TAKE A BEAUTIFUL FLORAL ADVENTURE NOW

GRANDI GIARDINI ITALIANI

Take a beautiful floral adventure via Grandi Giardini Italiani, a network of 120 spectacular gardens. Most are in Italy. All are stunningly beautiful.

This prestigious network was founded in 1997, by Judith Wade using private capital. It represents 500 years of Italian garden and landscape design.

1. GIARDINO BARDINI FIRENZE -- FLORENCE, ITALY

Giardino Bardini Firenze, in Florence, rises up from 4 hectares of parkland between the left bank of the Arno River, Montecuccoli Hill and the medieval wall.

It was originally designed as a series of walled orchards near Mozzi Palace but it expanded in the mid-19th century to include the adjoining Anglo-Chinese garden of Villa Manadora, created by Luigi Le Blanc. Baroque and Victorian flourishes were added later

Revel in the English-style wood, billowing with azaleas, ferns, viburnums, camellias, Bourbon roses, remontant irises, and a collection of citrus fruit trees. Check out the lush wisteria tunnel and more than 60 varieties of hydrangea.

Look up and out for killer views of Florence, with its terracotta rooftops and iconic monuments.

2. GIARDINI BOTANICI DI VILLA TARANTO -- VERBANIA PALLANZA, VB, ITALY

Giardini Botanici di Villa Taranto, in Verbania-Pallanza, Italy, is located along the shore of Lake Maggiore, in the Piedmont region. Commissioned by the aristocratic Scottish McEacharn family in 1932, the garden is the result of expansive botanical passion.

Explore 16 hectares of floral heaven, with bright flower-beds, sweet little ponds, parterres, woods, fountains, and cropped lawns, all designed by Henry Cocker, one of the most famous landscape artists of the 20th Century. You can find over 8,500 species planted here.

3. CENTRO BOTANICO MOUTAN --  VITERBO, ITALY

Love peonies? The Centro Botanico Moutan, in Viterbo, Italy, is home to the biggest collection of Chinese peonies in the world.

The Moutan Botanical Center is a garden, which boasts of the richest and most complete collection of Chinese Peonies in the world, including more than 150,000 plants, of 600 different varieties.

4. GIARDINO DELLA ROSA -- TRENTO, ITALY

Giardino della Rosa Ronzone, in Trento, Italy, is known for its roses.

The rose garden designed to feature homogeneous rose groups including shrub, rugosa, wild, and climbing varieties. Everything from lushly scented Bourbon roses, to fringey sepaled moss roses, to voluptuous English roses, and many others will seduce you here.

There are more than 2,500 rose plantings, with 500 rose varieties to entice you. There are more than 10,000 other floral perennials to round out the garden’s offerings as well.

5. CASTLE OF PRALORMO -- TURIN, ITALY

Castle of Pralormo, built in the 13th century, in Turin, Italy, started out rather bleakly, then blossomed into a most luxurious English garden in the 14th Century, thanks to designs created by the court landscape painter Xavier Kurten.

Each spring over 50,000 tulips bloom in a seemingly unlimited range of color and variety. Some are quite rare, such as the lily flowering tulip, the perfumed tulip, the black tulip and the peony tulip.

Spring also delivers joy here via masses of narcissus, lilacs, irises, and peonies.

6. OASI ZEGNA -- BIELLA, ITALY

Oasi Zegna, in Biella, Italy, is a relatively new garden, created in 1993 as a brainchild of fashion designer Ermenegildo Zegna, as an environmental development project covering a wide area of the Biella Alps.

Look out over the Po Valley and the dramatic Upper Val Sessera.

Zegna planted much of the gardens himself! It includes a ½ million conifers, hundreds of rhododendrons and hydrangeas.

Indulge in a stay at Casa Zegna so you can totally immerse in the beauty of this place.

7. VILLA LA MASSA -- BAGNO A RIPOLI FI, ITALY

Villa La Massa, in Bagno a Ripoli FI, Italy, dates back to 1525, when Santi Landini, a Florentine aristocrat, built his summer residence here on the banks of the Arno river. It changed hands just 3 times since then.

Villa La Massa is surrounded by 9 acres of parkland and gardens. Each path leads to the Arno river and great views of the Chianti hills.

