How to visit the Vasari Corridor in Florence

Update May 2024: Visiting of the Vasari Corridor.

In May 2024, the Vasari Corridor re-opened to the public in completely renovated form. It is necessary to reserve a time slot and to hold an Uffizi entry ticket and Vasari Corridor supplmentary tciket to enter and enjoy the Corridor.

The latest information on the renovated Vasari Corridor.

 

Update 14 October 2021: Visiting of the Vasari Corridor.

In an interview published by Corriere della Sera on 21 October 2021, the director of the Uffizi, Eike Schmidt, expounded on his vision of the "contemporary" Uffizi. One question that interests me and probably a lot of my readers was:"There's been a long wait for the reopening (of the Vasari Corridor) but isn't 45 euros for a ticket to visit the Corridor too much?", Schmidt explained that the price is much lower than the one demanded by the private agencies (essentially ticket scalpers) who routinely snatched up the few tickets available before the corridor closed in 2016. In essence, his reply continued to the effect that the price is determined by the market. 

I'm not all that convinced by the Director's neo-con economics response.The Vasari Corridor, with 125 admissions at a time, will obviously have more demand than supply during high season, and therefore can impose high prices (even much more than 45 euros). In low season, the price will drop to 20 euros to be competitive. And it is clear that these prices make both the museum's accountants and the ticket scalpers, who will ask for a large share of tickets, happy. It is a pity, however, that the Uffizi, as a public service, does not work more for the benefit of the tax payers who have invested 10 million euros into renovation of the Corridor, rather than for the bank balances of the museum and the scalpers. The taxpayers have invested rightly, given that citizens must be able to benefit from the heritage that belongs to them, but wouldn't it be reasonable that they don't have to pay a lot of money all over again to enjoy this heritage?

Update 18 March 2021: Tours of the Vasari Corridor.

IMPORTANT: there are no legitimate tours of the Vasari Corridor being offered currently but it looks like that the Vasari Corridor will re-open on 27 May, 2022, and will be accessible by ticket. Apparently it will not be necessary to be part of a tour group.

Eike Schmidt, the director of the Uffizi Gallery, has announced that the Vasari Corridor will officially become a part of the Uffizi after reopening in 2022. Visitors will then be able to enter the Uffizi, stroll through the Vasari Corridor and then explore the Boboli Gardens or the Pitti Palace. Tickets will cost €45 in high season, €20 in low season and will be free for students.

Route of the Vasari Corridor in Florence

One disappointing aspect is that the many excellent self-portraits currently hanging in the Vasari Corridor will be removed because it won't be possible to climate control the corridor suitable for paintings on canvas and wood.

The Vasari Corridor from above

According to the official Uffizi website, no tours of the Vasari Corridor are now available, and anybody who offers such a tour is committing a fraud:

"False information concerning nocturnal visits of the Uffizi and Vasari Corridor
The Administration of the Uffizi Galleries confirms that these promotional contents are totally unfounded. From 1 December 2016 until further notice the Corridor remains closed for works of safety regulatory compliance. Consequently no bookings will be accepted.
False information is spreading on Facebook about nocturnal openings of the Uffizi and Vasari Corridor on various dates with visits organized by associations/groups which are unknown to us, such as Firenze Vista di Notte. The Administration of the Uffizi Galleries has already filed a lawsuit against the fraudsters and confirms that these promotional contents are totally unfounded."

The official website for the Uffizi tickets is https://www.uffizi.it/en/tickets - once again note that many other official-looking web sites offer Uffizi tickets at enormous markups.

Interior of the Vasari Corridor in Florence as it was until closed in 2016.

The corridor was lined with paintings, the more interesting ones being an amazing series of self-portraits by famous and not so famous artists, including a surprising number of the Pre-Raphaelites - for example, a very fine self-portrait of William Holman Hunt. These pictures will now be displayed elsewhere in the Uffizi and will be replaced by thirty ancient sculptures along with a space dedicated to 16th century frescoes. 

