We are in Liguria, a few kilometres from the French border, in December, to be precise, on 6 December 1956, but we should not be surprised by the climate and the splendour of the light on this landscape immortalised in the 8mm film footage of cinematographer Guido Lingiardi. At the Mortola promontory, where the Hanbury gardens are located, the climate is mild almost all year round, spring is early, autumn late and some flowering occurs in the middle of winter. It was because of the location and these characteristics that the English traveller Thomas Hanbury, after travelling the world and making his fortune trading in tea, decided to settle here in 1867, buying a villa and surrounding land where he created the famous botanical garden that bears his name. He and his wife are buried here enjoying the climate for eternity. When Lingiardi and his wife wander around the gardens, filming the vegetation and architecture and shooting the gulf from above, the lucky visitors to this enchanted place are still rare. But they are not fools, these English people, to stop right here