The garden is an experience where all our senses are alert and transmit information to our brain. Charles Baudelaire wrote that "the scents, colors and sounds respond to each other", and this synesthesia echoes in the garden, created to convey emotions. Visiting the Emotional Garden of the Paths of Feathers is a surprising path that leads man to get lost and find himself, in a time that seems to expand.
The view Our eyes allow us to see everything around us, starting from the size of the garden. In 1853, Eduard Petzold wrote in his book The Landscaping Garden (Die Landschafts-gärtnerei): "Color gives soul, life; it produces a sensual effect on feeling. It is the flesh and blood of the landscape, and without it the shape remains a skeleton...". At a very advanced age, when he was almost blind, Claude Monet preserved in his paintings only the colours of his garden in Giverny.
Hearing is a sense that is often called into question in gardens: the singing of birds, the shouting of animals, the murmuring of the wind, the rustling of plants, contemporary sound installations and so on. Many of us have a memory of the longing of a deer in the distance in a large park, the croaking of frogs in a pond or the buzzing of bees on a flowering tree. At the Emotional Garden you will find "artificial" sound effects in the Kingdom of Fire in addition to all those "natural"
The smell Mmmm... what a good smell! we say when we visit a rose garden in June and immerse the nose in each flower to appreciate the fragrance. The smell is able to recognize more than 10,000 different smells, from the most seductive, such as flowers or some fruits, to the less pleasant, such as the smell of some plants. The smell of earth and humus after a storm is very strong and takes us back in time to our visits.
The taste Marcel Proust reminded us of the madeleine of his aunt Léonie, but the gardens offer us a multitude of flavors. The taste buds of our tongue allow us to grasp different flavors. In Stratégies de la Framboise : aventures potagères, Dominique Louise Pélegrin takes us back to the garden of her childhood, where she used a series of tricks to taste the sour taste of raspberries several times a day. These fruits of the earth, amplified or not by cooking, are the material of dreams and memories of childhood, of sensations that accompany us even today.
Our skin allows us to feel the material, tingles, velvety sensations, softness. Some memories are still vivid, such as grazing nettles or getting into brambles... or delicious, like lying on a bed of moss. Visually impaired visitors will enjoy touching plants with their characteristic textures and associating them with their scents.
We wait for you on June 1st and 2nd at the Emotional Garden of the Paths of Feathers at the Podere La Gualda Vecchia in Monteverdi Marittimo, between the Etruscan Coast and the Metalliferous Hills, to stimulate all our senses and go deep into our emotions. The guided tours will last about 2 hours during which will also be offered a small welcome of the house. We are excited to welcome you and share with you our corner of paradise!