The Grotta Grande
Buontalenti's artificial cave of dripping walls โ Florence's strangest corner.
Diego Delso โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Diego Delso โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Nemo bis โ CC BY-SA 3.0 ยท Nemo bis โ CC BY-SA 3.0
The ticket usually joins them, so no choosing: Boboli has the sweep, history and grottoes; little Bardini owns what it lacks โ the full dome view and April's purple wisteria tunnel. Best order: Boboli at length, Bardini as the closing terrace.
Among Florence's best for them: running space, a "scary" grotto, stone tortoises and a famous bronze duck for photos โ but no playgrounds; it is a historic garden with rules, and the fenced lawns are untouchable.
In through the Pitti courtyard, amphitheatre, Neptune, up to the Knight's Garden โ then down the great cypress avenue to the Isolotto and Ocean fountain, out by the Annalena gate: the whole essence in two hours.
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Boboli is the Pitti Palace's royal garden and the mother of all Italian gardens: on this slope in the 1500s the Medici invented the "giardino all'italiana" โ engineered cypress avenues, green terraces, statues, grottoes and fountains โ copied by Europe's palaces from Versailles downward. It is an open-air museum of forty-five acres: a stone amphitheatre around a genuine Egyptian obelisk; Buontalenti's weird Grotta Grande with its dripping walls and embedded statues; Neptune's fountain; and the Knight's Garden at the top, looking over olive hills that make you forget the city. It is also Florence's only great green lung โ so take it as a long stroll, not a quick sight: two hours of climb and descent through the shade, with the upper exit handing you to the San Miniato and Piazzale Michelangelo path.
Buontalenti's artificial cave of dripping walls โ Florence's strangest corner.
A stone theatre round a Luxor obelisk โ the Medici's outdoor stage.
The top terrace over olive hills โ Tuscany from inside the city.
Piazza de' Pitti 1, 50125 Florence