There’s an Italian saying: See Naples and die. After driving in Naples, that idiom has a whole new meaning.

A tour of Italian gardens had been on the cards since 2020, but as our departure date drew near, so too did word of a highly contagious disease that was spreading through Italy. The pandemic arrived; the holiday was cancelled, and we’d been threatening to rebook ever since.

A couple of weeks ago, we finally flew into Naples (Napoli) for the first leg of...