Rossetti Gallery tips: here are the some of the art parks in Italy where we prefer to go in our free time.
To receive our advice every month, sign up for our Newsletter!
art parks in italy: rossetti gallery’s favorites.
1. Garden of Daniel Spoerri
Seggiano – Grosseto
Daniel Spoerri’s sculpture park stretches across the Swiss artist’s 16-hectare estate purchased in 1997, in the hills between the village of Seggiano and the hamlet of Pescina on Mount Amiata, in a location referred to geographically as Paradise.
On display inside are 115 works by 56 artists from around the world and invited over the years by Spoerri himself, including Eva Aeppli, Jean Tinguely, Arman, Pavel Schmidt, and Dani Karavan. Thus, walking along the Park’s paths we find, alongside the founder’s evocative bronze sculptures, grass couches, a golden olive tree, giant drummers followed by 160 geese, and other mysterious figures such as fire-breathing dragons, dwarves and warriors, in a rich arrangement between dream and reality. The site-specific works unfold among dense groves, ancient olive trees and fascinating views typical of the Tuscan hills-a magical place not to be missed by any art lover.
Photo credit: Annalisa Ramos – The Garden of Daniel Spoerri – 2024
2. Celle Farm: Gori Collection
Santomato – Pistoia
The Gori Collection is a private collection of environmental art located in Santomato, in the province of Pistoia. The history of the Gori Collection began in 1950, and the collection now boasts 80 works of environmental art created by artists from all over the world, including Alice Aycock, Sol Lewitt, Dani Karavan, Fausto Melotti, Robert Morris, Dennis Oppenheim, Anne and Patrick Poirier, Ulrich Ruckriem, Richard Serra, Mimmo Paladino, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Gianni Ruffi, Aldo Spoldi, and Alberto Burri.
In the beginning, Giuliano and Pina Gori established their contemporary art collection in Prato, favoring those artists who adopt innovation in artistic language. The rapid growth of the nucleus of works obliges them to provide the collection with a suitable space, which soon becomes a kind of ‘cenacle,’ attended nonstop by friends, artists, critics and art lovers. In conclusion, a complex and ambitious program of Environmental Art begins, beginning with the steering of the park and the consolidation of its appurtenances, and consisting of the implementation of projects for which space ceases its ritual role of simple container to assume the more important one of an integral part of the work.
3. Tarot Garden
Capalbio – Grosseto
We are still in Tuscany, in the hills of Grosseto, in another fascinating and unmissable place for an art lover. We are in the Tarot Garden, a colorful architectural marvel conceived by the visionary mind of French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle.
Following the inspiration she had during a visit to Antoni Gaudí’s Parque Guell in Barcelona, then reinforced by a visit to the garden of Bomarzo, Niki de Saint Phalle began the construction of the Tarot Garden in 1979. Identifying the Garden as the magical and spiritual dream of her life, Niki de Saint Phalle dedicated herself to the construction of the twenty-two imposing steel and concrete figures covered in glass, mirrors and colored ceramics for more than seventeen years, flanked in addition to several skilled workers, by a team of famous names in art such as Rico Weber, Sepp Imhof, Isabelle Le Jeune, Marina Karella and her husband Jean Tinguely, No guided tours are given in the Tarot Garden because it is the artist’s wish to leave it to the interpretation of visitors.
Photo credit: Salomè Haberling – The Tarot Garden – 2024
4. Labyrinth of the Masone by Franco Maria Ricci
Fontanellato – Parma
It is not strictly an art park like the previous ones mentioned, but it is definitely a park where a great art lover would want to get lost: we are talking about the largest existing labyrinth in the world, composed entirely of bamboo plants, at the center of which is an impressive art collection. The founder, Franco Maria Ricci, a collector, refined bibliophile and publisher, was a friend of Luis Borges, the Argentine writer who used the labyrinthine figure to reveal an existence in continuous unpredictable determination: to understand the labyrinth is to reflect on the complexity of the world, on the tangles of good and evil, life and death, and of the implacable loneliness in the face of crucial choices.
At the center, we find the splendid art collection arranged over five thousand square meters: there are about five hundred works spanning five centuries of art history, from the 16th to the 20th centuries, from the great sculpture of the 17th century to neoclassical sculpture, busts from the Napoleonic era, no shortage of Mannerists, nor artists related to the golden years of the Duchy of Parma, as well as 19th-century painting, among which Hayez stands out, and numerous 20th-century works by Wildt, Ligabue, and Savinio.
5. Arte Sella. The contemporary mountain
Borgo Valsugana – Trento
It all started in 1986, when three friends from Borgo Valsugana decided to conceive and launch the Arte Sella project involving artists capable of confronting nature and the use of organic materials. So for years masters from all over the world have been giving birth to projects that manage to blend into the ecosystem.
Inoltre, molte attività espositive si svolgono a “Malga Costa”, un edificio rurale isolato collocato nella parte conclusiva della valle. La malga, un tempo privata ed utilizzata per l’allevamento di bovini e per la produzione di prodotti caseari, è ora di proprietà comunale ed ospita gli artisti coinvolti nell’attività della manifestazioni, oltre a mostre ed a servizi per i visitatori. Infine, non resta che immergersi nel bosco per scrutare, in un raro itinerario, come rami, tronchi, sassi diventino arte.
Did you like the art parks in Italy that we selected?
To receive our advice every month, sign up for our Newsletter!
