„From Florence, the capital of Art and Crafts, I stole the pleasure of creating flowers…  
A spontaneous and natural homage to the magic of the unique Boboli Garden.“
Gianfranco Ferrè

Since the past, Florence’s flora was celebrated by painters as Botticelli and stylists as Gucci and Ferragamo.
Today, I would like to address all these guided tours not just to landscape architects and botanists, but even to all that people who would like to escape from the present-day mass tourism and who would prefer a slow tourism, steeped in nature, more relaxed, whitout hurring.
Florence is surrounded by a natural theater of verdant, lush hills, where gardens are pretty much but it’s quiet difficult to get inside them. I would like to open for you these hidden garden’s gates to discover their secrets.

Let’s get seduced by the firmament of flowers offered by the Uffizi Gallery.
Our guided tour will go across symbolic flowers and neo-platonic gardens: from the floral details of Giotto to the flowery Gothic of Gentile da Fabriano; from the ancient statues who were the custodians of the Medici gardens to the multiples intepretations of the „Spring“ by Botticelli.
The painter tells us a scented tale of flowers: orange-trees, yews, myrtle, laurel and cypresses are the frame of the spectacular profusion of love, whom the goddess Venus is the protagonist.
Let’s get lost in the green corridors of the Uffizi; let’s look for columbines, lilies and carnation flowers painted by flemish and toscan painters.
The guided tour could be combined with a visit to the historical Iris Garden, born in 1954 thanks to Flaminia Specht and Nita Stross Radicati, both members of the Italian Society of Friends of Flowers.
The garden, close to Piazzale Michelangelo, was born in occasion of an International Competion and nowadays expands on 2 hectares with 300 species of flowers and with a breathtaking view over Florence.
Did you know that the Lily of Florence was originally an Iris?!
Let’s discover why!

NB: the Iris Garden is usually open just in april and in may; the entrance is free.

Boboli, apotheosis of italian gardens art, is the ideal place for stroll’s lovers.
The Cypress Avenue takes to the mysterious „Vasca dell’Isola“ surrounded by lemons and ancient roses. The rise takes to the delightful and secluded „Giardino del Cavaliere“, where an explosion of roses and peonies takes place in spring. The garden offers a wonderful and evergreen view on florentine hills.
The italian formal garden was born exactly here, due to a woman with a great sense of business and not a lot of patience: she was Eleonora di Toledo, wife of Cosimo I de’ Medici.
Palazzo Vecchio was too small for this noble, haughty spanish princess. She needed more space… so she decided to excavate a whole hill and purchased the ancient „Orto Pitti“ (vegetable garden of Pitti family). But… just a moment… why Pitti?!
Your modern Eleonora has the answer…!

Just fifteen minutes from the downtown, you won’t find any tourists here.
That’s the reason why I take you to the Medici Villas!!!
We will admire together the important Villa La Petraia which hosts the amazing frescoes by Il Volterrano and statues by Tribolo and Giambologna, the romantic english garden and the italian ‘600 garden with the „tulip fashion“.
Then, we will philosophize in the Castello Garden, one of the favorite gardens by Cosimo I de’ Medici and, later, by Cosimo III, who cultivated here secretly his beloved „Grand Duke Jasmin“.
Nowadays the Villa is the seat of the Accademia della Crusca (a remarkable and ancient entity dedicated to the italian language) and it’s closed to visitors. But it doesn’t matter because we will be inebriated by the scents and fragrances of the citrus fruit… do you know perhaps the „bizzarria“ orange?

NB: the entrance to Villa La Petraia and to the garden of Villa Castello is free.

I think I spent my last life here… I love this enchanting town.
Settignano is a steep village, a bit uncomfortable, quiet difficult to reach. It has the same nature of the stonecutters who lived and were born here, like Antonio and Bernardo Rossellino, Desiderio da Settignano and even Michelangelo who spent here his childhood. Later, other artists fell in love with Settignano: the 19th centurty painters Macchiaioli, for example, and the writer Gabriele d’Annunzio with the theater’s actress Eleonora Duse.
But the crux of Settignano is the gorgeous Villa Gamberaia.
If you are garden lovers and you’re yearning for succumb in front of the beauty of a flowering water parterre with dragonflies and camellias kissed by some rays of sunshine, well, Villa Gamberaia is the right place for you.
The grass looks like a well-finished green carpet, the trees respect the topiary’s style and the belvedere is the climax of the garden, surrounded by shady cypresses but looking over the horizon, in a wonderful palette of green colours, olive-trees and rolling hills, where you can breath a huge sense of freedom.
The wild holly oaks, the fresh and sparkling yellow orangery, the long bowling green with a fine collection of azaleas, the elaborate grotto with its rococò encrustratrion, dripping sensuality everywhere are looking for you.
Yes: Villa Gamberaia is undoubtedly for me the most suggestive place in the Florence’s environs.

Not too much unfortunately has survived of the imposant Medici Villa created by Buontalenti for Francesco I de’ Medici, known in the XVI century in the whole Europe especially because off its wonders garden with water games, waterfalls, mechanic robots and grottos. We know that Bianca and Francesco used to spend often here their freetime.
Why do we go to Pratolino today? Because off refreshing, obviously.
The regenerating green of the romantic english park is so therapeutic after a long busy day in the traffic! The most remarkable sight of the park is the „Giant“. Everybody calls him like that. It’s the „Appenino“ of Giambologna, which is actually very big…
We will set our picnic where you will prefer, of course with a red and white tablecloth. But just after the visit… Duty before pleasure!

NB: Pratolino Park is opened from april to october, on Saturdays and on Sundays; the entrance is free.

The Mugello is a sort of Chianti with less vineyards and more cows.
Everybody knows this region because off the Motor Racing Circuit, situated in Scarperia, but just a few come really here.
However, the Mugello has a wild wide nature and it is the birthplace of important artists like Giotto and Beato Angelico. Some of the most ancient estates of the Medici family are here (Cafaggiolo and Trebbio) and are a prove of the interest of the lineage in this region.
Anywhere, I live here. Yes! Me, intrepid citizen obsessed by the city… Unexpectedly, I live in Mugello since 2013. And I discovered that I love it!
The green forests next to Barbiana; the etruscan necropolis of Frascati near Dicomano; the eclectic and liberty Manifattura Chini of Borgo S.Lorenzo; the Convent of S.Bosco ai Frati with the crucifix commissioned by Cosimo the Elder from Donatello; the mystic Shrine of Montesenario, between pines and wind…. the Mugello is a world full of alternatives!
And if we speak about the food… the tipical „tortelli“ and „marroni“… well… it would be difficult to go back to Florence!!!
Forewarned is…

NB: for this guided tour it is necessary to rent a minivan.