March 5, 2023 - Silly us - Petti Palace and Boboli Gardens

How silly of us to think that because we were visiting a palace and a garden that it would be an easy day. Live and learn.

We were off early this morning to beat the rush for the Pitti Palace and the Boboli Gardens. The first Sunday of each month, entry to museums are free so we wanted to beat the rush. There were only a few people in line but after passing security there were stairs and then more stairs and up the stairs a lot of people.

The palace is huge. There are 140 rooms open to the public and many more closed off. Imagine living in a place that big. While visiting, I kept thinking what fun the grandkids would have living in a place like this. They could ride their bikes and scooters all around without even having to go out. There are 3 long corridors connected to each other. There were rooms with statues, some with paintings, some with sculptures, some with ornate furniture and some with huge chandeliers, and then more paintings, more statues and so on. It almost felt like being at the Vatican again with all it’s marble, gold, and painted ceilings. There was so much to see that you would need to go many times to see everything. It takes a while to visit 140 rooms. There were many proximity monitors and when someone would get too close to an object, there would be a gentle chirp to them know that they were too close.

Beautiful chandeliers.

Cosimo I de Medici

Interesting sculpture with 3 colors of marble.

There was also lots of intricate furniture.

Table top.

The ceilings were also very detailed.

A rather interesting painting.

The flip side.

Victor Hugo

No, you cannot have my lunch.

The view of Florence from inside the palace.

After the palace we went directly to the gardens and guess what more stairs and inclines. The Boboli gardens are also big. They cover approximately 111 acres of lavishly landscaped gardens. They start behind the Pitti Palace extending as far as Fort Belvedere (another place that we had seen on amazing race). The gardens were made for Elenora di Toledo, the wife of Cosimo1 de Medici. No access was allowed to anyone outside the immediate Medici family and as far as anyone knows, no parties or gatherings ever happened in the gardens. Being 45,000 square meters, they would never have been able to find their guests who would be lost in all the trails and paths. There are ponds some with little islands on them with a pathway to get there, there is an orange grove, English style mazed gardens, olive trees, little niches with statues and picnic areas, a grotto, and I could go on and on of things that were there to see. There were also many vistas with nice views of the city.

We did a good part of the garden but not all. We exited at Fort Belvedere which is not far from Piazza Michelangelo and since we were so far up we went for a puzzle cache that Jacques had solved. This saved us having to climb again another day. This was also a nice walk with walls on both side of the road. There were some houses on this road, it would be nice and quiet living here. You can see in the pictures how narrow the street is and the sidewalk. When a car comes, you must turn sideways so that the car doesn’t touch you while going by.

By the time we were back to the city level it was passed lunch hour, so we stopped for lunch and a break. Rollande had the mushroom risotto and Jacques had the truffle and mushroom tagliatelle. We skipped dessert since we wanted to stop for gelato. Jacques had lemon with sage and kiwi for his other half. I had the lemon with sage as well and for my other half I had the chocolate with blueberries. All 3 were delicious.

At the end of the day, we had racked up another 21,000 steps along with 51 flights of stairs. For a city that is supposed to be flat, we seem to be climbing a lot of stairs.