Italy: Rome reopens pick-your-own tulip park

Rome: Tulipark, which allows visitors to pick their own tulips for purchase, reopens in Rome on Friday 19 March and will remain open until April.
This year there will be around 360,000 tulips, from more than 100 different varieties, growing at the flower farm in the Prenestino-Labicano area of east Rome.

Due to Italy’s covid-19 restrictions, visitors will have to purchase their tickets online and book their time slot in advance.

The 26,000-sqm Tulipark will be open daily from 09.00-18.00, probably until the second half of April, depending on the availability of its tulips.

The reopening of the park – on Festa del Papà, Italy’s Father’s Day – comes after it was forced to remain closed in 2020 due to Italy’s nationwide coronavirus lockdown.

The first edition of Tulipark in 2018 made headlines after the garden was devastated within 48 hours of opening. Visitors pulled 7,000 plants out of the ground – instead of cutting the flowers – before pocketing the bulbs to replant at home.

Organisers susbequently displayed rules explaining to the public how to pick the tulips properly, reminding visitors not to trample on the plants, not to dump flowers once they are picked, and to refrain from throwing litter and cigarette butts.