The great number of villas and gardens that since the Middle Ages have identified the Italian landscape represents a vast and precious heritage of mankind that has been the object of specialized, often monographic, studies. For the first time, this volume takes an overall look at the whole of the Italian peninsula, tracing the different thematic paths which allow us to link villas and gardens in Sicily with those in Liguria and Veneto: the esoteric gardens, conceived as theatre scenography, the sombre fortresses, no longer used for defensive purposes and then made more graceful by flowerbeds and groves, the royal residences, the water gardens. The evolution and spreading on the territory of each theme has been expounded by means of exhaustive essays, on the basis of historical references, also of an iconographic character. As a complement to all that, examples of the most meaningful and interesting villas and gardens have been documented by means of specific cards, with a rich set of photographs which adds to the comprehension of the distinctive features of each of them. This work offers a “transversal” reading of the history of Italian villas and gardens, following the fil rouge of major themes, often closely interwoven, and makes it possible to better understand the richness and multifaceted reality of this fascinating heritage, made of nature, history, art.