Cautiously you knock on the door and, after a moment, there is a soft click. It swings inwards, the leaf dappled light ripples across the lion headed knocker's tarnished brass face, making it seem to wink.
Through the doorway you can see bright sunlight, it is like stepping into another world: behind you is the tangled, green chaotic forest, before you a sunlit, organised Italian garden like something out of Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing.
Geometric beds of dull green herbs and spices are set on either side of the paved path that leads to the centre of the garden where there is a fountain. To your left a tall hedge blocks off your view of the rest of the small garden, a gap further along allowing a person to explore further.
The fountain appears to be that of the zodiac sign Aries, the rearing ram is surrounded by smaller sheep, it reguards you with startling inset amber eyes, water trickling from it's mouth and down it's stone beard into the dark water. Now and then a dully coloured carp can be seen stirring the silt at the bottom of the catchment basin beneath the water weeds.
The ram's gaze makes you feel a little uneasy so you break eye contact to further look around you.
To the East are a few small beehives, even from here ou can hear the dozy humming of the insects. The scent of lavendar and rosemary rises on the hot air as you approach the herb beds. It is with some bemusement that, looking down at the cobbles, you realise the path around the fountain is a recurring mosaic of the Aries symbol.
On the far side of the garden the mountain rises up in a sheer cliff, a trellis has been leant up against it on either side of a doorway cut in the rock, sweet peas climbing the lattice.