Messer Tulipano 2008

2008 edition: The car park was already packed yesterday at 2 pm when I arrived, but with one euro I saved myself the parking hassle. A few metres on foot and then the entrance to the castle of Pralormo (TO) with its Messer Tulipano 2008; an endless queue at the entrance and after 20 minutes I was at the ticket office. 6.5 euros for entry to the park, the visit to the gardens and everything that revolves around Messer Tulipano 2008. The castle is private, lived in, well kept and its first structure dates back to 1300. In the gardens, pretty and quite spacious, the annual edition of Messer Tulipano has been held for years now: an exhibition of multicoloured and multiform tulips, arrangements, tulips combined with other flowers, fountains, etc.... Everything takes place around the castle, including the little markets in the barn and the sale of plants and flowers, tulips etc.

in the courtyard of the farmhouse behind the castle. The visit inside the castle can be booked separately with a guided tour, usually one every half hour; yesterday, thanks to the extraordinary turnout, a tour was running every 15 minutes. The visit costs a separate 5 euros per person and lasts about 40/45 minutes; it reveals part of the castle of Pralormo, since, being lived in, the castle isn't entirely visitable. You visit the cellars, the dining room, some private rooms, the kitchen, the ground-floor drawing room. Inside, the castle is well kept and very pretty; it preserves a great many tools and objects from the 1800s and 1700s. The current owners are the successors of the original owners, the counts of Pralormo. The whole visit is interesting and recommended. Inside the castle you also visit the countess's room with various embroidered canvases.

2 small ponds are in the garden; some stands and gazebos had been neatly set up to admire and display flowers. Very beautiful is the oriental gazebo with clear references to the East; also lovely is the entirely pink gazebo recreating a dressing room with rose motifs. The number of people yesterday was truly exceptional; at the entrance you could admire a floral arrangement in shades of blue and light blue, white and turquoise representing water flowing out of a large jar lying on a lawn. From the outside the castle is nothing exceptional, but inside it's interesting, better when the groups aren't too big; ours was..... A bar (a bit few, only one....) A gelateria taken by storm, stalls with everything and more on a floral theme, flowerbed after flowerbed, plantings of tulips with magnificent shades of bright and delicate colours.

The French greenhouse with the paints used to make the perfumes inside, the tiny but very beautiful chapel that yesterday was dedicated to the rose and was very fragrant. The path of aromatic plants, the salon of smell with boxes full of perfumes of every kind..... an exhibition of very original plants with flowers hung on them and the scent that came from them...... Some stalls of particular Piedmontese foods and sweets. Cost of tulip bulbs to plant: 10 bulbs - 10 euros......nice, wouldn't you say? A very pretty display dedicated to the orange, with an enormous basket of oranges, wicker chairs, a wooden gazebo and mandarin, orange and lemon trees. For the full visit of garden and castle, yesterday the time needed was roughly 3 hours. It was interesting and I recommend it. For further information go to the site:

Opening hours and road information can be found on the site. Possibility of picnicking in the area, but there's no proper food outlet inside; there's only a bar with sandwiches and things of that kind. It's easy to reach the castle as it's well signposted and organised. On particular days such as: Sundays, 25 April etc.... shuttle departures are organised from Turin and Carmagnola.