Top of the World
The park of Castello di Bagnolo, covering about two hectares, is rich in centuries-old trees as much as 40-45 metres tall, with examples of pinus nigra, pinus austriaca, cedri deodara, taxus bacata, metasequoie as well as fagus tricolor, oaks, chestnuts, libocedrus and criptomeria japonica, which surround the two spacious, airy lawns. A magnificent liriodendron tulipifera welcomes visitors right at the park entrance, flowering in May with thousands of yellow tulips.
In the middle of the lawn, in front of the Palace, an elliptical fountain known as the ''Green Man'' (a reference to some forgotten fable) is the home of fish and newts, while a hedge of rugose roses and a festoon of mountain clematis create a backdrop running along a wall overlooking an agricultural landscape. The gallery of hornbeams that leads to All Saints Chapel (1600) and hedges of box, hornbeam and yew running for almost two kilometres trace the old outline of the park as far as the Castle hill, delineated by Mondarello brook, surrounded by thick bamboos. The ''deer pits'', created to provide a view from above of the delightful Italian-style garden and then arranged for use as an enclosure for deer and fallow deer, are now a lovely border of ferns crowned with light blue hydrangea bushes.
