An Italian villa with an English country garden that's 'a genuine work of landscape art'

As the traditional season of going on holiday draws sadly to a close, all we're left with are our memories, our dreams, and 800 new photos on our phones which we will definitely, absolutely get around to organising properly next week. Or maybe the week after. October at a push.

Let's forget that post-holiday legwork, though, and instead focusing on the dreams: what would life be like, we imagine, if only we had an Italian villa of our own?

If the villa in question were anything like this villa in Monguzzo, for sale at €1.5 million through Italy Sotheby's International Realty, the answer would be 'very wonderful indeed'.

The three-bedroom villa has plenty of relaxed charm: while not particularly pretty, it's a fine three-bedroom home that was totally refurbished in the 1990s, with three bathrooms, spacious living areas and a hobby room.

It also comes with a two-bedroom guest house within the grounds, plus a Scandinavian-style timber house that the agents suggest is ideal as anything from guest accommodation to an artist's studio.

As fine as the villa is, the main attraction here is the garden, named Il Giardino di Poggio Castello. Just under two acres, and ringed by mature trees to create a cool, elegant, secluded setting, it was created as a true labour of love by the photographer Piero Sierra.

Sierra took the house and garden on in 1991, working on the project with landscape architect Giulio Crespi — and while the villa may be a classic Italian home, the garden is not. Sierra and Crespi created the outdoor space in the tradition of English garden design, with the landscape arranged as a sequence of interconnected garden rooms.

Each part of the garden has its own character, planting scheme and atmosphere. There's a border garden, a woodland garden and pond garden, a garden dedicated to plants that thrive on acidic soil, a gravel garden, architectural garden, cottage garden, rose garden, entrance garden, and a space described as the 'Rustic Cottage Mini-Park'.

To find outdoor space with such variety is nothing short of staggering, and as you can see from the images it's all been thriving in the temperate northern Italian climate, in between Lake Como and Lake Lecco.

Sierra's background as a photographer is also key to understand why the gardens have been created this way: the villa has an ever-changing sequence of views, perspectives and seasonal blooms that transform throughout the year to make sure that no two garden strolls are the same. The owner has spoken in the past about photographing the landscape repeatedly across seasons and from different viewpoints, using the images to refine sightlines and the overall experience of moving through the space.

It's truly something else, and a key selling point. As agent Luigi Aliverti puts it, this is 'a property of rare distinction and virtually impossible to replicate, where the garden is not merely a setting for the residence, but a genuine work of landscape art.'

For sale via Italy Sotheby's International Realty — see more details.