Empty interior of the Vasari Corridor

The corridor had a doorway and still has a window opening into a balcony high up in the church of Santa Felicita so that the Medici family could attend mass privately, without being seen or subject to attack. The especially large windows overlooking the Ponte Vecchio were specially created for a visit by Mussolini in the late 30's. Part of the corridor snakes around the Torre Mannelli which belonged to the only family that Cosimo I was unable to buy out. Instead of building through the tower, Vasari built around it using a system of supporting brackets. Cosimo was quite sanguine about this - every man is king in his own house, he reportedly observed. The meat market on Ponte Vecchio was moved to avoid its smell permeating the passage, its place being taken by the goldsmith shops that still occupy the bridge.

More about the Vasari Corridor in the 19th and 20th centuries.

More about what to see and do in Florence.

More about Florence Museum Cards and Florence Museum Passes.

My list of recommended vacation rentals in Tuscany.

Author: Anna Maria Baldini

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The Crystal Museum in Colle di Val d'Elsa reopens 2024

Colle di Val d'Elsa is a town of 20,000 people located above the valley of the river Elsa on the route of the ancient Via Francigena, the mediaeval highway frequented by pilgrims and merchants travelling to Rome from Canterbury and elsewhere in northern Europe.

The main gate of Colle di Val d'Elsa

The Crystal Museum in Colle di Val d'Elsa opened in 2001 and is the only one of its kind in Italy. After being closed for some time, the Crystal Museum has recently re-opened.

The museum is located underground in the space once occupied by one of the furnaces of the 19 C Cristallerie e Vetrerie Schmidt and former the Boschi glass factory, a driving force of the economy of Colle di Valle d'Elsa from the 1920s and the early 1950s.

Crystal glass museum of Colle di Val d'Elsa

The exhibition starts with the display of some finds from the Middle Ages that can be attributed to the production of the 'gambassini', glassworks present in Colle di Val d'Elsa since at least 1331.

The different sections of the museum reconstruct the path taken by the local glass industry since 1820, the year the first furnace was installed. In that year the glassmaker Francesco Mathis opened a 'crystal' factory in Piano, near the church of Sant'Agostino. The business changed hands and Giovan Battista Schmidt took over production. The latter became known in Italy for the high quality and purity of the white glass and the attention paid to finishing the articles through grinding and carving techniques.

Colle di Val d'Elsa crystal

Lead crystal, discovered in 1963, marked a major turning point that characterised the entire second half of the 20 C, making Colle di Val d'Elsa known throughout the world as the 'City of Crystal'. Works of high-level craftsmanship, creations by famous designers as well as simple tableware have led the Colle di Val d'Elsa to produce up to 95% of Italian crystal and 15% of world crystal. The museum's itinerary, in the new layout of 2024, places the emphasis on those who made this development possible.

More about Colle di Val d'Elsa.

Visiting Colle di Val d'Elsa.

Don't forget to visit my Tuscany Travel Guide! Up-to-date news on what to see and where to stay in Chianti and all of Tuscany. Tuscany Travel Guide

Author: Anna Maria Baldini

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Pieve di San Cresci

The Italian word "pieve" means "parish church" in English, and the pievi of Chianti are in many ways a similar phenomenon to the ubiquitous Norman churches of England. They were built in large numbers during the period of rapid population growth that took place in Tuscany at the end of the Dark Age (the Early Mediaeval period), from roughly the year 950 onward, and they are dotted, often in ruins, all over the region. 

Pieve di San Cresci - the parish church

Today, I want to talk about the Pieve di San Cresci which is thought to be one of the oldest pievi in Chianti. The nearby Pieve di San Pietro a Sillano might be older. The latter is mentioned in scrolls dating from the year 884 held at the nearby Abbey of Passignano. The Pieve di San Cresci is referred to in a document dated 963 which is held in the same library. A stone, carved in Longobard style, was found embedded in the wall of the nave during restoration, and this suggests that the Pieve di San Cresci was built on the site of a Longobard villa, perhaps incorporating part of the original structure.

