The Park

The park boasts centuries-old trees, including lime trees, oaks, horse chestnuts, hornbeams, beech trees and a rare avenue of liriodendron – a splendid plant belonging to the magnolia family, also known as tulip tree because of its flowers.

Alessandro and Marisa set up the Italian garden in the 1930s, with boulevards and hedges surrounding swathes of roses and rare plants that Alessandro – a distinguished botanist who authored popular books on Venetian flora – brought back from his countless journeys.

In the courtyard and luxuriant garden, the cut flower plants were separated from the many varieties of fruit and vegetables by a ditch where nelumbiums – water-lilies with circular leaves – flourished.

Marco and Mädy settled in Fontanelle in the 1960s and have since introduced a wide variety of shrubs and flowers that offer a magical mixture of scents and colours throughout the seasons.