Storico Giardino Garzoni

First evidence of the villa dates back to Marquess Romano in 1633 and Alessandro Garzoni, who was probably also the first architect of the garden, already set out in its present form in 1652. The imposing work took 170 years to complete. The final layout and the miraculous Summer House are due to the talent and whim of Ottavino Diodati. The garden, which opens like a theatre with water games and star-shaped fountains, immediately aroused the envy of Princes and Kings. Not only can it compete with the great Italian gardens (Villa d’Este, Boboli and the Royal Park of Caserta), but also European ones such as Versailles, Fontainebleau, Saint-Cloud, Potsdam, Wichelmhohe and Schonbrunn in Vienna. It expresses the same great post-Renaissance ideals, the rigorous geometric structures softened by plants, epic and fantastic statues, masks and fountains. The villa, known as ”of the hundred windows”, is of legendary beauty. The bedroom where Napoleon is supposed to have stayed is on the first floor, as is the great kitchen where Collodi, the nephew/grandson of the Garzoni’s bailiff, spent many moments of his childhood.