The huge botanical garden of Castle Trauttmansdorff right outside the city center of Meran/South Tyrol are a must-see. They offer a rich vegetation, a great museum about the history of the tourism in the Alpine region and a perfect getaway for a few hours.
We spent nearly a whole day in the gardens and museum admiring the beauty and inspiration of this place. The castle is located just a few minutes drive outside the city center and is easily to reach. There is a lot of parking space and the gardens offer many different venues.
We entered in the late morning and started with the museum which took us many hours to explore. In the afternoon after a tasty lunch in the restaurant of the castle we had a long digestive walk in the green gardens with many different theme places.
The gardens opened in 2001 and since then there are some 500.000 visitors each year during spring, summer and fall.
There are 4 circuit trails and 3 panoramic trails with 8 garden landscapes. They have plants from all over the world. Flowers are blooming whole years long according to the season. As the venue is in the mountains there are also a lot of panoramic points with amazing views on the gardens and the surroundings. Artistic pavilions, experience stations and even a parrot house are intriguing.
One can walk in the forests of the world which show forests of Asia and America. I liked a lot the rhododendron hills. I had to smile when we arrived at Palm Beach…. white sand, palm trees and deck chairs.. the only thing missing was the ocean.
I liked particularly the Mediterranean gardens with typical plants of the Mediterranean. On this trail there is also the aviary with lories and macaws. We sat there for a while observing these beautiful, intelligent birds. We passed under flowering arches and saw uncountable flowers.
We haven’t been in the botanical underworld nor on the viewing platform. But we appreciated a lot the vegetable garden, a way of growing in a home garden vegetables in a healthy way.
For a while we sat at the big lake, the lotus pond, with a lot of huge kois. We found also some domestic animals like goats and rabbits.
In the end we spent another 3 hours in the gardens of Castle Trauttmansdorff with its 12 ha land. We walked 7 kilometers up and down, but all easily to walk. There are many water places and it is extremely green. It is definitely a place where to spent a whole day when in the Meran area and you like nature AND culture!
Trauttmansdorff Castle, Merano, South-Tyrol/Italy:
For further information:
Official website of Tirol
Touriseum
Trauttmansdorff Castle
