A Birthday Stroll Through the Bardini Gardens

It being my birthday today (65) we plumped for a leisurely stroll around the Bardini Gardens, with lunch on a terrace overlooking Florence.

It continued to rain into the night, but has been fine today, if not overcast and cool (only one degree warmer than West Sussex, I notice).

Having come through the Boboli Gardens, which now have people working on them, presumably to prepare them for the influx of tourists at Easter, to get to the Bardini Gardens, you are immediately struck by how much neater and better tended they appear to be.

The gardens were styled as an English Garden in the nineteenth century, but fell into neglect in the second half of the twentieth century. Eventually, they were bought by a bank, restored, and have only recently been opened to the public.

The camellias were out,of course, and the wisteria is just coming out, as well as the hydrangeas, so we will try and go back before we leave Florence in ten days’ time.