The gardens, designed by Maria Chiara Pozzana, are particularly known for their collection of unusual iris. Interior walkways are lined with agapanthus and cream-colored peonies.

8. VILLA DELLA PERGOLA -- ALASSIO, ITALY

Villa della Pergola, in Alassio, Italy, is surrounded by lush gardens, covering 22,000 square meters of Mediterranean landscape.

A remarkable 28 varieties of wisteria sprawls across romantic pergolas here, while roses line the multilayered park. An incredible collection of lotus flowers thrive in the ponds and fountains. And here is a rare place to find an extraordinary collection of agapanthus.

Jacaranda trees bestow pale purple upon the place, while the pines, cypress, cedars, oaks, & banana trees stand tall.

This garden was the winner of the Grand Prix of Gardens for 2013.

9. GIARDINI LA MORTELLA -- ISCHIA, ITALY

Giardini La Mortella, on Isola d'Ischia, is a fantastic garden, created by Susana, the wife of William Walton, one of the most important 20th-century British composers.

In 1956, landscape architect Russell Page designed the garden based on a foundation of existing rocky lava formations. It supports a collection of over 3,000 species of rare plants.

The lower garden rolls out in the valley, while the upper garden sports vertical terraces cut directly into the rock and held by dry-stone walls.

Water is a prominent feature, with many fountains and pools, planted with an extensive collection of papyrus, lotuses and tropical water lilies.

Victoria House, the tropical greenhouse, is home to the majestic Victoria amazonica, arguably the most amazing waterlily on the planet, which floats under the big water-sprout mask, ''La Bocca,'' by sculptor Simon Verity. And the other gardens and greenhouses are filled with a wide range of rare plants from around the world.

10. VILLA MONASTERO -- LECCO, ITALY

Villa Monastero, in Lecco, Italy, was a noble residence and is now a “Casa Muso,” surrounded by a spectacular botanical garden stretching for over 2 kilometres, from Varenna to Fiumelatte.

Over 1000 species of botanicals thrive here in the mild lakeside climate.

Read more about Beautiful Flora in 10 New Beautiful Books Now,  Wow! Flower Power is Happening Now!, Beautiful Edible Flora Now! and Beautiful Interpretations of Beautiful Flora.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact Daily Fix posts.

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: Courtesy of Villa Bardini. “The Gardens at Villa Bardini.” Florence, Italy.
2. Image: Courtesy of Villa Bardini. “The Gardens at Villa Bardini.” Florence, Italy.
3. Image: Courtesy of Villa Taranto. “Botanical Gardens of Taranto.” Verbania Pallanza VB, Italy.
4. Image: Courtesy of Centro Botanico Moutan. “Moutan Botanical Gardens.” Viterbo, Italy.
5. Image: Courtesy of Giardino della Rosa. “The Gardens at Giardino della Rosa.” Trento, Italy.
6. Image: Courtesy of Giardino della Rosa. “The Gardens at Giardino della Rosa.” Trento, Italy.
7. Image: Courtesy of Castle of Pralormo. “The Gardens at the Castle of Pralormo.” Turin, Italy.
8. Image: Courtesy of Oasi Zegna. “Bielmonte Outdoor Festival at Oasi Zegna.” Biella, Italy.
9. Image: Courtesy of Villa La Massa. “The Iris Gardens at Villa La Massa.” Bagno a Ripoli FI, Italy.
10. Image: Courtesy of Villa della Pergola. “Gardens of Villa della Pergola.” Alassio, Italy.
11. Image: Courtesy of Villa della Pergola. “Gardens of Villa della Pergola.” Alassio, Italy.
12. Image: Courtesy of Giardini La Mortella. ''La Bocca.'' Ischia, Italy.
13. Image: Courtesy of Villa Monastero. “Botanical Gardens at Villa Monastero.” Lecco, Italy.
14. Image: Courtesy of Archive Great Italian Gardens. “Villa Lima.”
15. Image: Courtesy of Castle of Pralormo. “The Gardens at the Castle of Pralormo.” Turin, Italy.
16. Image: by BN App - Download now!
17. Image: Courtesy of Villa Taranto. “Botanical Gardens of Taranto.” Verbania Pallanza VB, Italy.