Florence is famous not only for such world-famous names as Medici, Riccardi, Strozzi, Gondi, Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Brunelleschi, etc., palaces, bridges, historical buildings, cozy streets and squares, but also for its gardens and parks, of which there are many in the city, and which represent beautiful green oases and sights of the city.
Florence's gardens and parks are spread out on both banks of the Arno River. There are both large historical gardens and small parks and villa gardens, some of which offer wonderful panoramic views of the city.
There are gardens that can be visited for free, and there are - with paid entrances. There are also small gardens, mainly near villas and small palaces, which can be visited by appointment (arrangement), during certain events, or on certain days of the year, since they are private.
This article contains a list of the best and brightest gardens and parks in Florence (with photos, descriptions, addresses and websites) that you can visit.
Boboli Gardens
The Boboli Gardens (Giardino di Boboli) are the green heart of Florence, as well as one of the largest examples of historic gardens in Italy.
The gardens have a green area divided in a regular way, on which there is an amphitheater with an obelisk, statues, fountains, decorated grottoes and pavilions, also in the gardens there are alleys and paths for walking, there are flower beds, and from the open terraces of the gardens there are beautiful views of the city of Florence.
Near the Boboli Gardens there is a large Pitti Palace (Palazzo Pitti), which together with the gardens represent an outstanding palace and park ensemble, as well as the largest museum complex in Florence, widely known in Italy and abroad.
Entrance to the Boboli Gardens is paid.
Address of Boboli Gardens: Piazza de' Pitti, 1, 50125 Firenze FI, Italy.
Boboli Gardens website: giardino-boboli. More about Boboli Gardens...
Bardini Garden
The Bardini Garden (Giardino Bardini), in which Villa Bardini is located, is a beautiful ensemble of the historic Italian Renaissance complex in Florence.
The garden offers beautiful panoramic views of Florence, and in the garden itself is Villa Bardini, which houses the Annigoni Museum (Museo Annigoni) and hosts temporary exhibitions.
In the garden: terraces, loggia, panoramic cafe, places for walking and relaxing, flower beds, lawns, Baroque staircase, grotto, sculptures and fountain.
Entrance to the garden and to the villa is paid.
Entrance to the Bardini Garden from Via dei Bardi 1 red and Costa San Giorgio 2.
Website of the garden and Villa Bardini: villabardini.it. More about the garden and Villa Bardini...
Rose Garden
The Rose Garden or Rose Garden (Giardino delle Rose) is a park in Florence, which is an oasis of greenery where roses grow, there are ponds, sculptures, a Japanese garden, terraces with views of the city and a panoramic cafe.
The best time to visit the Rose Garden to enjoy all its beauty is spring, when roses bloom.
Entrance to the Rose Garden is free.
The garden is open all year round from 9:00 to sunset (20:00 from May to September, 18:00 in October, March and April and 17:00 from November to February), except Christmas and New Year.
Coordinates of the Rose Garden: 43°45'47.0"N 11°15'46.0"E (43.763056, 11.262778). More about the Rose Garden...
Iris Garden
The Iris Park or the Iris Garden / Garden of Irises (Giardino dell'Iris) is a botanical garden, a green area that can be accessed from the east side of Piazza Michelangelo in Florence.
The garden is open to the public in April-May (approximately from April 25 to May 20), when irises bloom and an international competition for growing irises is organized annually.
Entrance to the park is free, from 10:00 to 18:00. The garden is located on a hillside with panoramic views.
Iris Garden website: societaitalianairis.com.
Torrigiani Garden
The Torrigiani Garden (Giardino Torrigiani) is a large ancient private garden of the 16th-19th centuries, covering almost seven hectares and is one of the largest private gardens in Europe, surrounded by a city wall.
The garden was known in the sixteenth century as the botanical garden. It experienced a second renaissance at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Marquis Pietro Torrigiani expanded it by acquiring the surrounding land, and turned the garden into a romantic English park to the taste of the time.
In the garden there is a tower about twenty-two meters high, which contained a collection of astronomical instruments, a library and an open terrace on top for observing the sky.
Also in the garden are: lawns, ornamental plants, sculptures and statues.
In addition to its architectural significance, this garden is also known as a botanical garden, rich in species of trees and plants from around the world, as evidenced by the presence of old and new greenhouses, lemon houses and tepidariums, where gardening and botanical painting courses are held today.
The garden offers views of Florence.
The Torrigiani Garden is private and can be visited by arrangement by the owners. The garden can also be used for exclusive events.
The address of the Torrigiani Garden is Via dei Serragli, 144, 50124 Firenze FI, Italy.
