Palace of Caserta: The Park

If you think the Palace of Caserta looks grand from the outside, wait until you step inside.  It’s a whole different world.

Initially, I wasn’t impressed when I first saw the palace from the outside as the grounds weren’t well kept.  However, don’t make the mistake of thinking that the outside garden is the park.  Not even close!

Once through the palace gates, at the opposite end, you could get a glimpse of the Park that awaits you through the arch doorway.  It almost seems as if it is teasing you to step into the boundless park and disregard the other features of the Palace.

It sure tempted me as I was curious to see what I would behold at the other end.  On top of that, as the weather was still holding up, we decided to first make our way to the park. We have heard that it’s best to take the shuttle as it can be a long walk but while buying our tickets, there was a sign saying that the shuttle for the park was temporarily suspended.

Palace of Caserta: Walk in the Park

I didn’t think much about the shuttle as I also walk a lot in Rome.  I was just enjoying the gorgeous park with the statues and just trying to comprehend the enormity of this place.

Although there is no shuttle available there are horse-drawn carriages. Not something I approve of and didn’t even bother to inquire how much it costs.  Some got creative by bringing their bicycle which I didn’t know was allowed and others had their sweats on to get a workout in the park. To be honest, there was a fair amount of activity and they were even several cars driving through the grounds.

However, we just walked and finally got to the first fountain called the Margherita Fountain.  This is probably the simplest fountain in the park out of the six in total.

Prior to reaching the second fountain, Fountain of the Dolphins, there was a long stretch of water where you could still see some fish – some huge too! This pool was originally filled with fish for the palace kitchen and is about 470 meters long.

At the end of this stretch, you will see the Fountain of  the Dolphins which was operational.

As we made our way to the 3rd fountain, the walk started to feel really long.  Finally when we got to the Fountain of Aeolus and the Grotto of the Winds, we were disappointed to see that there was no cascade. It was also a pity to see it in that state and could have been better maintained.

At this point, we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to see the remaining 3 fountains as there was still a walk ahead of us. However, we persisted a bit longer until we saw from a distance that, for whatever reason, the Fountain of Ceres was also not functioning.

While you can see there is a pool of water,  it dried up at a certain point and that is why there was no cascade at the Fountain of Aeolus.  I am not sure if this is just a temporary situation due to renovations or one that has been going on for a while.

Mind you that it took us an hour to get to the third fountain and as the fountains were not running,  we decided to head back to the palace.  With much reluctance I turned around and unfortunately, we didn’t see the whole park!

It sure deserves another visit but we will probably call ahead to see if the fountains are working and if the shuttle is in service. Even with the slight setbacks, I was content that I got to step into a park that still held it’s splendor.

In hindsight, I realized it was a good idea to head back to the Palace as there was as much to see inside the Palace of Caserta.  This palace is massive and impressive.

P.S. If you are wondering how to get to the Palace of Caserta from Rome, please read the post on A Day Trip from Rome.