More gardens!

Back to photos! I’m behind on my picture posting, so these are from a couple of weeks ago, when Amanda visited. Sunday (as you might remember), we went to lots of gardens. We did the great big Boboli gardens in the morning, then lunch, wine and gelato and then off to the Bardini Gardens in the latish afternoon.

The Bardini gardens are right behind our apartment. You can see some of the terraced spaces if you walk on the north side of the river and look south. Jim and I had seen them for quite some time but never knew what they were. They aren’t on any of the tourist maps and the great big granite sign on the other side of the street from our door didn’t give it away.

It’s a lot of up and down walking in the Bardini gardens. (Look close! You can see our building. It’s the one with the orange roof.)

At the end of each of the little stone pathways are fountains set in the walls. They didn’t have the water running in any of them, but they were pretty cool anyway. This was my favorite:

This garden was more what we expected when we heard “garden”. There are nice planters filled with blooming flowers and the lawn was nice and even.

Husband really isn’t that much into flowers and he kept exploring ahead.

You can see him waiting up there on the terrace, making sure that we hadn’t gotten lost or abandoned him. The signs for the toilets made me laugh, because of all of the barbed wire behind them. You have to make sure that no one sneaks in and uses the toilets!! (Amanda is on the left, taking a picture of the toilets. He he.)

There were little tucked away nooks with statues that would have been perfect for a romantic rendezvous, if there hadn’t been a million tourists around and there hadn’t been big gates and chairs barring you from getting in:

We had only been there about 30 minutes when the intercom came on and started badgering us to leave in three or four different languages. “The gardens are closing in ten minutes. Please find your way to the exit.” These announcements went on for about 15 minutes, so I’m not really sure when the gardens did close. We didn’t let that pushy person stop us from taking pictures though:

Proof that I was in Florence! I also got another really nice shot of the Duomo, Campanile and the clock tower on the Palazzo Vecchio.

We got out of the gardens with no problems and without the flower police having to track us down, thank goodness!

On a different note, we’re starting the one month countdown. I leave in one month and one day, but really just one month because my flight is at some ass early time. (6:30AM!! Can you believe it! I’ll have to leave the apartment at 4:30AM. Sick, just sick.) Only 2.5 more weeks in the lab, and next week we’re taking off to do a wine tour of Montalcino and Montepulciano. And the last week that we are in Italy, we’ll be in Sicily. Jim doing conferency things and me hanging out on the beach. HA. I wish. Actually, I’ll be writing a grant proposal and working on class notes for the fall.

We have a list of the things that we still want to do in Florence, but it isn’t that long. There are a few more churches on the list, but those have pretty low priority. I’ve seen about a billion churches and/or cathedrals and every single one of them has “The Annunciation of Mary” somewhere in there. I’m thinking I don’t need to see another one.

So far, it’s been a net plus, but man am I ready to come home!!

Boboli Gardens

Last weekend was a weekend of gardens. We visited the two main gardens in Florence; Boboli Gardens and the Bardini Gardens. It was a gorgeous day for walking around outside. Sunny, but not too warm. First we went to the Boboli gardens; the backyard of Pitti Palace. They are ENORMOUS.

There were signs everywhere around Florence advertising a Perfume exhibition at the gardens. Again, we didn’t know what to expect. Exhibitions with different scents, perfume making displays. I don’t know, something exhibition-y. We (being Amanda and I) were excited to see it. It turned out to be a craft fair with people selling smelly stuff. Cool in another language, but not exactly what we were hoping for. So we left that part pretty quickly.

Just outside the exhibition, they had a display of orange trees.

Doesn’t he look so excited to have his picture taken? All of those little containers are different varieties of oranges. I never knew there were so many! I found the ugliest orange that I have ever seen:

Poor thing. I bet all of the other oranges laugh at it. It is an incanellato orange. I bet you never see those in the grocery store.

At one end of the garden is the Fountain of the Ocean. At least I think that is what it is called. There are no maps available in the gardens and things are not marked very well.

