Teasure TROVE

At his Tangier retreat, horticulturalist Umberto Pasti devotes his time to finding antique treasures and tending to a garden filled with rare native plants

- COSMO BROCKWAY

A fireplace detail illustrates Umberto Pasti’s gift for mixing the precious with the earthy in his interiors.

Antique ceramics, filled with the colours of the Mediterranean, surround a handsome gilt mirror above an Islamic folk cabinet bedecked with tassels; the chandelier in the sitting room in the 1950s pavilion was fashioned by a local craftsman from an old wooden star that once hung in a mosque, and pieces of Roman glass; textiles collected from around the world are layered to great effect in this salon where cards are played after dinner.

The Moroccan port of Tangier, a whitewashed haven away from the constraints of Europe, has always drawn characters searching for the freedom to create their own paradise. From the moment he set foot in the region, Milanese-born horticulturalist and writer Umberto Pasti fell under the spell of its siren call. His novel, The Age of Flowers, about a man who, overwhelmed by the storms of life, shrouds himself in a beautiful North African garden, could be viewed as a case of life imitating art. Although he notes that, in most of his books, he talks about the destruction of nature by men'.