The Pieve di San Cresci

The Pieve di San Cresci is located across the valley of the Becherale torrent from the fortified village of Montefioralle, about 2 km from Greve in Chianti, in the middle of the Chianti Classico wine zone. In fact, although Montefioralle houses the ancient church S. Stefano, rebuilt in the 17 C and 18 C, the Pieve of San Cresci is the original parish church of Montefioralle. The church is well worth a visit and can be reached easily by car or on foot from Greve along the road that passes by Villa Zano.

The interior of the church was completely rebuilt in Baroque style. However, part of the facade belongs to the original Romanesque church. The very photogenic lower part consists of two mullioned windows and is decorated with a dichromic motif in the archivolts.

 The facade of the Pieve di San Cresci

Pieve di San Cresci - the winery

It's very common in Tuscany and especially in Chianti to see secular structures built onto churches (and also onto former military structures such as watch towers). The Pieve of San Cresci is no exception. The home of the Ballini family, wine makers here for at least six generations, is built onto the Pieve di San Cresci, and their winery, formerly Podere San Cresci but now named after the church, occupies cellars that were once a part of the church.

Pieve di San Cresci wines

Listen to me, my dear intelligent and discerning readers! The red wines of Pieve di San Cresci winery are outstanding, even in a wine zone famous for its excellent wines. If you will be in the area of Greve in Chianti, I strongly recommend that you phone Pieve di San Cresci winery and make an appointment to taste their wines and maybe even pay a visit to the wine cellars. You won't regret it! They make a range of red wines,including of course Chianti Classico, Chianti Classico Riserva and Chianti Classico Gran Selezione (the new top-level denomination for Chianti wines), plus some very good Indicazione Geografica Tipica wines which have this designation because of their original grape composition, not because they are lesser wines.

Contact details and directionss for Pieve di San Cresci winery

More about Greve in Chianti.

Don't forget to visit my Tuscany Travel Guide! Up-to-date news on what to see and where to stay in Chianti and all of Tuscany. Tuscany Travel Guide

Author: Anna Maria Baldini

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The traditional start of the new year in Florence - 25 March.

The 25th of March is the ancient Florentine New Year's Day and, in fact, it marked the beginning of the new year in Florence until as recently as 1750. The Grand Duke Francis III of Lorraine changed the date of the New Year into conformity with the Gregorian calendar, which had already been in force in the rest of Italy since 1582. The 25th of March is the day on which the Church commemorates the announcement of the incarnation by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary and was taken as the beginning of the civil calendar in Florence. The feast of the Annunciation is usually held on 25 March but is moved in the Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran liturgical calendars when that date falls during Holy Week or Easter Week or on a Sunday.

Throughout 25 March, you can visit the Brindellone, the famous cart of the Scoppio del Carro (explosion of the cart) event which is held every year on Easter morning. The cart, which is almost 12 m high and 3.5 m wide, can be visited in via del Prato 48, between 10 am and 6 pm. Guides are available who will describe the features of the carriage itself and the events involving it and the historical figures in the procession that takes place on Easter morning.

More about the Scoppio del Carro. 

Since 2020, 25 March in Florence has also been designated Dantedì, to celebrate the beginning of Dante's journey into the Inferno, so famously described in his epic poem, the Divine Comedy.

Multiple fairs, museum opening and other festivities take place on 25 March and the days leading up to and following it in Florence.

More about festivals and events in Tuscany

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Don't forget to visit my Tuscany Travel Guide! Up-to-date news on what to see and where to stay in Chianti and all of Tuscany. Tuscany Travel Guide

Author: Anna Maria Baldini

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Visit Tuscany in winter

Winter in Tuscany - it's not always this snowy!

