The botanical gardens in Italy aren't all the same. Some have existed for 500 years and changed the history of science. Some were created by aristocratic eccentricities at incomprehensible costs. Some are ruins that call themselves a garden, and are more beautiful than their intact versions. This guide tells them apart.
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The Orto Botanico di Padova: the oldest in the world (1545)
The Orto Botanico di Padova, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997, is the oldest university botanical garden in the world still in its original location and still functioning as a scientific institution. It was founded in 1545 by the University of Padua for the cultivation of medicinal plants intended for medical students. The original circular design (an "hortus conclusus" 84 m in diameter) is still visible, today integrated with modern greenhouses and scientific pavilions.
The garden's most famous plant: Goethe's palm, a Chamaerops humilis brought to Padua in 1585 and still alive. Johann Wolfgang Goethe saw it in 1786 during his "Italian Journey" and was so struck by it that he developed his theory of the "Urpflanze," the archetypal plant from which all the others supposedly derive. Goethe's palm is 440 years old and is the longest-lived documented plant in Europe.
Villa Taranto (Verbania, Lake Maggiore), the garden of a Scottish captain
Captain Neil McEacharn, a Scotsman, bought a villa overlooking Lake Maggiore in 1931 and transformed it into one of the largest private botanical gardens in Europe: Villa Taranto in Verbania, 20 hectares with over 20,000 plant species from all over the world. McEacharn dedicated the following 40 years to building the garden, importing plants from Asia, the Americas, and Oceania, with a scientific expertise and a financial means out of the ordinary. He left the garden to the Italian State on his death in 1964.
The best time to visit Villa Taranto: April (tulips, 30,000 bulbs), May (rhododendrons and azaleas), summer (the Victoria amazonica water lily with leaves 2 m in diameter in the heated pool). Admission: €12 adults. April-October, closed in winter.
Hanbury Gardens (Ventimiglia), the meeting point between the Mediterranean and the Tropics
The Hanbury Gardens at Mortola Inferiore (Ventimiglia, IM), founded in 1867 by the English merchant Thomas Hanbury, are among the most important botanical gardens in the Mediterranean: 18 hectares of terraces on the Ligurian cliff with over 3,500 species including Canary Island cacti, South African aloes, Mexican agaves, and Australian eucalyptuses, all in open ground, without a greenhouse, thanks to the exceptional microclimate of the Ligurian Riviera. Managed today by the University of Genoa.
Giardino di Ninfa (Cisterna di Latina), the most romantic garden in Italy
The Giardino di Ninfa, in the Lepini Hills (LT), is built on the ruins of a medieval town abandoned in the 14th century because of a plague. The Caetani family reclaimed the site in 1920 and instead of rebuilding the town, they created a romantic English garden among the ruins: climbing roses on the walls of medieval churches, cypresses above the foundations of palaces, streams crossing the cobbled streets. It's a ruin-garden, unique of its kind, and the effect is that of a place suspended between nature and history.
The Giardino di Ninfa is open to the public only on a few days a month (the Fondazione Caetani limits access to preserve it), reservation required at www.fondazionecaetani.org weeks in advance. Admission: €15. The dates are published about 3 months in advance. Reachable by car from Rome in 1h (A2, Latina Nord exit).
La Mortella (Ischia), the garden of William Walton
The La Mortella garden on the island of Ischia (NA) was created by the British composer William Walton and his wife Susana Gil Passo from 1956, to a design by the landscape architect Russell Page. The name comes from the wild myrtle plants ( Myrtus communis ) on the lava rocks of Forio. Today the 2-hectare garden (small but very intense) hosts over 300 rare species and a concert hall where concerts are held in Walton's honor every spring and autumn.
Questions and answers about the Italian botanical gardens
What is the oldest botanical garden in the world?
The Orto Botanico di Padova, founded in 1545, is considered the oldest university botanical garden still in its original location and still active as a scientific institution. It competes for the record with the Orto Botanico di Pisa (1544, founded a year earlier but relocated to another site over the centuries) and with the one in Florence (1545). UNESCO recognized the one in Padua in 1997.
What is the best period to visit the Italian botanical gardens?
It depends on the garden. April-May for Villa Taranto (tulips, rhododendrons) and for the Giardino di Ninfa (the first spring bloom). June for the Hanbury Gardens (the maximum production of Mediterranean flowers). July-August for Villa Taranto (the Victoria amazonica in bloom). September-October for the autumn colors of the Orto Botanico di Padova. The Giardino di Ninfa is spectacular on all its open days, but spring and autumn are the best moments.
Are there free botanical gardens in Italy?
Few. Some university botanical gardens have free admission on certain days: the Orto Botanico di Roma "La Sapienza" (free admission the first Sunday of the month), the Orto Botanico di Napoli (limited free access on Saturday morning). The Gargano Park and the Orobie Park have botanical collection areas accessible for free via the trails. The large private gardens (Villa Taranto, Hanbury, La Mortella) all have paid admission.
What distinguishes a botanical garden from a normal park?
A botanical garden has a scientific and educational purpose: the plants are catalogued with scientific names, the collections are organized by taxonomic or geographic criteria, there's an associated herbarium and library, and the institution collaborates with universities and research institutes. A public park has recreational and scenic purposes. In practice, many Italian "botanical gardens" (Villa Taranto, Hanbury) have private origins and primarily aesthetic aims, but they have become scientifically important for the richness of their collections.
