When the Medici family bought the Pitti Palace in the sixteenth century, they also purchased a parcel of land (from a family called ‘Bogoli’) in order to create a garden.
All thoughts of manicured lawns and magnificent flower beds must be driven from your mind if you are not to be disappointed. This is a formal Italian Garden made up of geometric shapes filled with grass, marble statues, ponds and fountains.
There is a lot of red and white tape in the gardens (some can be seen behind the fountain) preventing access down steps, or beside walls, that are in danger of collapsing.
It is a lovely place to walk, though, and sit, although benches are pretty few, and admire the views.
Apparently, the open aspect of the garden and the expansive view of the city was unconventional at the time.
This is one of the things I love about this city – a lot of the views are framed by the surrounding hills.
This evening we ventured out for a passeggiata, or evening stroll, and ended up in having a drink in the piazza in front of Santa Croce.
We haven’t been in Santa Croce yet, but it is where Michelangelo and Galileo are buried. There is also a monument to Florence Nightingale in the cloister, as Florence is the city in which she was born.
Tortoise Travel 