Gardens of Ninfa 2021

The 2021 opening times for the Gardens of Ninfa have just been released. In this post, you can find the opening times of the Gardens of Ninfa and opening procedures for 2021. Enjoy your visit!

Entrance dates Ninfa 2021

For 2021, visitors to the Gardens of Ninfa must once again book to enter the gardens at a fixed time. The season runs from March to November inclusive, with each visiting window lasting about 60 minutes. Visitors are urged to arrive at least 15 minutes before the tour that they have booked.

March: 21, 28
April: 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25
May: 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, 30
June: 2, 5, 6, 12, 13, 19, 20, 26 27
July: 3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25, 31
August: 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, 29
September: 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19, 25, 26
October: 2, 3, 9, 16, 17, 23, 24, 30, 31
November: 1

Opening hours Ninfa 2021:
April – May – June: 9.00 – 18.00
July – August – September:  9.00 – 18.30
October – November:  9.00 – 15.30

You can book to enter from 9.00 am, in slots that run every half hour, and last around 60 minutes. During the global health crisis, visitors will be allowed once again to wander individually or in small groups, rather than joining an official guided tour. To this end, you will be given a multi-lingual electronic guide to facilitate your tour.

Scroll down for general background information about visiting the Gardens of Ninfa. And when you’re ready to book, head over to the official website, to reserve your slot at this horticultural marvel.

Hotels near the Gardens of Ninfa – Top hotels near Ninfa

B&B Stazione Latina is a modern hotel property near Latina Scalo railway station, just 3.2 km from the Gardens of Ninfa. Rooms have private bathrooms and balconies. Ideal if you don’t have a car! Doubles from €41

Tenuta le Pantanelle is an attractive, rustic stay in Latina just 3.5 km from Ninfa. Cosy and quiet with a great on-site restaurant. Doubles from €42

Casale Cavatella is a farmhouse stay in stunning Sermoneta, another unmissable town in the area. One of the best value properties in Sermoneta, it’s just 2.9 km from Ninfa. Doubles from €28

LeLive Sermoneta is a truly stunning property in the centre of Sermoneta, contrasting golden, rustic stonework with state-of-the-art facilities. Gorgeous hotel. Doubles from €70

How to visit the Gardens of Ninfa: an introduction to Ninfa

I don’t know about you, but when someone suggests going to visit an ornamental garden, I must admit I usually stifle a yawn. Maybe my English heritage means that I just take great gardens for granted: maybe it’s an appreciation you grow into. That said, I have just one exhortation to make: whoever you are, go and visit the Gardens of Ninfa in Latina, south of Rome.

I actually happened upon the privately-run Gardens of Ninfa by chance, which is a pretty tricky thing to do: they are only open on select weekend dates from March through to November.

I was accompanying a photographer who was shooting the garden for an upcoming book, so we had the privilege of entering before the crowds, early in the morning. With no expectations, I was stunned to stumbled upon a medieval ghost town, with crumbling houses, bridges and the shell of a centuries old church, open to the sky and the wind, improbably filled with flowers.

In and around the mossy ruins, roses clamber over fairytale arches, while the former moat of the medieval borgo is planted with hundreds of Arum lilies.

The history of the Gardens of Ninfa

It looks like a love story between nature and the past, and it is; although the two have been conjoined by human hands. In the 1920s, the Caetani family, ancient feudal lords in Ninfa, started landscaping the long-deserted town with a unique, English vision marrying architectural ruins with the irrepressible life of flora.

English because the inspiration came from Ada Wilbraham, British wife of the then Prince Onorato Caetani. She had evidently inherited the Victorian fascination with the medieval, and approached the project with a poet’s eye.

In its design, there’s also an almost Wordsworthian appreciation of the transforming power of nature, as climbing roses and mosses re-roof crumbling cottages, while shimmering jasmine vines light up broken windows with tiny white stars.

The fast-flowing brook that courses through the 150 acre garden is a brilliant, emerald green, radiating with the life of the waterbed and bubbling with brown trout.

If this magical place has already captured your imagination, but you can’t make it there this year, I highly recommend the definitive guide, Ninfa: A Roman Enchantment which you can explore by following the link.

How to visit Ninfa: visiting the Gardens of Ninfa in 2021

Now, some of the medieval buildings have been lovingly restored, and are in part home to the curator and his family, who run the gardens on behalf of the Roffredo Caetani Foundation. Principessa Lelia Caetani left no heirs, but established a fund for the eternal care of Ninfa in the 1970s. It looks like it’s in good hands.

The Gardens of Ninfa are only open a handful of days a year, so sadly, expect crowds if you visit; guided tours are compulsory to ensure that visitors respect the delicate habitat.

On the tour, however, you learn about the history of Ninfa and its botany, with everything from tropical plants to indigenous trees like the Magnolia and lofty Cypress, as well as antique roses brought from England by the Caetani clan.

There has been a settlement here in the shadow of Monti Lepini since the days of the pre-Roman Volsci tribe, which subsequently became a rich merchant stop-off along the Appian Way in the Middle Ages.

But warring popes and the arrival of malaria from nearby marshes brought Ninfa to its knees in later years, and by the 16^th century, the town had been completely abandoned.

Now it teems with life again, home to more than 150 species of birds and thousands of rare trees and plants in a unique paradise shaped by man. Oddly enough, it seems like a fitting destiny.

Reaching the Gardens of Ninfa 2021

How to get to the Gardens of Ninfa 2021: I would advise you to go by car. Allow about an hour and a quarter from Rome. It’s signposted quite poorly, but you essentially take the via Pontina south to the town of Cisterna in the province of Latina, and then head towards Norma. Google maps essential.

If you don’t fancy doing this, you can book trips from Rome with reputable tour companies, but you will pay a significant charge for the trip.

Alternatively, you can take a train to Latina and then catch a taxi (about a ten minute ride) to Ninfa. This will take quite a lot longer. There used to be a shuttle bus linking the two but this doesn’t seem to be happening in 2021. We believe that the train + taxi option (plus book your own Ninfa tickets online) is still the cheapest option.

Ninfa entrance fee 2021: €15 per adult, children under 11 go free. Disabled visitors €8 (payment on site only). Adult tickets can now be purchased online, in advance and include the obligatory guided tour. The online booking fee is €0.50 per person. Click here to buy tickets for Ninfa.

Do I need to book a tour or can I visit Ninfa by myself? Due to the delicate nature of the gardens of Ninfa, unfortunately you can’t just buy an entry ticket and wander round by yourself. You have to join an official guided tour which departs more on less on the hour on the days the garden is open. The tours last about 60 minutes. All the tours are in Italian apart from two daily tours in English. Details below.

The ticket office is open from 9.00-12.00, then 14.30-18.00 in the spring; expect slight variations in high summer (open 15.00-18.30 in the afternoons) and the autumn when it closes at 15.30. Buying tickets online is essential to avoid disappointment as visitor numbers per day are capped.

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