Published on September 13th, 2013 | by Rachel Budke
0The Boboli Gardens
I’m so glad that I got to see the Boboli Gardens. I did a lot of research on them before I got here, because I knew it was somewhere in Florence that I wanted to go. I was originally going to wait until I got a museum pass to go, but I went yesterday because of some exciting news – my sister Allison is here for the week! Yay! Allison and I were very lucky because it was supposed to rain all day, and it ended up being bright and beautiful outside!
The Boboli Gardens are located in Florence, Italy. If you go across the Arno River on the Ponte Vecchio, you will end up at the Pitti Palace. The Boboli Gardens are in the backyard of the palace. It is different from a typical garden because it does not have many flowers, and the Boboli Gardens often receive bad reviews because of this. However, traditionally, Italian gardens are not filled with flowers. This garden is filled with beautiful trees, statues, and fountains. If you buy a general ticket, you will have access to the Pitti Palace, the costume gallery, the Boboli Gardens, and also the smaller Bardini Gardens. Unfortunately, I have my Italian class on Thursdays, so I only had time to see the gardens and not the palace.
When you walk into the Boboli Gardens, you will see an area that is known as the amphitheater. Here, you can take a few sets of stairs to overlook the whole area. With every set of stairs, the view kept getting better and better. It completely amazes me that this whole garden was somebody’s backyard at one point! It is beautiful! After going up all of the stairs, we stumbled upon the porcelain museum. I did not find it particularly interesting on the inside, but it is worth checking out because there is an amazing overlook point.
There are a lot of pathways surrounded by trees. We walked past a man that was taking pictures, and he told us one of the archway paths was where a scene in the book Inferno takes place. While Allison and I were walking around, we also saw a funny statue that didn’t fit in with everything else…we called it the Tic Tac statue.
My absolute favorite part of the Boboli Gardens was getting to see all of the lemon trees! I bought a lemon tree a little over a year ago, so I definitely have a big attachment to these plants! They make me so happy! I read about a building at the gardens called the Lemon House, but unfortunately it was empty when we were there. However, there is a fountain in the gardens that is called Island Fountain (I think) and it was covered in lemon trees! I could have looked at it all day!
I hope you enjoyed seeing a little bit of the Boboli Gardens! It is an absolutely gorgeous and inspiring place! I will definitely go again this semester, especially because there is so much to explore.
Thanks for reading, ciao!