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Everyone wishes you something, writes you messages, sends you greetings, right? But where are the presents?? 🎁 Oh, right! Those were… a week ago. Looks like I missed them… 😁 Well, I’ve got one for you now. And it is big!

Last summer we travelled to Verbania in northern Italy to film a major part of our most important video about the signature plant of our assortment – the southern magnolia. What an experience! If you’ve seen the video, you may have felt it. Verbania is a spa town built on the shore of Italy’s second-largest lake, Lago Maggiore, which is so long that it stretches all the way up north into Switzerland.

And right here lies the botanical garden Giardini Botanici di Villa Taranto. “Giardini” is plural in Italian – and no wonder. This is not a single garden, but a vast complex of different styles and worlds. It was founded in the 1930s by the Scottish captain Neil McEacharn, and today it is considered one of the most beautiful garden complexes in Italy and one of the most respected botanical collections in Europe, home to thousands of plants, including rare ones from all over the world.

This you can read in a guidebook. But only when you step through the gate and pass the restaurant – necessary, yes, but stylistically a bit distracting – right by the entrance, do you truly understand where you’ve arrived. The garden feels as if it were created by someone who not only understood plants but genuinely loved them – and you can feel that in every metre. So let’s explore the story a little deeper, shall we?

History of true passion

Neil Boyd McEacharn was a Scotsman who possessed two things in unusual abundance: money and an obsession with plants. He came from a wealthy family owning shipping companies and mines, but the direction of his life was set by an invisible fate already in childhood, when he first visited Italy with his parents and she whispered into his ear: “Ragazzo mio, qui un giorno troverai il tuo sogno e la tua casa.” Imagine an eight‑year‑old boy from cold Scotland, standing with his mouth wide open, staring at a landscape bathed in hot Italian sun – that’s exactly the image of Neil when he fell in love with the place. That was the defining moment when the idea of a breathtaking garden began to live inside him.

But dreams like that need time. A lot of time. Only at the age of forty‑six, travelling on the Orient Express (can you feel that breath of history and exoticism?), he came across an ad offering a villa on Lago Maggiore. Coincidence…? He didn’t hesitate. He bought it, renamed it Villa Taranto, and threw himself into a project that would take almost a decade.

Between 1931 and 1940, McEacharn transformed the entire estate: he felled thousands of trees, reshaped the terrain, built a water system several kilometres long, and gathered plants from all over the world. Put into simple words it may sound dry and easy – but can you REALLY imagine it? In reality, it was a monumental operation in which the original landscape was transformed into something Italy had never seen before. Every new bed was like a chapter of a novel, every imported tree a character with its own story.

McEacharn personally supervised the plantings, took notes on how the plants behaved in the local climate, and had ponds, water staircases and long avenues built to guide the visitor exactly as he envisioned. He invested his entire fortune into the project (and he was a Scot!), and because he had not only resources but also patience, he could afford a luxury most gardeners only dream of: if he didn’t like something, he had it redone. And if he did like it, he expanded it.

There's always a twist

When the war broke out, he had to leave Italy – a moment that would have broken many hearts. But he did something very unexpected: he donated the garden to the state so it could survive without him. After the war he returned, walked through the gate, and found the garden alive, growing, more beautiful than ever. Fortunately, the state knew very well that McEacharn was the best person to care for it, and so he was allowed to come back and look after it until the end of his life. He opened it to the public and spent the rest of his days among his trees, as if walking through a dream that had become reality.

Today, the Giardini Botanici di Villa Taranto are considered one of the most beautiful garden complexes in Europe, and the place feels exactly as McEacharn imagined: a place where botany becomes an experience, and where, for a moment, you find yourself inside a story with a true happy ending. A living proof of what a person can create when they have not only the means, but also a dream to follow, the courage to pursue it, and above all a lifelong love for plants.

My conclusion?

It was a truly memorable experience. The unexpected diversity of species, the plants in perfect condition, well cared for and clearly labelled, and irrigation wherever needed – which, in that heat, we were more than happy to make use of ourselves, with our shirts and shoes off 😊 So come on in and explore what I have seen. Or even better - make a trip and go see for yourself! Take these photos as an invitation and go whenever you want - there's always something going on in every part of the year. And get ready for a hike - it is quite hilly👣 

Giardini Botanici di Villa Taranto - official website