Florence Trevelyan
Florence Trevelyan of Taormina, Sicily, was an English gardener, builder of follies and pioneering wildlife conservationist.
Origins
She was born on 7 February 1852 in Newcastle upon Tyne and was baptised at St. Andrew's Church, Hartburn, Northumberland. She was the only surviving child of Edward Spencer Trevelyan of Hallington Hall, Northumberland, by his wife Catherine Ann Forster. Her father's childless eldest brother Sir Walter Calverley Trevelyan, 6th Baronet bequeathed Wallington to his junior first cousin Charles Edward Trevelyan, whilst Nettlecombe and the baronetcy descended to his nephew Sir Alfred Wilson Trevelyan, 7th Baronet. Florence, although senior to her first cousin the 7th Baronet, as a female was passed over in the succession to these family estates.Career
Her father committed suicide in 1854 when Florence was aged two. Florence and her mother remained at Hallington Hall, where they appear to have taken a keen interest in establishing the pleasure gardens. After her mother's death in November 1877, and having inherited Hallington Hall, Florence and her first cousin, Harriet Perceval toured Europe for about two years, and Florence eventually settled at Taormina in Sicily in 1884, which she made her permanent home.Rumour of royal scandal
The Taorminese lawyer and journalist Dino Papale, whose maternal grandfather was Cesare Acrosso, who resides in the former Trevelyan palazzo in Via Teatro Greco, wrote a book published in 1995 called Taormina Segreta - La Belle Epoque 1876-1914, in which he claims that the young Florence was expelled by Queen Victoria from the English royal court and high-society, due to an affair she supposedly had with Prince Edward, the queen's eldest son and the future King Edward VII.Life in Taormina, Sicily
''Isola Bella''
In 1890 she purchased the Isola Bella, a small rocky island below the town of Taormina, attached to the mainland by a narrow sandy path, on which she built a house and established a garden. In among the native Mediterranean plants she planted non-native trees, rare shrubs and grasses. It became the home of various sea birds and some interesting lizards. After Florence's death Isola Bella stayed in private hands until 1990 when it was taken over by the Regional Government of Sicily which designated it a Nature Reserve. It is maintained under the auspices of the World Wide Fund for Nature.''Hallington Siculo''
In 1890 she married Salvatore Cacciola, a doctor and well-known resident of Taormina who served for many years as its mayor, and moved into a residence in the town. There she acquired several parcels of land on the steep hillside below the Via Bagnoli Croce down to Giardini on the coast, and below the famous Hotel Timeo, where she had first resided in Taormina.There she embarked on the creation of another garden, which she named Hallington Siculo after her childhood home in England. This was a private and shaded pleasure garden from which there are views of both the sea and of Mount Etna. Again she imported non-native plants, but the garden is most noteworthy for the extraordinary and eclectic follies constructed from different kinds of stone, cloth, brick, pipes and other architectural salvage. These she called "the hives" and used as observation points for bird-watching and "as a quiet place to have her tea". She built as her marital residence a substantial villa on Via Teatro Greco, now known as Palazzo Acrosso-Papale near to the Hotel Timeo.
After Florence's death the land was expropriated by the municipality of Taormina and is now part of the Giardino Pubblico called "Parco Florence Trevelyan", a larger municipal park. This unique garden is the second biggest tourist attraction in Taormina after the Greek Theatre and, together with the Isola Bella, receives thousands of visitors a year.