Torrigiani Garden website: giardinotorrigiani.it.
Located near the Torrigiani Garden, AdAstra Suites B&B offers a terrace with garden views and free Wi-Fi.
Rooms at the hotel are equipped with a DVD player and a flat-screen TV with satellite channels. Each room is equipped with a safe, heating, air conditioning, and a private bathroom with a bath, bidet, hairdryer and free toiletries.
Breakfast is included in the room rate. Link to the hotel
Bobolino Garden
The Bobolino Garden (Giardino del Bobolino) is a small public garden located near the Porta Romana gate and got its name from the nearby Boboli Gardens, a smaller version of which it is.
It is a sloping garden consisting of grassy slopes, flower beds, terraces, stairs, artificial caves and gravel paths.
The entrance to the Bobolino Garden is free.
Bobolino Garden address: Viale Machiavelli, 18, 50125 Firenze FI, Italy.
In part of the Bobolino Garden is Villa Cora, now transformed into a luxurious 5-star hotel Villa Cora, where Empress Eugenia and Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky stayed.
The hotel has an outdoor swimming pool, wellness center with sauna, Turkish bath and fitness center, restaurant, bar, free Wi-Fi and parking.
The classic-style rooms are decorated with antique furniture. They are equipped with air conditioning, a minibar, a safe, a hairdryer, a flat-screen TV with satellite channels and free toiletries. Link to the hotel
Botanical Garden of Florence
The Botanical Garden of Florence "Giardino dei Semplici" (Orto botanico "Giardino dei Semplici" - Università di Firenze) is the third oldest botanical garden in Italy.
The garden was created in 1545 by the Medici dynasty as a garden of medicinal plants, in which rare and exotic plant species were grown.
In the warm and cold greenhouses built in the nineteenth century, there are tropical and subtropical plants, including a collection of cicadas, ficuses, palms, an ancient collection of citrus, succulent and aquatic plants, as well as a rich collection of plants of traditional ethnobotanical use.
Food plants are grown outdoors in the garden. There are flowerbeds with medicinal and poisonous plants, a zen garden, flowerbeds for acclimatization of exotic palms and cycads, hydrangeas with numerous varieties, a historical collection of azaleas, reservoirs with aquatic plants. Three territories contain a small collection of carnivorous plants.
There is a fountain in the garden; various species of birds live.
Entrance to the garden is paid.
Address of the Botanical garden: Via Pier Antonio Micheli, 3, 50121 Firenze FI, Italy.
The website of the botanical garden: sma.unifi.it/vp-244-orto-botanico.
Corsini Garden
The Corsini Garden (Giardino Corsini) is part of the former Corsini al Prato palace complex (Corsini al Prato, not to be confused with the Corsini Palace of the same name on the Arno embankment, inside which there is a museum).
The construction of the Renaissance garden was started in 1620 by the architect Buontalenti for the Corsini family residence.
Once this garden was visited by Frederick IV of Denmark, Prince of Wales Charles Edward Stuart, Queens of England Victoria and Margaret of Savoy.
In the Italian-style garden: a loggia decorated with Baroque statues, an alley, a laurel maze, geometric flower beds and citrus fruits.
Once a year, in the month of May, an exhibition of artists and artisans takes place here.
You can visit the garden during the events. Weddings, private and corporate events are also held in the garden.
Address of the Corsini Garden: Via della Scala, 115, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy.
Website of the Corsini Garden: giardinocorsini.it.
Medici Riccardi Palace Garden
Palazzo Medici Riccardi, which today is a museum and can be visited, has a small adjoining garden (Giardino Di Palazzo Medici Riccardi), decorated with sculptures, and where fruit trees grow.
A visit to the palace with a garden is paid.
Address of the Medici Riccardi Palace Museum (entrance): Via Cavour 1, 50121 Firenze.
Website of the Medici-Riccardi Palace Museum: palazzomediciriccardi.it. More about the Medici-Riccardi Palace...
Budini Garden-Gattai
The Budini-Gattai Garden (Giardino Di Palazzo Grifoni) is part of the Grifoni Palace (now the Budini-Gattai Palace; palazzo Grifoni, Palazzo Budini Gattai).
In the garden: loggia, well-groomed territory, flower beds, plants, hedges and a monumental fountain in the style of Mannerism, decorated with statues of Venus and sea monsters. Other decorative elements of the garden are a beautiful glass and iron greenhouse, built around 1892, a banana grove and the so-called "Monument to the Disappeared Tree", created in 1908 in memory of the centuries-old Camphor tree (Laurus camphora), which withered in one of the winters.