Historic Italian gardens not to miss
| Garden | Where | Style | Admission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Giardino di Boboli | Florence (FI) | Formal Italian | €10 |
| Villa d'Este | Tivoli (RM) | Renaissance-Mannerist | €14 |
| Villa Carlotta | Tremezzo (CO) | Romantic-botanical | €12 |
| Giardini di Caserta | Caserta (CE) | French Baroque | €16 |
| Villa Cimbrone | Ravello (SA) | English-Romantic | €7 |
| Villa Rufolo | Ravello (SA) | Arab-Norman | €5 |
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The Orto Botanico di Brera (Milan), hidden in the courtyard of the picture gallery of the same name, is the smallest university botanical garden in Italy (1,500 m²) but one of the most fascinating for its context: a neoclassical courtyard where the University of Milan cultivates officinal herbs, tropical potted plants, and a collection of rare ferns. Hours: Monday-Friday 9:00-13:00, free access from the courtyard of the Pinacoteca.
The Giardino della Kolymbethra in the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento (FAI, admission €5) is a garden hidden among the Greek ruins: a citrus grove and Mediterranean-plant garden in an ancient water-collection basin (the Kolymbethra, precisely) mentioned by Diodorus Siculus. It isn't a botanical garden in the scientific sense, but it's one of the most unusual and beautiful places in Sicily. The Giardino del Biviere di Lentini (SR) is a private garden with over 600 species of cacti and succulents, open by reservation.
Do the Italian botanical gardens have exotic greenhouses?
Yes, the main ones. Villa Taranto (Verbania) has heated greenhouses for the Victoria amazonica (necessary to grow the Amazonian water lily in the Italian climate). The Orto Botanico di Padova has the New Tropical Greenhouse (2014) with rainforest plants. The Orto Botanico di Palermo has an enormous centuries-old palm in a historic glass structure. The Hanbury Gardens in Ventimiglia grow many exotic plants in open ground outdoors, the microclimate of the western Ligurian Riviera allows things that are impossible elsewhere in Italy.
Are there special events in the Italian botanical gardens?
Yes, several. La Mortella (Ischia) organizes classical-music concerts in spring and autumn in the garden. Villa Taranto (Verbania) has the "Tulip Week" in April. The Orto Botanico di Padova organizes guided night visits in summer. Ninfa has some special openings with sunset visits. The Hanbury Gardens organize guided botanical excursions in Italian and English. For up-to-date events: check the websites of each garden, the programming varies every year.
Designing a giardino all'italiana: principles and history
The giardino all'italiana (or "formal Renaissance garden") is one of the most influential aesthetic inventions in Western history: developed in the 15th-16th century in Tuscany and Lazio, it spread throughout Europe and became the model for the gardens of Versailles, Hampton Court, and Schönbrunn. The fundamental principles: symmetry with respect to a central axis, an emphasized visual perspective, regular geometry (parterres of clipped boxwood, tree-lined avenues), water as a decorative element (fountains, cascades, reflecting pools), and sculpture as a narrative element. The Giardino di Villa d'Este in Tivoli (RM, UNESCO) and the Giardino di Boboli in Florence are the two most complete and visitable examples of the giardino all'italiana.
The giardino all'inglese (or "landscape garden") arrived in Italy in the 18th-19th century as a romantic reaction to the formal rigidity, natural curves, irregular ponds, solitary trees in postcard-pretty positions, artificial ruins (or real ones, as in the Giardino di Ninfa). Villa Taranto (Verbania) and La Mortella (Ischia) are both 20th-century English-style gardens, continuing a tradition of Anglo-Saxon landscaping applied to the Italian climate.
Is the Giardino di Ninfa open all year?
No. The Giardino di Ninfa is open only on a few selected days each month (usually the first Saturday and the first Sunday, plus some special days). The dates are announced on the website of the Fondazione Caetani (www.fondazionecaetani.org) 2-3 months in advance. Reservation is required and the slots sell out quickly, especially in April-May (the period of maximum bloom) and in October. The ticket costs €15 adults. You can't enter without a reservation. Whoever shows up without a reservation is turned away.
What is the closest botanical garden to Rome?
The Orto Botanico di Roma (Sapienza University, Largo Cristina di Svezia 24, Trastevere) is the botanical garden in the heart of Rome, 12 hectares on the Janiculum with over 3,500 species, historic 19th-century greenhouses, and the largest ficus collection in Italy. Admission €8. From the Giardino di Ninfa (Cisterna di Latina) instead: 1h from Rome by car, far for an impromptu visit, but accessible on an organized half day.
Orto Botanico di Pisa: the historic rivalry with Padua
The Orto Botanico di Pisa (founded in 1544, a year before the one in Padua) claims the record of "oldest university botanical garden in the world," but with an asterisk: it was moved from site to site for centuries (the current location in Via Roma dates to 1591). Padua has always stayed in the same place. UNESCO chose Padua in 1997. The dispute is academic but fascinates botanists: both gardens have epoch-making plant introductions (Padua has the first European sunflower, 1568. Pisa has the first European potato cultivated in a garden, perhaps 1590). Pisa admission: €4 adults, students free. At Via Roma 56, 5 minutes on foot from the Leaning Tower.