Now seems an appropriate moment to discuss the question of whether to visit Tuscany in winter. The final answer will be a strong 'yes', but let's look at the details. Cons first. Days are short, meaning that you're likely to set out and return from a day of sightseeing in the dark. Weather can be very cold so gloves, scarves and warm coats are necessary. Could be snowy roads at higher altitudes. The larger vacation villas will be closed because of the cost of heating them, and you will need to take care about who pays the heating costs wherever you stay. Pros. Often brilliantly clear days with magnificent views into the distance. No tourist crowds. Despite fewer offerings, accommodation will be easy to find and might have low season prices or heating included. South-facing terraces can be quite warm in the middle of a clear day - definitely warm enough to sit out and enjoy the view. The opportunity to enjoy major features of 'the real Tuscany' such as meals based around the hunting and truffle seasons, enjoying the evening at home or in a restaurant in front of a roaring fire. And of course plenty of Christmas and New Years celebrations, private and public. New Year's Eve in Florence is well worth a visit. So yes - it's well worth spending some time in Tuscany during winter.

The Duomo of Florence during winter 2013

There's plenty of winter accommodation listed on the Greve in Chianti web site. These are all owner direct offerings, so you're getting the best prices, and Greve is the centre and market town of the Chianti Classico wine zone between Florence and Sienna.

 

Abbey of Sant'Antimo near Montalcino

And this is the beautiful Abbey of Sant'Antimo during January 2021.

And there are no mosquitoes in winter!

Author: Anna Maria Baldini

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Roman bronze statues discovered at San Casciano dei Bagni in Tuscany

A few days ago in November 2022, a dramatic discovery was made at the excavations being undertaken at the Tuscan town of San Casciano dei Bagni in the province of Sienna. In fact, the largest deposit of bronze statues from the Etruscan and Roman ages ever discovered in Italy and one of the most significant in the whole of the Mediterranean has been found. At least 24 bronze statues, each roughly 1 m tall, in an excellent state of preservation and dating from the second century BC have been uncovered. The statues bear both etruscan and latin inscriptions suggesting that they were put in place over a considerable period.

 Bronze statue of an archer found at San Casciano dei Bagni

Some archaeologists are saying that the find compares in importance with the Greek bronzes found in the sea at Riace in Calabria fifty years ago. We'll have to wait for the San Casciano dei Bagni statues to be cleaned before we can know if they are comparable with the Riace warriors in artistic quality, but the statue of Hygieia, the goddess of health, with a snake coiled on her arm looks pretty good!

Bronze statue excavated at San Casciano dei Bagni

The statues were recovered from the mud accumulated in an area of thermal pools where they were deposited as votive offerings. The thermal baths where the statues were found operated from the third century BC until the fifth century AD, when public bathing was prohibited during Christian times. The sacred basin was deliberately hidden by being covered with large tiles and the columns of the sacred portico were lowered above it to seal the final closure of this place of pagan worship.

Bronze head from San Casciano dei Bagni

In addition to the statues, more than 6000 Etruscan and Roman coins have been recovered, offerings made up until the sanctuary was closed in the 5 C, along with innumerable inscriptions in both etruscan and latin.

The excavation site at San Casciano dei Bagni

More about San Casciano dei Bagni.

More about the Etruscans.

Don't forget to visit my Tuscany Travel Guide! Up-to-date news on what to see and where to stay in Chianti and all of Tuscany. Tuscany Travel Guide

Author: Anna Maria Baldini

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Excellent 2022 Chianti wine vintage coming up

 

Today we had another heavy rainfall here in Chianti, just 3-5 weeks before the Chianti vendemmia is due to begin, exactly when it was wished for. Already in June we knew that vines planted in Chianti indicated a bumper crop of grapes after five years of decline. Then the drought hit and growers became increasingly nervous. At first they hoped for a small but concentrated Chianti grape harvest, but as the drought continued it seemed there might be no harvest at all. Now, within a single week, we have had to massive downpours of rain which, combined with the extreme heat of the past couple of months, means grapes packed with concentrated flavour together with excellent juice volume.

