Villa Freya — Garden of Freya Stark
Tucked into the hillside below the town walls, the garden of the late British explorer and travel writer Freya Stark is one of Asolo's most quietly extraordinary secrets. Stark lived in Asolo from the 1940s until her death in 1993 at the age of 100, and her terraced garden — restored and occasionally open to visitors — is a living portrait of an extraordinary life.
Who Was Freya Stark?
Stark was one of the 20th century's greatest travel writers and the first Western woman to traverse many regions of the Middle East alone. She chose Asolo as her base because, she said, it was the most beautiful small town in Italy — high praise from someone who had seen most of the world.
Her house, Casa Freya on Via Canova, is privately owned but the surrounding lanes and the view from the garden wall give a real sense of the intimate, vine-covered Asolo she loved. Local guides can arrange private visits during the Asolo Music Festival season.
The Garden & Its Legacy
The terraced garden descends in layers of roses, wisteria and old fruit trees, with a small loggia from which Stark reportedly wrote many of her books looking out toward the Monte Grappa massif — a view she described as 'the best office in the world.'
The Museo Civico holds a small collection of Stark's photographs and correspondence, and her books are still sold in the town's one excellent bookshop on Via Browning. For serious admirers, her grave is in the same cemetery of Sant'Anna where Eleonora Duse rests — two remarkable women sharing a hillside forever.
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