As spring fully takes hold and we look ahead to summer and autumn, we enter the best time to plan a stay at one of our vacation rentals in Lake Garda. Summer sun means all sorts of outings, special events and festivals, water sports, excitement, and more but the months either side of the summer offer milder conditions that make really exploring the area on foot and by bike a more pleasant affair. It depends on what kind of holiday in Italy you want and when you can travel. However, no matter when you visit, you’ll find that the natural beauty and astounding attractions of this gorgeous part of the world are utterly breath-taking and incredibly numerous. Among these attractions, the Parco Giardino Sigurtà stands out as especially lovely and with something special to offer throughout spring, summer, and autumn.
Spread across 60 hectares in Valeggio sul Mincio, the Parco Giardino Sigurtà has won endless prizes and has been listed variously as among the most beautiful gardens in Italy, Europe, and the world. Dating all the way back to the 15th century, when the area was an estate with a farm and a private leisure garden, the space has been reimagined and reconfigured many different times, though it has maintained the same dimensions of the original space. The property passed from the Contarini to the Guarienti to the Maffei families before ending up in the Sigurtà family, for whom it is named. In fact, it was patriarch Giuseppe Carlo Sigurtà, a pharmaceutical industrialist, who purchased the property in 1941 and had it totally transformed from the arid land that it had become into a lush wonderland.
Opened to the public in 1978 by Giuseppe Carlo Sigurtà, visitors were first permitted to drive through on, “self-driving,” tours. Today, things are very different and the park has only been accessible by foot or vehicles provided by the park since the 2000. The Sigurtà family remain the owners and the garden has utterly bloomed under their care throughout the generations. It has many different attractions and draws visitors from all over the world. Here’s what you can expect if you book a holiday rental in Lake Garden and visit in any one of the seasons that it is open.
Spring
Spring is when the garden comes alive once more and reopens to the public for the year. Early in the season, you get the daffodils of different varieties and, soon after, the tulips. Tulips have become one of the defining features of the Parco Giardino Sigurtà, as the flowering of tulips here is considered the second richest in Europe, after that of Keukenhof, and is certainly the most impressive in Italy. The sight of the million tulips of the park, in a variety of shades, transforming the vast lawns into a giant rainbow, now draws around 100,000 visitors a year in just March and April alone each year. This has become known as Tulipanomania and is a serious festival, with all sorts of creations made of tulips and special events alongside the blooms themselves. In addition to the tulips, the daffodils and fragrant hyacinths and muscari mean that spring is a colourful and magical time to experience the park.
Later in the season, you also have the appearance of the irises, peonies, and another of the show-stoppers in the park: the roses. The roses flower from May right through September, along the rose avenue, where 30,000 roses of the Elizabeth and the Hybrid Polyantha & Floribunda varieties stretch for 1km, with Valeggio sul Mincio’s Scaligero Castle appearing at the end to rather dramatic and picturesque effect.
Summer
Throughout a summer vacation in Lake Garda and a visit to the park, the roses continue to bloom alongside dahlias and sunflowers. The meadows are green and lush and perfect for strolling and relaxing. In addition, the water features of the park – including 18 ponds – come alive with the blooming of water lilies, water hyacinths, and lotus flowers, which reach their full splendour between June and July.
Autumn
The rich and warm hues of autumn are another kind of wonder but, in addition to the colour of the foliage, this is when the asters, begonias, zinnias, canna indica, and other such flowers bloom. It is also a great time to dive into another of the most famous attractions of the park, the Labyrinth. Inaugurated in 2011, it spreads out extends over an area of 2,500 square meters and was designed by Giuseppe Inga Sigurtà along with the famous maze designed Adrian Fisher. At its centre is a tower that was inspired by the one in the French Bois de Boulogne and that can be climbed so that visitors can view the geometrical pattern of the labyrinth from above. Built over six years and filled with 1,500 yews that were brought in specially from the Netherlands, it is a special space that was lovingly crafted with care.
Other attractions at the park include the castle museum that houses artefacts and information about the park and the Sigurtà family, the neo-Gothic hermitage, the pet cemetery, the horizontal sundial, and the giant 400-year-old oak tree. The park can today be visited from March to November on foot, by bike, by golf cart or shuttle tour, or by taking the little train that goes around the gardens and offers panoramic views.
So, if you are booking a villa in Lake Garda and want to come explore the incredible natural beauty of the area, a visit to the Parco Giardino Sigurtà is a must!
Parco Giardino Sigurtà
Via Cavour 1 - 37067 Valeggio sul Mincio (Verona) Italia
+ 39 045 6371033
info@sigurta.it
Opening Hours:
Daily from March 8th to November 9th 2025
March, October, and November – 9am to 6pm
April, May, June, July, August, and September – 9am to 7pm
Tickets:
Adults - €18.00
Children (5-14 years of age) - €10.00
Children under 5 go free
Over 65s - €14.00