The Boboli Gardens, Florence

It looks like I'm stuck with the tail end of winter here, so I'm going to go back to some of gardens we've visited which I was quite enjoying.  The Boboli Gardens sit on the south bank of the Arne in Florence, Italy.  We visited them when we went to Italy for a tour.  For Mrs. F.G. it was a return and the trip was wonderful!

Florence is of course that famous city of culture, featuring the Duomo, completed in 1436 and home to Bruneshelli's dome.  There are three statues of David, and most tourists see the one in the Uffizi Gallery, but the one standing outside the town hall is the more appropriate one, for 'David' was intended as a political statement!

Since we were in town we went off by ourselves to visit the gardens, where we wandered for three hours.  The entrance is the   TPitti Palace originally home to the Pitti family, but bought by the Medici family in 1549.  The gardens were laid out for the Medicis.

As you enter the dominant feature is the statue of Neptune, in the centre of a large pool.  You can continue up the hill beyond this. or you can turn to the right and follow down a long wide path.

This is that long wide path, wide enough to be a road, (in fact it was originally a road) and lined with statues.  It was built for the ladies to stroll down and admire those statues.

At the bottom we come to another large reflecting pool, with an island in the centre, the Isolotto.  We were there on a day of perfect reflections.

The statuary was amazing, no flowers but plenty of sculptures!

At the other end of the gardens is the famous grotto, a much copied element of 16th century gardens.  This garden would be one that wealthy English Lords saw on their 'grand tour'. from which they brought back ideas to home, creating English landscape gardens.