Beyond the Yalla Dog

10.10.11

Giardino Garzoni 

Where English gardens have noisy peacocks this Italian garden in Collodio keeps a Crane Corner where it is possible to stand and admire these beautiful birds – but I am getting ahead of myself – we were on a tour of gardens – and this garden is even more baroque and flamboyant even than the cranes themselves!

Due to it’s position on the side of a steep hillside this garden is unique because the central design is not part of a cohesive whole with the Garzoni family Villa – the Villa is set back on the hill and not immediately visible when you enter the garden.

Much of the rest of the village of Collodi stretches up the hill behind the villa.

Unfortunately, - no doubt in order to encourage the visitor to pay the €11 entry fee -there is a huge panel in front of the gate so it is no longer possible to stand back on the little square outside the garden gate to view the broad perspective panorama of the gardens – including the villa – and get the knock-out spectacle envisioned by the architect – but it still takes your breath away when you climb the many stairways to find the half-hidden anamorphic mascaron (I am afraid I had to look this up!! –  Anamorphic: changing to a more complex form …… Mascaron: grotesque face ie on a door-knocker!)

In the four terraces adjacent to the palazzo there is an aviary, a flower garden, an orchard surrounded,and now almost completely obscured by, bamboo and the famous 17th century maze complete with it’s own grotto!

Like most Italian gardens Garzoni garden is full of symbols and messages to the initiated – it is also full of water features, including a water chain with statues and incrustations,  cascading water for the giochi di aqua (water games) playing in the fountains below.

On the outer edge of the garden there is a garden theatre complete with statues of Comedy and Tragedy.

The garden theatre at Giardino Garzoni at Collodi

Not only does Giardino Garzoni feature symbolic statues of Flora, Diana, Fauns, Bacchus, Ceres, Satyrs, Fame, Apollo and Daphne, but it also has niches celebrating the work of the local peasants – Villano watches over monkeys playing ball and his dogs whilst Contadino in his niche pours water from a barrel.

There are no Pinocchio references in this part of the garden – this famous resident of Collodi has a garden all to himself in another part of the complex and an enormous model with, as you might imagine, a huge proboscis, adjacent to the piazza in the centre of the village!

And of course there are peacocks in the garden too – it is a flamboyant place!