A small river where cane traps (canne in Italian, hence the name Cannara) were used to catch eels, an old stone house and an abandoned space have become the setting for a marvellous garden, created with love and expertise.

The 7th century grey stone house was originally located across the river Marta, an emissary of Lake Bolsena. Here cane traps, originally made with canes and later with iron bars were used to catch eels. After many years of neglect, in the late 1970s a flower garden designed and curated by Mirella Faggiani was planted. A small gate, somewhat evocative of eel trap grates, leads into a lush garden filled with trees, shrubs, and flowers displaying a wonderful harmony of shape and colour throughout the year. A key element of the garden is the river flowing under the house and that is crossed by a small bridge, where the water flows sometimes peacefully sometimes with a babble. Next to the antique rose collection grow rare trees specimen of Taxodium distichum, Quercus rubra, Liquidambar stryraciflua, Erythrina crista-galli, Lyriodendron tulipifera, as well as flowering cherry and apple trees. An area is home to a small tree grove with birches, viburnums, camellias, magnolias, dogwoods and hollies, paired with hellebores, primroses and wild daphnes, and violets. Bulbous plants, seasonal herbaceous perennial and annual plants and an array of different flowers grow profusely. In the magic atmosphere of her garden Mirella used to offer tips, cuttings, and seeds while her husband Massimo loved telling stories about the lake and the extraordinarily long route the eels take to reproduce. La Cannara is now in the hands of their son Marco Valerio who has inherited his parents’ passion restoring the buildings and taking care of the garden.