italy’s Abruzzo region east of Rome the Baron’s Estate because that is what it is – a more than 160-year-old Estate built by Barone Napoleone with servants’ quarters, stables, a coachman’s house, a groundskeeper’s house and other outbuildings.

In the back yard, there’s a towering forest, hedges, multiple pathways, a small maze, a couple of meadow areas, two gazebos, a vegetable garden, fruit trees and an olive grove all surrounded by an eight-foot-high brick wall.

Just about anybody with money was called a Baron back when the place was built, so the Baron part might be a bit dubious, but there’s no denying the Estate part.

In fact, the grounds were once renowned as a great example of an 18th Century romantic-style garden. Why romantic? I don’t know. I didn’t look it up, but the 13-year-old boy in me has several ideas about what might have gone on behind all those bushes. At the same time, the 55-year-old in me says it’s better off to keep those ideas to myself.

So, I’m moving on.

When we started the project in January, the grounds hadn’t been properly taken care of for about a decade. Huge branches were falling all over the place and several dead or almost dead trees were threatening to crash through the roof of the main Estate building where the guest bedrooms, dining room, kitchen, sitting areas etc. are being renovated. Under the trees, all manner of brambles, suckers and weeds were taking over while the hedges had grown together. All this combined into a gnarly tangle.

Parts were literally impenetrable. You really couldn’t recognize any discernable design or plan. It was going to be a pain in the ass to clear.

My idea was to make things safe and then to cut everything back and see what was there. All I really wanted was for it to be less shitty. This is in keeping with my philosophy of setting expectations low. I find that keeping my goals super modest, to the point that almost any moron could achieve them, is a great way of not disappointing myself – or my wife.

The first job was to cut down several giant dead or almost dead trees that were falling in pieces and threatening the main building. It was a logical start as even I know staying in a place with holes in the roof is not high on anyone’s vacation preference list.

So, the trees came down, and the hard work of clearing undergrowth and overgrowth stood before us.

Heroically, I allowed the Estate’s new groundskeeper Angelo the chance to experience the satisfaction of tackling such a task. For more than a month, six days a week, eight hours a day, Angelo chain-sawed, raked, clipped, uprooted, brushed and macheted hacked away at the neglect.

Using our new funky tractor-trailer-lawnmower thing, he hauled several tons of cuttings to the garden area near the olive grove and burned it. He put about 100 kilometers on the tractor, about 100 meters at a time at about five kilometers per hour. He’s cut out so much dead or dying and unwanted growth, I have about three years’ worth of firewood in my garage.

I even watched, from a distance, as Angelo dug stumps out of the ground with shovels and picks and handsaws. I would have helped, but he looked like he was getting so much satisfaction, I didn’t want to interfere.

The guy worked like a machine. So much so, I started to worry about him burning out, and a couple weeks ago I suggested he take a week off as he was well ahead of schedule. He declined.

“I could do this all day every day,” he said.

When I asked him why?

“This is a special place,” he said.

I looked around. He was right.

After a month of Angelo’s brute strength, he’d tamed the worst of it and a wonderful garden, full off interesting features and plants had started to appear. It was still kind of wild and shapeless, but as he traded in the chainsaw for sheers and started the fine pruning work along with our handyman Franco, you could see it really was going to be something special.

It really was starting to look like a garden from a movie set in the Victorian period.

You could imagine the Baron’s children running around in the hedges hiding from each other while being protected from the sun by the canopy of beeches and pines. You could almost hear the string quartet playing in the gazebo. Behind the bushes, you could image … . (NO, 13-year-old Jake! NO!)

Right.

Last week, our team of six guides took a tour of the backyard and the fact that Angelo had uncovered something special was confirmed when our new guide Vincenzo de Pompeis, an impressive fellow with two degrees including one in natural history, declared it to be likely one of the finest examples of an 18th garden in Abruzzo.

“It’s like a private botanical garden,” he said.

As he said it, our guide Serena, a mountain guide with expertise in flora and fauna, started pointing out exotic plants and trees and volunteered to make explanatory panels for particularly important or interesting species.

Then Luca, our head guide who is always looking to expand our tour options, suggested we put together a walking tour of the backyard. Vincenzo and Serena immediately agreed to develop it.

As they spoke, the chainsaw fired up off in the distance and another dead pine fell to the ground. Angelo’s strength and determination had revealed yet another part of the garden that had been hidden for years.

He must be super thankful that I allowed him to experience the satisfaction of restoring something so beautiful. I’m good like that.

And I certainly met my goal, the backyard is a lot less shitty than it was.