Colours come back to life in March: the historic parks and lakeside villas reopen in a blaze of tulip, camellia and magnolia blossoms. The new tourist season starts here
Spring officially begins in March, and Northern Italy’s great parks and gardens are now waking up from their winter hibernation: magnolia, primulas, daffodils and camellias are starting to bring colour to the lawns and avenues, anticipating the scene-stealing blooms of April and May. Historic villas, botanic gardens and nature trails are all currently reopening to visitors, inviting them in for a stroll through this newly awakened nature in the midst of water landscapes, stylish architecture and views coming back into their own after the winter months.
The tourist season comes early to the Piedmontese side of Lake Maggiore. The gates of the famous Villa Taranto botanic garden, with its Verbano lakeside location and over 20,000 species from all over the world, reopened on 6 March. Here the Festa delle Bulbose bulb festival showcases its blooming flowerbeds, tree-lined avenues and enchanting terraces from 22 March to 20 April every year with thousands of bulbs – more than 80,000 – which burst into life in a kaleidoscope of colours in which tulips are centre stage in an evocative maze of colours and fragrances.
Not far away, once again on Lake Maggiore, another marvel reopens in March, the Brissago islands, a little archipelago in Canton Ticino known for its lakeside botanical garden. On Isola Grande (or San Pancrazio), a waterside garden displays a combination of exotic plants, breathtaking views and a Mediterranean atmosphere, while Isola di Sant’Apollinare welcomes its wild flowers in a more natural context. Visitors can get to these gems on Navigazione Laghi’s boats, now getting ready to welcome visitors every day with timetables ushering in the new season.
Historic parks, villas and gardens with extraordinary botanical patrimonies make spring on the lakes an unforgettable sensory experience suffused with a multiplicity of colours in which the fragrances of the first blooms meld with the blue of the water.
