This post is also available in: Italian

I love visiting gardens, large or small, historical and contemporary. Unfortunately, every time I want to do so, I’ve got to leave my beloved German Sheperd Duca with a friend or an expensive dogsitter. Dogs aren’t usually allowed inside large gardens, as well as on many Italian beaches.
After all, just a little common sense would overcome this problem, but people don’t usually get themselves properly equipped to take their pets around without causing any possible sort of damage to public and private properties.

Anyway, I’ve just come across some very interesting news: The Barbarigo Valsanzibio Monumental Garden, near Padova, has recently decided to allow dogs on its premises!

The seventeenth-century garden – also known as the “Italian Versailles”, is one of the most extraordinary and best-preserved green facilities in Italy, featuring a network of orthogonal avenues. Along the east-west axis, which begins at the monumental Diana Gateway, lies a succession of water features and fishponds, which are richly sculpted and reminiscent of Roman Baroque gardens.

South of the fishponds, the famous maze is one of the esoteric elements suggested by the gardens, linked to the neo-Platonic philosophical ideals dear to their designer. In the early nineteenth century, the property was inherited by Lodovico Martinengo da Barco, who was responsible for the landscape-style additions to the gardens. In 1930, the complex passed into the hands of the Pizzoni Ardemani counts, the current owners who undertook the restoration of the garden.

Dogs have been finally allowed inside the garden thanks to the Dogland Park Project managed by
Marco Dainese from Padua and the Sanypet company in Bagnoli (near Padua), a market leader in the pet food sector.

Nearby, there are several other interesting places to visit: please visit Andar per vivai: Padova e dintorni (Veneto/2) for more information.

Dogs are usually allowed inside the nurseries, as long as they’re kept on a leash.

(photo taken from the web)

This post is also available in: Italian