The 2022 Chianti wine vintage will be phenomenal.
Get ready to stock your cellars early next year.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST!

 

More about Tuscan wineries.

Pieve di San Cresci winery.

Don't forget to visit my Tuscany Travel Guide! Up-to-date news on what to see and where to stay in Chianti and all of Tuscany. Tuscany Travel Guide

Author: Anna Maria Baldini

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Things to see in Lucca

Last Saturday, when temperatures were down slightly, I paid a visit to Lucca, that lovely walled town in the west of Tuscany. I had forgotten just how pleasant Lucca is for a stroll - so compact, beautiful, full of things to see and virtually free of motorised vehicles within the walls.

 

Partial view of Lucca within the walls.

The main things to see in Lucca are described on the Lucca Tourist Information website. Here I want to describe some of the things that I personally enjoyed on this visit.

Map of Lucca

I arrived by train from Florence (1 hour 20 minutes) walked to the main entry portal of Lucca, Porta San Pietro, and followed my favorite route past Piazza Napoleone to Piazza San Michele to visit the church and admire there the very fine glazed, terracotta bas-relief by Luca della Robbia. 

The piazza was baking in the sun but luckily Lucca's streets are, for the most part, narrow and therefore shaded. Lucca is also noticeably well-endowed with excellent pasticcerie so that more than once I picked up a pastry to accompany very necessary cold drinks.

Pasticceria in Lucca

Lucca is also a remarkably good town for shopping, especially taking into account its small size. There are certain towns in Tuscany that attract wealthy visitors from nearby vacation areas and which therefore offer very high quality stock. Pietrasanta for example, attracts clientele from Forte dei Marmi and environs. Lucca is similar but, because of the large general tourist traffic, has in addition many moderately priced shops selling beautiful ladies' clothes, as well as a good number of leather goods and jewellery shops - the most famous of the latter is Gioielleria Carli, which has been owned by the same family since the 1600's. I found that Marchi, on via S. Lucia, had the best stock of "non-industrial" jewellery. Many of the others sell inexpensive "fashion jewellery". 

 

Gioielleria Carli, via S. Lucia, Lucca

In fact, the small size of Lucca, as for Pietrasanta, is a part of what makes the shopping good - there are a few streets packed with interesting stops all within an easy walk of one another. I leave aside the salumerie which, although attractive and full of good offerings, are not different from similar places scattered more diffusely in Florence and elsewhere. Via Fillungo is the main shopping street with many unique shops but also rather too many designer outlets selling the same old stuff. However, in the streets round about - via S. Lucia, for example - you will find many individually-owned clothes shops currently selling very nice linen outfits, among many other skirts, dresses and tops.

Next, time for lunch. Lucca is very well-provided with good quality restaurants. Prices are slightly higher than elsewhere in Tuscany but on the whole the quality of the dishes is very good. I went to my favorite - and the favorite of a great many others - Osteria Rosolo which is located in a small and quiet piazza, Corte Campana, off Via Pozzotorelli which exits the Piazza San Michele on its SW corner. As its name says, Osteria Rosolo is an osteria (a trattoria, a small eating house) and it offers more or less standard Tuscan fare (plus lamb chops). I come here for two reasons - the TASTE of the food is exceptional and the service is incredibly welcoming, informal and flexible. They have an indoor, air conditioned dining room but despite the general temperature, the tables outside were delightfully cool under the umbrellas. I was very hungry so I had linguine with vongole (both fresh and delicious) with a glass of local white wine. It was a trebbiano, a highly productive grape which usually yields a faîrly bland wine, but in this case it was excellent. Next, a fillet steak on toast with a sauce of mustard, cream and green pepper corns - fabulous, and cooked exactly to the degree I requested. With that I had a glass of cabernet sauvignon from Bolgheri - plus plenty of cold water. They willingly put my red wine in the fridge for a few minutes to cool it down a bit, an act of sacrilege forced upon me by the current heat wave.

