The gardens of the Isola Madre are known to botany lovers for the spring flowering: a riot of azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons. What used to be a bare rock has become, over the centuries, first an orchard, then a citrus orchard and, finally, the English botanical gardens we can see today. The development of the present garden is due to Count Gilberto V Borromeo Arese and to his son Vitaliano IX, who made it the first acclimatization garden of the Lago Maggiore (Lake Maggiore). In 1826 the greenhouses were built and then, thanks to the Lake’s mild climate, plants coming from very different latitudes were planted out: palm trees, tropical water lilies, bougainvillea and eucalypti. Opposite the portico of the palace, an ancient cypress from Kashmir originating from Asian can be admired. It is the biggest European specimen, a veritable rarity with blue-green foliage that goes downwards. The whole island has an intimate and peaceful atmosphere, and a walk through the gardens among free-ranging peacocks, parrots and pheasants will give visitors the impression of being in one of the “enchanted gardens” from the «The Arabian Nights».