It is surrounded by rose plants and set on an island in the middle of a lagoon. Because it is called a fountain, I’m guessing at one point water shot out of it, or dribbled out of the saucer, but it wasn’t working when we were there. You also couldn’t go out on the little island and get a close up view. The whole lagoon is surrounded by hedges with little nooks where there are statues. Some of the statues haven’t held up too well:

I’m going to use that picture when I talk about acid rain in some of my classes! Although, it could just be damage from vandalism too. But I’m going with acid rain.

You can wander around the gardens on little side paths. Some are very out of the way, and the paths not maintained too well.

Instead of the nicely manicured lawns and flowers bed that I think of when I think “gardens”, it was more natural and wild. The poppies are blooming right now in Italy and they pop up everywhere. I like the little purple one surrounded by all of the red ones in this picture.

I found a hole!! It wasn’t that interesting to look down though. Only about 2 ft deep and covered in the leaves on the bottom. I was hoping for treasure. Or monsters. Something interesting anyway.

I had to start sneaking pictures of Jim. He gets really tired of being in pictures sometimes.

But this wall was cool. It has designs etched in it. There was a stone bench right underneath the wall. I wonder about the age of stuff like that. I’ve seen Martha Stewart do similar designs on her show. Is this something from the 18th century? Last year? From the time when the garden was first designed? (15th century) Again, no information on signs anywhere!

At the other end of the gardens is the Neptune fountain. The water is a little green. I don’t know that I would want to go wading in that fountain.

Even the drinking fountains were works of art!

You didn’t see the little people kissing until you were right on the fountain and about to get a drink. I thought this was so cool!

We visited the rose garden and the porcelain museum in the gardens next but that is a whole ‘nother set of pictures. I’ll leave you with proof that Jim and I were at the gardens together that day:

I like flowers

I like flowers. I like it when I go somewhere and there are flower gardens for me to look at. This month has been a delight!! In addition to the rose garden right up near the house, there is also an iris garden. I was very excited when I hear this, because… I like Irises! And wow were there irises:

All colors of irises! (Iri? Ire? What is the plural of iris?) I would guess about 3 acres of land set aside for this iris garden. Why all of this prime land set aside for this iris garden? I didn’t know this, but the fleur de lis, the emblem of Florence, is actually a stylized iris! The garden was established in 1957 to cultivate, keep, preserve, blah blah blah. The usual stuff. They have competition every year for the best iris. There is a special award given for the iris that is “most similar to the Iris depicted on the banner of the city [of Florence]“. The award ceremony this year is May 10th at Palazzo Vecchio.

It was an amazing garden. They cultivate the irises for judging and act as a preserve for some of the species. They have an area set aside for all of the winners of the competitions going back to the 1950s:

I was bummed that it wasn’t in bloom, but it does get a bit of shade. Maybe in a couple of weeks.

Lots of people walking around, taking pictures and just enjoying the day.

I guess nuns like irises too.

There were some that were just so pretty that I had to take their picture all on their own:

I like the ones that are multicolored. I couldn’t get over how beautiful some of the varieties were. I had an evil thought for about a millisecond of digging up some of the tubers to take with me but I didn’t. What if everyone did that? There wouldn’t be any left over! Plus issues of bringing plants into the states. I wouldn’t want to go to airport jail. I’d probably get the chair or something.

I didn’t know it, but you can camp in Florence:

And right near Piazza Michelangelo!! These women were really roughing it with a tent and everything. There were a ton of campers and little RV-like things. I guess that is one way to make the trip more affordable!

The Rose Garden - with no Bush.

There are some really nice gardens in Italy though. One of them is only open for a couple of weeks in May. It is … the Rose Garden. Really. That’s it’s name. It’s on the way up to Piazza Michelangelo. There is a iron gate in the wall that you can peek into. I used to stop and look in it every once in awhile, wondering what wonders lie on the other side. Well now I know!

I guess they only open it early in spring/summer when the roses start blooming. Because really, who would want to look at a bunch of green bushes with thorns? We know those aren’t that much a draw because if they were, West Texas would be a tourist mecca!

