Yeah, classic Italian gardens are sometimes over-the-top formal or even opulent, but they have a lot to teach us about curb appeal... or at least one way to avoid embarrassing ourselves out front.

Italian gardens tend to have few flowers, focusing more on lush shrubbery, but you can beautify your backyard with flowering shrubs like boxwoods, climbing roses, azaleas, and rhododendrons.

Discover the breathtaking Italian garden known as 'The Pope's Playground,' which combines the beauty of nature with wonderful historic pieces of art.

Italian gardens use mostly evergreens, which work well here. Good hedge plants are arborvitae, laurel, cypress and box; good spiller plants for urns are variegated ivy, red geranium and rosemary.