The Road Less Travelled

Monty seeks out the lesser-known gardens of Europe, down the dramatic Adriatic coast, in the footsteps of artists, aristocrats and oligarchs - exploring what gardening means in different cultures

- By Monty Don. Photograph by BBC, AHA Productions, Mike Robinson, Alexandra Henderson, Alamy, Mon Don and Lucinda Willan

Last May, on the very first day that travel was permitted, I set off from my bubble at Longmeadow to a start filming a series on Adriatic gardens. This had been delayed by a year due to the pandemic and during that time I had barely left the garden at all, other than to take the dogs for a walk in empty fields. So Heathrow was a culture shock (and a fiasco - we weren't allowed to check-in because a form had been filled in an hour too early, falling just outside the 24-hour window). So, off to a hotel and another flight the next day, this time involving a change and innumerable checks on paperwork before finally starting to film - a day behind schedule.

As well as a terrible start, the whole experience was a hassle. Everywhere we went there were different interpretations of the required Covid paperwork plus a few deeply invasive and unpleasant PCR tests on top of the ones back home and, of course, the obligatory 10 days quarantining on return.

But... it was a joy to be out and about and experiencing new places, seeing different ways of gardening and, having spent the previous year only filming with robot cameras, working with a live crew again.

My Adriatic album

Snapshots from Monty's Covid-hit year of filming

A High-end design by Fernando Caruncho makes a bold statement

A Water as far as the eye can see, at the Rothschild garden, under a Corfu sun