The Oriental Plane of Piazza Malpighi

This plane tree grows in a garden raised more than four metres above the surrounding piazza, a quirk of geography with a specific origin: the ground was once known as the Cavallerizza, a riding ground used from 1612 for horsemanship and public events, before the noble Rusconi family converted it into a private garden around 1825 and planted, among other trees, this Oriental plane. Two centuries on it has become, by most local accounts, the single most imposing tree standing anywhere in Bologna's historic centre, 36 metres tall with a trunk 520cm around, close by the Rusconi family's own palazzo. Its elevated setting has become something of a double-edged inheritance: the raised garden and the tall retaining wall separating it from the piazza below have almost certainly limited how far its root system can spread, yet the tree shows no clear sign of decline generations after its likely planting date. It remains one of eight trees on Italy's official monumental register within Bologna city limits, a shy giant, in the words of one local tree writer, tucked into a garden most passersby in the piazza below never think to look up into.