The botanical gardens on the lake
On the promontory of the Castagnola, between Pallanza and Intra, in the municipality of Verbania, on the western shore of Lake Maggiore, the Giardini Botanici di Villa Taranto are among the most important botanical gardens in Europe. They were created from 1931 by a Scottish captain, Neil McEacharn, who, passionate about botany, bought the estate and transformed it, in a few decades, into a garden of about 16 hectares, bringing in plants from all over the world. He named it after an ancestor, the Duke of Taranto, a title given by Napoleon to a Scottish marshal of the French army.
The garden is home to about 20,000 species and varieties of plants, arranged along about seven kilometres of avenues, among lawns, terraces, fountains, ponds and small waterfalls. Among the highlights are the Valletta, a small valley crossed by a stone bridge with ferns and tropical plants, the terraced gardens with fountains and statues, the collections of rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, magnolias and dahlias, and the greenhouse with the giant lilies of the Amazon, the Victoria cruziana, whose floating leaves can exceed a metre and a half in diameter. In spring, the "Tulip Week" displays tens of thousands of tulips in bloom. McEacharn, who donated the gardens to the Italian State in 1938, is buried in a small mausoleum in the park.
Tip: the gardens are open from late March to early November; you can reach them by boat, with the stop "Villa Taranto" on the lake ferry line.
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