Giardino di Boboli, Florence

Giardino di Boboli is the extensive park created for the Medici residence at Palazzo Pitti, and its terraces now form an open-air collection of sculpture, fountains, and grottoes. [The gardens began in the mid-16th century as the Medici family's garden at Pitti Palace.] [articleExtractEn] Their design became a model for aristocratic gardens across Europe.

[narrativeExtractEn] Niccolò Tribolo began the work for Eleonora di Toledo, while Bartolomeo Ammannati, Giorgio Vasari, and Bernardo Buontalenti carried it onward. [articleExtractEn] The grounds eventually reached about 45,000 m² and contain works ranging from Roman antiquities through later sculpture. [articleExtractIt] Follow the long gravel avenues and the formal terraces toward the broad amphitheatre cut into the hillside.

[articleExtractEn] Its main axis leads toward the Fountain of Neptune, where a trident-bearing figure rises above a large basin. [articleExtractEn] The gardens also contain the Isolotto, an oval island enclosed by water and trees, with the Fountain of the Ocean at its heart. [articleExtractEn] In the Bacchino fountain, Valerio Cioli portrayed the court dwarf Nano Morgante as Bacchus riding a tortoise. [articleExtractEn] That unexpected mixture of imperial scale, theatrical scenery, and intimate comedy is what makes Boboli feel like a museum you can walk through.