The Garden and the Pitti

We decided to take our chances with the rain in Florence today, but we tried to improve our odds by bringing umbrellas and leaving my non-water-resistant camera in the apartment. And things started well – there wasn’t any rain on our walk to the other side of the Arno to visit Boboli Gardens and the Pitti Palace (brought to you by the Medicis, of course). Apple Maps suggested a different route than we’d taken before, so we got to see the other side of Santa Maria Novella Basilica and its piazza, as well as walking across Santa Trinita Bridge (which was destroyed by the Germans during WWII and rebuilt in 1958 “com’era e dove’era” (“how it was and where it was”)).

The other side of Santa Maria Novella church
This monument intentionally left blank
Yet another monument to the Medici, next to the Ferragano Museum and store

Autumn on Santa Trinita Bridge

We decided to take advantage of the lack of rain and started our visit in Boboli Gardens (“An Open-Air Museum”, as the signs proclaim). The gardens extend over 30 hectares (74 acres) and there is a LOT of up and down if you want to see everything. We saw most of the major structures marked on the map, but there were miles of trails and hundreds of statues that we couldn’t get to before leaving for lunch.

Egyptian Obelisk and Roman Bath
Fountain of Neptune (note the rain)
Abundance
Pitti Palace and Florence from below the Knight’s Garden
Monkey Fountain
Behind the Knight’s Garden, there’s another castle in the distance!
Cracked Tyndareus (Screpolato, 1997) in the Chestnut Meadow
Looking down Cypress Lane
One of the statues along Cypress Lane
In the upper Botanical Garden
A preview of our next vacation
Lily Pool in the upper Botanical Garden
Star Fountain
Capricorn (in the Island Basin)

Fountain of Oceanus with Bird
David with the Head of Goliath
The Piñata (Pentolaccia)
Preservation never stops!
A real live Etrog!

We left the grounds and had a very nice lunch at La Casalinga (“The Housewife”), which we’d tried to visit on Tuesday (it’s mentioned in Rick Steves, so too many tourists like us know about it and we couldn’t get in that day).

Refreshed, we returned to tackle the main event – the Pitti Palace. We started, as one does, with the Palatine Gallery, which has 28 rooms (plus parts of the Royal Apartments), more than 500 paintings (mostly Renaissance), and very few labels.

Boboli Gardens from Pitti Palace

Napoleon’s Bathroom
Amore Dormiente (Carvaggio)
La Carita (Bartolini)
Ceiling of the Room of Saturn
Ritratto di giovane con pomo (Rafael)
Room of Jupiter Ceiling
La Vittoria (Consani)
Ceiling of the Room of Apollo
The Three Graces (Rubens)
Cleopatra (Rene)
The art goes on and on and on….
Venere (Canova) in the Room of Venus
Ceiling of the Room of Venus
Room of the Niches

We thought about leaving, but there were more sub-museums to visit: Costume and Design (where I took no photos) and Modern Art (which starts in the 18th Century).

Eve tempted by the Serpent (Bezzouli)
Robinson Crusoe and Friday
Perseus in the Loggia dei Lanzi (Fanfani)
To Victor Emanuelle II King of Italy from the Muncipality of Perguia
View of the Otrarno

There was one more sub-museum to visit, the Treasury of the Grand Dukes, but we’d reached our limit of amazing art for the day and made our escape.

It’s been a long day at the Pitti Palace

The weather had improved while we were inside and we took a leisurely walk back to the apartment, with only a brief stop to admire the bronze pig in the Mercato del Porcellino.

Fontana del Porcellino

We found tonight’s dinner restaurant through The Fork which has restaurant reviews, a booking service, and discounts. Our choice tonight was the Palazzo Castri 1874, which offered Tuscan cuisine and 50% off all food items! It was wonderful, and we left very happy (and with half a bottle of wine for tomorrow’s dinner). Visit the restaurant if you come to Florence; check out TheFork if you travel to Europe.