This past week, Judith and I took off to Lake Maggiore for a few days, staying in a small place called Ranco, which is towards the southern end and on the east bank of the lake. Undoubtedly, the highlight of our trip was a boat ride to see the Villa Taranto botanical gardens, near Verbania.
The estate upon which the gardens are now laid out, was bought by a Scottish Captain, Neil McEacharn in 1931 and he introduced thousands of plants, trees and shrubs from all around the world. I’d highly recommend a visit if you are ever in the vicinity. I was particularly impressed with the huge variety of colours, shapes and sizes of the Dahlias. (See pics 8 to 27 – you may think this is a lot, but there were 350 on show!)
I think this may well be the most colourful post I ever publish. 🙂
Alittlebitoutoffocus 
Very colorful indeed! It’s lovely!
LikeLike
Yes indeed, the dahlias were set out in a sort of twisty, turny path (they called it a maze, but there was only one entrance and one exit, so you couldn’t get lost), so you were more or less surrounded by them. The largest ones were almost as big as a football (soccer, that is). 🙂 But the all of the garden was laid out beautifully.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Verbania (Pallanza) and Lake Maggiore, Italy | Alittlebitoutoffocus