But it is a very pretty place. There are lots of rose bushes, all in bloom right now. There are other good smelling things blooming right now too. I can’t decide which it made happier, my nose or my eyes.

Jim was still in proposal writing mode at this point, so he is busy solving the problem of solar energy conversion right now:

You can see the rose bushes and a few benches where people were sitting, reading the Sunday paper. We were there earlier in the morning so we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

The pathway that you see to the right leads to a little secluded bench. It was very peaceful. Jim and I sat for awhile, just taking in the scenery. Or that’s what I was doing. Jim was probably thinking about his proposal.

We weren’t alone the whole time though. A young couple also “discovered” the hidden area. They were hoping that we would leave and let them enjoy the bench, but to no avail. They had to stand and get stalked by the crazy photographer lady:

They left pretty soon after that photo.

In another area of the garden, there was a turtle pond:

Poor guys were climbing all over each other just to get the chance to bask in the sun! Do turtles live in water all of the time, or do they need to get out on dry land every once in a while? If they need dry land, these guys were screwed. They were stuck in that little pond.

The idyll didn’t last long though. Jim had to get back to work and I didn’t feel like walking more that morning. Later in the day I did head back up to check out the Iris Garden (stayed tuned for tomorrow’s episode!) and took a short cut through the rose garden. There were people EVERYWHERE. They were littered all over the garden, relaxing and soaking up some rays.

Don’t they know that causes skin cancer?

Gardens and Green spaces in Florence

It was a gorgeous weekend and I’m a little embarrassed that I didn’t get out more. But really, there are only so many things to do in Florence. You can’t walk around forever and there aren’t that many benches or places to sit outside.

While trying to find the Giardino Torrigiani, (and being unsuccessful, see yesterday’s post), I did find one part of the Boboli Gardens that are open to the public. The Boboli Gardens are the backyard of Pitti Palace. We have read that they are some of the most beautiful gardens in Italy. Haven’t been there yet, but we are going as soon as Jim is done with his grant writing!

This part of the Boboli Gardens are not some of the prettiest in Italy. The approach to public spaces in Italy seem to be much different than what it is in the US. There are pretty parks in the US. They have nice manicured grassy areas. For some reason, this park had this air of neglect and decay. Something was blooming that smelled really bad so that might account for the decay. But it still felt nelected.

I don’t think that they mow. In Sesto, around the science building, they keep the grass in check with sheep, but I don’t see how they could get a flock of sheep into this area. It’s pretty urban. The trash hadn’t been picked up in a while, but people still kept putting their garbage in that one area.

At the end of park, there is a building that I guess used to be an Art Institute. (Amazing detective skills, huh?)

It’s obviously closed, with peeling paint and shuttered doors and windows. There are barricades around the building so that you can’t walk around it. Renovations? Fire damage? Who knows.

Florence is a favorite place for aspiring artists. You can’t walk around the city any more without seeing a student with a sketch pad, or a box of paints. I saw them at Santo Spirito, at the rose garden, at the iris garden (more on those tomorrow!) and several sitting in front of the Art Institute, sketching away.

I stalked these poor kids for awhile, hanging out in the trees, walking around and taking pictures until I got the shot that I wanted. I think there were part of a class, because there were several kids sitting there and at some point, a woman my age wandered over to them and was checking out what they were doing.

There was a playground area too, but instead of kids, the benches were littered with young couples. They were laying all over each other and just being squishy in general. And then at the end, there was this one guy, sitting all by himself.

Just sitting there, waiting for someone? It reminded me of that scene in Notting Hill when they sneak into the park and see the bench that a husband dedicated to his wife after she died. I know, I know. Reading too much into the picture, but that’s what makes it so much fun.

Did you know that Nathaniel Hawthorne lived in Florence? Neither did I. But as I was walking, I saw this building with a plaque on it with his name. Apparently this was where he lived during that time.

Coming tomorrow - pictures from the Rose Garden, and the day after, pictures from the Iris Garden. I have to string the pictures out so it seems like I have a lot of posts…