We’ve listed 13 parks that are easy to visit without a car, from Isola Bella in Piedmont to the Botanical Garden of Catania in Sicily.

A way to discover Italy’s great botanical and natural heritage, and to encourage you to use alternative transportation instead of cars.

Here are some to discover this Spring. And for everyone, tips on where to crash.

An expanse of yellow, blue, red, purple, white, lilac… A million tulips bloom in early March at the Sigurtà garden park in Valeggio sul Mincio, in the Verona area. A 60-hectare oasis, on the land of an ancient brolo (a field surrounded by walls), that reopens in the spring with plenty of new features.

The biggest tulip show in Italy lasts until the end of April. The park has a ton of stuff to check out, like the floating flowerbeds in the water gardens, the big turf area, the avenue of roses, and the sundials (one of which is dedicated to Galileo Galilei).

You can explore all this on foot, by bike, or on electric golf carts.

One of the most famous Italian Baroque gardens, with obelisks and seventeenth-century statues, is on Lake Maggiore. Isola Bella is a gem of the Borromean Islands, and you can get there by ferry from Stresa.

There’s a 200-year-old camphor tree at the entrance. The Throne Room and the Palazzo Borromeo picture gallery are a must-see, as well as the flowering of camellias in March, of azaleas and rhododendrons in April and May, and of roses in June.

The park spans 18 hectares and features lawns, flower beds, a summer garden, and centuries-old trees, chestnuts, red beeches, Ginkgo Biloba, oaks, maples, cedars of Lebanon.

If you’re looking for a place to take the kids to see some animals, this garden has fallow deer, goats, and llamas.

The Fattoria area also has zebras, kangaroos, pink flamingos, and 50 other kinds of animals. The leaves on the big trees make autumn magical, just like spring is the triumph of blooms.

This aristocratic home in Milan, with its villa, garden, and interiors, is a journey into the taste of the 1930s. With great Italian art from Tiepolo to Canaletto and De Chirico.

In May, the camellias bloom, and throughout the summer, the hydrangeas do too. The villa is often venue for art exhibition.

Just 10 minutes from the Arena, this garden still has the imprint and path from 1570, the fountains, the mythological statues, and the oldest labyrinth in Italy. Plus, it’s famous for the cypress-lined avenue that leads up to the cave and the best viewpoint of the city.

If you’re visiting the Giusti Garden, make sure to stop by the Antica bottega dei vini for a meal or an aperitif. It’s a historic place that used to be a tavern in the 16th century.

Unesco heritage, the oldest university botanical garden in the world, 3500 plant species, 7000 specimens, is one of the reasons to discover Padua, together with the Scrovegni chapel frescoed by Giotto. Do not miss the Garden of Biodiversity.

In the know: guided tours with the naturalist, even individual tours on weekends. Info: ortobotanicopd.it

Renaissance, Baroque, these gardens are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And the numbers explain why: 35,000 square meters of greenery, 9,000 of avenues, 50 fountains, 255 waterfalls, 100 pools, 250 jets, 15,000 plants, 150 centuries-old tall trees.

In the know: the fountains created in the 16th century by Pirro Ligorio without mechanical devices, powered by natural pressure.

Tip: after visiting Villa d’Este, it’s worth stopping for a couple of days and following the circuit with Villa Adriana (another Unesco World Heritage Site) and Villa Gregoriana with the Aniene waterfalls.

The Vatican City Gardens are located inside the Papal States of Rome. This 57-acre area, designed with Renaissance geometries, has sculptures, fountains, monuments, botanical gardens and buildings dating back to the 6th century.

The Vatican Gardens aren’t usually crowded, because only a limited number of people can visit the attraction simultaneously. These gardens are a great place to relax. It’s also where you can get a great view of St. Peter’s Basilica.

From the town of Castel Gandolfo to Albano, this set of gardens, residences, archaeological sites and vegetable gardens reserved for the papal table extend over 55 hectares.

An itinerary of art, history, scents of roses, refreshment of centuries-old trees. The most suggestive stretch from the Magnolia Garden to the Belvedere terraces.

Tip: every Saturday you can leave from the old Vatican City station and reach the Pontifical Villas with an electric train. A full day experience that also includes the Vatican Museums and Gardens, Barberini Garden.

Parco Reale and Reggia are the masterpieces of Luigi and Carlo Vanvitelli, created in the 18th century. for King Charles of Bourbon. The first part of this 122-hectare park is a set of parterres separated by a central avenue connected to other avenues, a green world of lime trees, hornbeams and holm oaks.

The second part is a scenic waterway with monumental fountains, statues, basins, tubs up to the Monte Briano waterfall. The Plus: the English garden that emulates nature with ponds, native and exotic plants.

Tip: You can reach the Reggia aboard vintage carriages with the Caserta Express.

From the eighteenth century, near the Kalsa district, it is one of the most important Italian academic institutions with 12,000 different plant species, a herbarium of 6000 m2, 1300 m2 of greenhouses.

In the know: thanks to the Mediterranean climate, the bitanic garden is in flower all year round. Fascinating, the gigantic Gingko Biloba, the tropical orchard and the library with 26,000 volumes.

The La Mortella Gardens, open to the public since 1991, are a beautiful example of a love between a woman and a man, as well as a love for botany. Susana Valeria Rosa Maria Gil Passo, from Argentina, was the wife of British composer Sir William Walton.

They met when she was 22 years old, during a trip he made to Buenos Aires. A shock, for both.

After the wedding, the couple chose to settle in Ischia and from 1959 Lady Susana began working on her masterpiece with the help of landscape architect Thomas Page.