Milan's Best Park is BAM!

If you're spending a few days visiting the beautiful city of Milano, Italy, I highly recommend taking a half an hour or so to walk through BAM park.

The Parco Biblioteca degli Alberi Milan, otherwise known as BAM, is a gem in northern Milan's trendy Isola district. It's a park and botanical garden, and everything was in full bloom when I visited and had some gorgeous wildflowers.

This park was designed very thoughtfully, and it has a few different sections you will want to check out. There are a ton of crisscrossing pathways, and many of the sections are unique. For example, there's a fitness area, a dog park area, a play area for kids, and one section has a bunch of different tree species planted in circles, which they call the "Tree Library."

Additionally, the Parco Biblioteca degli Alberi Milan is more than a park! It has a ton of cultural events, concerts, workshops, fitness, and more. When planning your trip to Milan, be sure to check out BAM's website to see if you might be able to catch any fun cultural events in action.

How to visit Milan's BAM park

Being a public park, you can visit for free, any time of day or night. It's not gated, and there are no lines or tickets or anything. So, you can pop by during a nice walk around the surrounding neighborhoods of Milan.

BAM park is actually very well located. It's right next to Milan's Garibaldi train station (Milano Porta Garibaldi) which is the second biggest after the Central station. This means that if you're taking the TrenItalia from another city, you can plan to get into Garibaldi station and check out BAM first thing. If you're already local, the park is also just next to the Gioia subway station, and there are numerous public busses that stop here as well. Finally, if you have a car, there is a parking garage right across the street called Porta Nuova Garibaldi Car Park.

Is Milan's Isola neighborhood worth a visit?

Aside from being a cool park in itself, BAM also offered interesting views in all directions of the surrounding Isola and Porta Nuova districts of Milan, which are known for being hip, vibrant areas with unique modern architecture.

The Isola neighborhood is definitely the modern architecture district of Milan, and it's really a must-see for any tourist. It's amazing to see old Milan in the stunning Milan Cathedral and Galleria and then just three kilometers away over here in new Milan see such different architectural styles. Milan is a pretty large, sprawling city, and there's plenty of room for both styles to coexist. The architecture was very cool, both the new and the old, so no matter what you're interested in, there is plenty to see.

I really liked the circular IBM building, and the gate entrance to Porta Nuovo with the giant ribbons that look like a Mischief Night prank. My favorite was obviously the tree building, bottom center. This is the Vertical Forest (Bosco Verticale), and it's a two-structure residential complex opened in 2014. There are 730 trees on the two buildings, 74 different species, and shrubs and plants. In total, it's more than a hectare (2.5 acres) of vegetation! Can you imagine living here and having a view of BAM Park from your tree-filled balcony? Goals.