Visiting Villa Taranto

Last week I visited, with my wife Valentina, the botanical gardens of Villa Taranto, located in Pallanza (Verbania), in front of Lago Maggiore.

The gardens of Villa Taranto are famous for their modern design and for the botanical abundance.

The founder of Villa Taranto was Neil McEacharn, a Scottish Captain who purchased the Villa in 1930 and created the botanical gardens.

McEacharn modified the name of the Villa, from the originary name “La Crocetta” to the current “Villa Taranto”, in memory of his ancestor, who was nominated Duke of Taranto by Napoleon.

The gardens of Villa Taranto was realized in about five years by the Gardener Henry Cocker and, during the tour, visitors can admire thousands of different plants and flower, really!

Infact, in 1963 McEacharn conduct a census of 8.500 species living in the gardens; now there are nearly 20.000 species from all around the world!

The extraordinary botanical diversity of Villa Taranto is a special reason to consider the Villa one of the most important botanical garden of the world.

Here you can find some of the pictures I took during my gree-tour of the Villa.

You can visit the Villa from March to October and, monthly, you can see a lot of different beautiful florescence.

In April, you can find muscari, violets, anemones, primulas, lilies of the valley, narcissis and crocuses, forsythias, viburnum and, especially, a rich collection of camelias and rhododendrons; in addition, there are, also, 80.000 different kind of tulips in bloom!

May is the month of azaleas; June is time for lotus flowers, petunias and many other beautiful flowers; in July you can admire over 300 varieties of dahlias and in August there’s the “grand flowering” of hydrangeas!

If you want to make a good tour of the Villa, you need at least two/three hours but – probably – you can desire to spend more time in the great atmosphere of the gardens, followed in your walk by classical music…

In other words, every month is the good month to go to Lago Maggiore and visit Villa Taranto!

Parola di Greenfoureyes!