Historic gardens to visit

Historic gardens are the most natural companion to golf: they call for the same morning hours, the same light, the same taste for a landscape built with patience. The difference is that a garden has to be visited in the right month. That is why the flowering season each garden declares matters.

Five historic gardens and the golf courses nearby

Between the lakes of Lombardy and Piedmont and Merano, five historic gardens have a golf course close by and, in three cases, a hotel for golfers next door or nearby. Opening dates and hours change from year to year; those given here are for 2026.

Villa Carlotta: camellias, azaleas and the citrus grove

The garden of Villa Carlotta, in Tremezzina, surrounds a villa built at the end of the 17th century by the Clerici marquises. The formal layout, in the Italian style, dates from the time of construction: a symmetrical axis running from the gate to the clock on the roof, clipped hedges, fountains, terraces enclosed by stone balustrades. Here too are the two citrus tunnels, which in the Clerici era spread over many more terraces and earned the place the nickname «Selva cedrina», the citron wood.

The flowering as the garden itself declares it: the camellias open the spring, with specimens more than a century old; the azaleas and rhododendrons are the main attraction (the website speaks of abundant colour from the end of April), with the rhododendrons in full bloom between mid-March and mid-April; the roses have their month in May; in summer it is the turn of the hydrangeas. According to the website, the ticket also includes the villa's museum, the garden is almost entirely accessible to disabled visitors although some paths are steep, and dogs are admitted on a lead. The website gives the current hours as 10 am–7 pm, with last entry at 6 pm.

For a round, the Menaggio e Cadenabbia Golf Club was founded on 10 January 1907 at the Hotel Victoria in Menaggio by four English gentlemen and is the second-oldest golf club in Italy: 18 holes, par 70, 5,482 metres, with a library that keeps golf books dating back to 1682. The club requires an exact handicap of 54; in 2026 the season began on 13 March.

Isola Bella and Isola Madre: the Baroque and the botanical

The two islands are part of the Borromeo Islands, open in 2026 from 12 March to 8 November. Isola Bella was, according to the website, a bare rock in the 17th century and was transformed by the Borromeo family, who have owned it ever since: its original name was «Isola Isabella», in honour of Isabella d'Adda, wife of Carlo III, who in 1630 conceived the Baroque gardens. Seen from the lake, the island looks like a ship: the terraced gardens are the bow, the Teatro Massimo rises to the south, the palace and the jetty to the north are the stern.

Isola Madre, at eight hectares, was a farm of vines, figs, olives, chestnuts and cherries before becoming a botanical garden. The first greenhouses date from 1826; in the 19th century camellias, azaleas, rhododendrons and magnolias arrived, and in the 20th century exotic palms and conifers. The calendar declared by the website: camellias from March, azaleas and proteas in April, rhododendrons, roses and water lilies between May and June, hibiscus and bougainvillea in midsummer. Gustave Flaubert, in the 19th century, called it «the most voluptuous place in the world».

The Villa e Palazzo Aminta in Stresa, facing the islands, has rooms with views of the lake and the islands; according to the hotel, they can be reached by private motorboat from the hotel's jetty or by the regular ferries from the Stresa landing stage. The concierge also books tickets for Palazzo Borromeo and for Isola Madre. For a round, the two courses closest to the hotel, 5 km away, are the Golf des Iles Borromées, 18 holes, par 72, 6,122 metres at about 600 metres above sea level (2026 green fee of 70 euros on weekdays and 85 at weekends and on public holidays), and the Golf Club Alpino.

Villa Taranto: the Scottish captain's garden

Villa Taranto, in Verbania, is the work of the Scottish captain Neil McEacharn, who in 1931 bought the property from the Marquis of Sant'Elia to turn it into an English-style garden; the work was completed in 1940. According to the website, the botanical collection includes almost 1,000 non-native plants and about 20,000 varieties and species of particular botanical interest. Among the principal features are the «Valletta», the terraced garden with waterfalls and ponds of water lilies and lotus flowers, the winter garden, the peat-bog garden and the dahlia labyrinth with more than 300 varieties. The garden has been open to the public since 1952 and, according to the website, the villa cannot be visited because it houses the Prefecture.

According to the garden, from 19 October to 8 December 2026 different hours and visiting arrangements apply compared with the rest of the year; in the event of an orange or red alert for thunderstorms or heavy rain, the garden stays closed. The most convenient course for a round from the area is the Golf Verbania, 18 holes, par 69, on Lake Mergozzo, open all year round, with a 2026 green fee of 55 euros on weekdays and 70 at weekends and on public holidays. The Aminta hotel lists Villa Taranto among the visits its concierge arranges.

Trauttmansdorff: eighty gardens in one

The Gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle, in Merano, cover 12 hectares with a height difference of 100 metres and, according to the website, contain 80 botanical landscapes divided into four worlds. In 2026 they are open every day from 1 April to 8 November, from 9 am. The website devotes a section to Empress Elisabeth, Sissi.

For a round, the Golf Club Passeier.Meran has 18 holes, par 71, 5,791 metres; in 2026 the green fee is 106 euros for 18 holes and 60 for nine. In Tirolo, above Merano, the Hotel Castel includes in the stay the Golfcard, with a 20% discount on the green fee at the nine South Tyrolean courses.

Villa d'Este: the hotel park

The ten-hectare park of the Villa d'Este in Cernobbio, according to the hotel, is one of the Grandi Giardini Italiani and surrounds the hotel's 151 rooms; the villa dates from 1568 and has been a hotel since 1873. For guests the course is the Circolo Golf Villa d'Este in Montorfano, about 14 km away: 18 holes, par 69, designed by Peter Gannon in 1926, returned to the hotel's ownership in 2024.

When to go

If your aim is the blooms, according to the websites: March for the camellias on Isola Madre; mid-March to mid-April for the rhododendrons of Villa Carlotta; April for the azaleas and proteas of Isola Madre; May and June for rhododendrons, roses and water lilies on Isola Madre. Bear in mind the closing calendar: the Borromeo Islands close on 8 November 2026, and Trauttmansdorff on the same day. The dates for 2027 are not yet known.

Curiosities

• A ducal name. Villa Taranto takes its name from an ancestor of Captain McEacharn, Marshal Macdonald, made Duke of Taranto by Napoleon.
• A piece of Scotland on the lake. McEacharn chose the place because it reminded him of his native Scotland, but with more softness and variety of colour.
• The stone ship. Isola Bella, seen from the mainland, looks like a ship with a prow of gardens.