The Fondazione Paolo e Carolina Zani

The Fondazione Paolo e Carolina Zani offers a guided itinerary from the Casa Museo collection to its garden, located in the Franciacorta countryside, towards the city of Brescia and the Iseo lake. The garden was created as a natural fulfi llment of the collection, made up of over 1200 baroque masterpieces mainly French, Venetian and Roman. The itinerary into the garden is a path through sculptures, fountains, ar- chitectural elements in a dialogue with nature. A corner of the world where distant cultures are glimpsed, such as the ones represented by Egyptian papyrus, Lebanon cedars, the Japanese pagoda tree, the Chinese juniper, the careful selection of Agaves, and a scenographic selection of Bonsais. Among the rare arboreal species, trees pruned artfully and antique sculptures, paths unwind and lead to an evocate nymphaeum with putti and water features. Refl ected here, with all its lightness, is a singular collection of water lilies and aquatic plants, brought to life by colorful Japanese carps (Koi). This itinerary celebrates a vision of the house as a metaphor for the space of the soul in which treasures are protected, wisdom is safeguarded, beauty is cultivated, and, most importantly, art is inhabited. The auditorium has recently opened in the garden to host conferences, concerts and other events.

The Casa Museo offers the visitors a guided itinerary to discover an extraordinary collection of sculptures, paintings, pieces of furniture and applied arts. Amongst the collection masterpieces stand up paintings by Canaletto, Tiepolo, Guardi, Longhi, Boucher alongside precious French, Venetian and Roman furniture and extraordinary pieces of XVII and XVIII Century.