Flowers & Plants
Tulipanomania in Bardolino: 50,000 flowering bulbs on the lakeside promenade
50 thousand tulips in bloom on the lakeside promenade of Italy’s most beautiful flowering town. Bardolino is once again coloured with thousands of shades thanks to the reconfirmation of the Tulipanomania project, started a few years ago in collaboration with the Parco Giardino Sigurtà and its owner, Giuseppe Sigurtà.
It is a unique stage by the lake, where you can admire dozens of varieties of tulips, from the most common to the rarest ones, with a colour architecture designed directly by Sigurtà: After two years in which spring and this marvel of colour was only available to a few, we are finally back to show everyone this marvel created by nature with the close collaboration of man,” said Bardolino’s mayor, Lauro Sabaini. “This project was also fundamental to our winning the award as Italy’s Most Beautiful Floral Town in 2019, so we can only be grateful and thankful to those who made it possible to bring all this to Bardolino. The coincidence of Easter, which often coincides with the flowering, and the start of the tourist season on Lake Garda has meant that Tulipanomania has become a real event over the years, attracting thousands of visitors to the lakefront to immortalise the flowering: “We are not dealing with a simple urban decoration, with the normal management of public greenery,” continued Katia Lonardi, deputy mayor of Bardolino. 
“The initiative has a significant tourist value, which has grown over the years and has brought more and more visitors and tourists to take an interest in the flowering dates. The proof of this is the increase in requests on social networks and through emails from users asking to know how the tulips are growing, which is another reason to come to Bardolino”. Many varieties can be admired all along the lakefront of Bardolino, from Punta Cornicello to Punta Mirabello and up to Lungolago Preite, but also on the lakefront of Cisano: from the Holland Queen (yellow-red), to the Toyota (red-white), to the Menton (pink) to the Apricot Parrot (orange-white) without forgetting the Belicia (white-pink double), the Labrador (fuchsia red) or the Dordogne (orange). A diversity of colours ranging from black (Black Hero), fuchsia pink (Sunset tropical), dark purple (Negrita), Banja Luka with yellow flowers mottled with red. The planting of the bulbs, which usually takes place between the months of October and December, requires special care and precision, entrusted for years to Incaffi’s Banterla company and to the brothers Fabrizio and Adriano, the latter of whom recently passed away: “We want to dedicate this year’s flowering to Adriano Banterla – explained Sabaini – who for years personally followed this project with great passion, working in close contact with Giuseppe Sigurtà and with the Municipality to achieve the goal of having this marvellous lakefront. All this, therefore, is also thanks to him, his perseverance and his enthusiasm, which we will certainly miss”.
“It is always a pleasure and an honour for me to make a tourist pearl like Bardolino even more beautiful: this flower walk is an opportunity to give residents and tourists a sneak preview of Tulipanomania, the flowering of over a million tulips, which we are hosting at the Park in these days. We would like to remember Adriano Banterla, who left us a few months ago and who was a great tulip enthusiast”.
