Parco del Neto

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Despite its location in a heavily built-up area, this seven-acre park has retained its wetland characteristics, once common to the whole valley area, and a throwback to the days when a large lake system provided a natural outlet for the river Arno in flood. The Neto area in particular has survived because of its remarkable position, close to the first spurs of Mt. Morello, a circumstance which favoured its transformation from extensive marshland into the romantic garden of a Patrician villa. Before being purchased by the Calenzano and Sesto Fiorentino authorities, the Neto estate was home to a number of illustrious personages. Its various owners have included Ilario Ronillè marquis of Boissy (a French peer and senator in the Napoleonic Empire), count Ignazio Guiccioli (husband of the countess Teresa Gamba) and the poet Lord Byron. The Neto Park boasts a wide range of trees. The large Taxodium trees, the most spectacular of all, were probably planted at the beginning of the century, whereas the lime trees, plane trees and horse chestnuts lining the main avenues, are older, and almost certainly date back to the 19th century. The Taxodium distichum is the Neto Park's most stunning adornment. This imposing tree, which is something of a rarity in Italian gardens, has a number of common names: some refer to it as the "marsh cypress", because of its tendency to grow in wetland areas, others call it the "bald cypress" because in winter it loses not only its leaves but also the smaller branches and twigs, leaving it totally bare. A third common name is the "Virginia tree", because in that part of North America it grows in groups in huge forests. But perhaps the most appropriate name of all would be "tree of wonders", given the fact that it grows to over fifty metres in height, because of its quite remarkable lifespan (many have been known to live for over a thousand years) and its adaptability to quite different climates, from the humid warmth of the Gulf of Mexico to the harsh winters of central Europe.

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www.cultura.toscana.it/architetture/giardini/firenze/pa...