Visiting the garden is possible by appointment. Weddings, photo shoots, conferences, corporate events and private parties are held in the garden and in the walls of the palace.
Website: palazzobudinigattai.it.
The palace is located on the beautiful Piazza Santissima Annunziata (the Most Holy Annunciation, Piazza della Santissima Annunziata). It is also interesting that the bottom of the palace windows is never completely closed, because an interesting legend is associated with this window. Learn more about the square, the palace and the legend...
Fortress Garden
The Fortress Garden (Giardino della Fortezza) is a small green area with a pond with a fountain and a cafe, located near the fortress da Basso (Fortezza da Basso).
Entrance to the garden is free.
Kashin Park
The Cascine Park (Parco delle Cascine), better known as "Le Cascine" is the largest public park in Florence.
In the park: sports facilities, including tennis courts, football fields, a velodrome, a shooting range, archery, swimming pools and two racetracks; also flower beds, places for walking and recreation, a visitor center for the park, a square with a fountain, a cafe, a monument to Indian Prince Rajaram Chuttraputti, a bronze equestrian statue of King Vittorio Emanuele II, Kashin pyramid, amphitheater and pavilions.
Entrance to the park is free.
Cascine Park is located by the Arno River, at Piazzale delle Cascine, 50144 Firenze FI, Italy.
Horticultural garden
The Horticultural Garden (Giardino dell'orticoltura) is a 19th-century botanical garden with a large old glass and iron greenhouse with a greenhouse, as well as a Renaissance loggia, lawns, fountains and a library dedicated to gardening.
Currently, the greenhouse is used for events, aperitifs and parties.
There is a bar in the park in summer. There is a playground for children.
Entrance to the garden is free.
Garden address: Via Vittorio Emanuele II, 4, 50139 Firenze FI, Italy.
Park of the Righteous (Parnaso Garden)
The Garden of the Righteous or the Garden of the Parnassian Slopes (Orti del Parnaso) is a small and charming city park that can be accessed from the neighboring horticultural garden.
The park has a panoramic area with views of Florence, places to relax and a staircase with a dragon.
Entrance to the park is free.
Park address: Via Trento, 11, 50139 Firenze FI, Italy.
Gerardeska Garden
The Gherardesca Garden (Giardino della Gherardesca) is the largest private garden in the historical center of Florence, in front of which we find the former Gherardesca Palace of the same name (Palazzo della Gherardesca).
In the garden: an elegant fountain with a putto, a neoclassical rotunda, sculptures, flower beds and a large arch with sponge decorations.
Within the walls of the Gherardesca Palace and the nearby former monastery of the 16th century La Villa today there is an Italian pizzeria restaurant and a chic 5-star Four Seasons Hotel Firenze with part of the garden, spa and fitness centers, swimming pool, bar and restaurants, one of which is awarded a Michelin star.
The hotel has junior suites, suites and executive suites, combining Renaissance decor and a wide range of modern amenities. In the rooms: LCD TV, DVD player, mini-bar, safe, bathrobes and slippers, hairdryer, bidet and free toiletries. Link to the hotel
Villa Montugi Park (Stibbert Museum Garden)
Near the historic Villa Montughi (Villa Montughi), which today houses the Stibbert Museum (Museo Stibbert), the English park of the Stibbert Museum (Giardino del Museo Stibbert) is spread out, lively with temples, caves and water structures.
The lemonade in the park, where citrus fruits and the most delicate plants were once stored, is an elegant neoclassical building.
The Hellenistic temple in the park was created according to classical models with a central plan topped with a dome covered with majolica tiles.
An Egyptian temple full of Egyptomania towers over the lake at the bottom of the park.
There are also monuments and sculptures in the park.
Entrance to the park is free. Entrance to the Stibbert Museum is paid.
Stibbert's Garden address: Via Federico Stibbert, 26, 50134 Firenze FI, Italy.
Website: museostibbert.it. More about the Stibbert Museum, villa and garden...
Gardens of Florentine villas
Within Florence there are other villas with gardens, historical interiors and museums, most of which at various times belonged to the Medici family, and which today can be visited, including on request, by appointment, on certain days and hours, or with excursions.
Of the most beautiful and significant villas: Villa Corsini with a historical garden; Villa Petraia with a covered courtyard and a beautiful Italian garden; Villa di Castello with a historical garden with a grotto and fountain, complex Villa La Quiete with a garden and a church; Villa Quarto (Villa di Quarto) with an Italian garden and an English park.
All accommodation facilities in Florence (hotels, apartments, guest houses, etc.), including in the historical center of the city, near gardens and parks, and more remotely from those, can be viewed and booked here