Fillet of beef at Osteria Rosolo in Lucca

For the afternoon, I picked two sights quite unique to Lucca, the Palazzo Pfanner and the Botanical Gardens.

Palazzo Pfanner (also known as Palazzo Controni) was constructed in 1660 and is now the home of the Pfanner family. Felix Pfanner (1818-1892), a brewer from Hörbranz on the shores of Lake Constance, came to Lucca and founded a famous brewery. He eventually bought the Palazzo from the Controni family. Pietro Pfanner (1864-1935) was a surgeon, philanthropist and Mayor of Lucca from 1920-1922.

Palazzo Pfanner in Lucca

As my intelligent and discerning readers will recall, I am a garden nut, and you can safely believe me when I say that the small garden of Palazzo Pfanner is delightful, especially on a hot day. There I relaxed in the shade. The garden is surrounded by high shrubs and bamboo so that only the fine campanile of the Basilica di San Frediano is visible. In summer the big terracotta pots holding the lemon trees are dotted around - these are housed in the limonaia during the winter months. A short walk bordered by larger than life marble statues leads to a small pond with a simple fountain in the middle of it. The best view of this walk is from the splendid loggia of the palazzo. The apartments of the palazzo that are open to the public are of moderately interesting, and among other things display some of the surgical equipment of Pietro Pfanner. The main reason for ascending the grand staircase is the view it affords out over the garden.

My next and last visit for the day was to the Botanical Gardens in the SE corner of Lucca. They can be reached from Palazzo Pfanner via the Piazza del Amfiteatro (well worth a brief visit - some of the stonework of the Roman amphitheatre can be seen in the walls of the apartment buildings now delineating the outline of the amphitheatre) and the Torre Guinigi, the famous tower with the trees growing on top of it, and then following the Via del Fosso and its fast flowing canal.

The Botanical Gardens in Lucca - Sequoia sempervirens

For such a small town, Lucca has an excellent Botanical Garden, with specimens ranging from a giant sequoia to a good collection of insectivorous plants. They have a huge ginkgo tree, surely one of the first specimens planted in Europe. Ginkgo leaves were known from fossils dating as far back as the Permian period. The last surviving genus is native to China and was first described by Engelbert Kaempfer in 1690 based on a tree he saw in Japan. Specimens soon found there way into botanical gardens throughout the Western world. Not only the plants are interesting. While I was at the gardens, a beautiful hoopoe was busily digging up worms just a few meters away from me. I could spend hours in these gardens and will surely return to them.

I suppose being sensitised by an afternoon of plants, I couldn't help but be fascinated by the miles and miles of tree and shrub nurseries in the Arno flood plain visible from the train back to Florence. It reminded me yet again how horticulture dominates the rural economy of Tuscany.

More about Lucca: https://www.lucca.info/

Lucca on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/lucca.tuscany.italy/

Don't forget to visit my Tuscany Travel Guide! Up-to-date news on what to see and where to stay in Chianti and all of Tuscany. Tuscany Travel Guide

Author: Anna Maria Baldini

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Calcio Storico Fiorentino 2022

The 2022 Calcio Storico Fiorentino, that brutal competition among four Florentine teams, begins tomorrow, Friday 10 June 2022, with the semifinals taking place on Friday 10 June and Saturday 11 June instead of on Saturday and Sunday because a national referendum takes place held on Sunday the 12 June. The final takes place as always on 24 June 2022.

I guess almost every one has heard of the Calcio Storico Fiorentino, and in fact it's worth seeing this spectacle (once). Also don't forget that before the calcio itself there will be a splendid display of Tuscany flag throwing. Another Tuscan speciality that is well worth seeing, either on this occasion or another.

Flag throwers at the Calcio Storico Fiorentino in Florence

The Calcio Storico Fiorentino originated in the 16C in Florence and is played today in historical costume. The four teams are: Santa Croce (Azzurri, or Blues), Santo Spirito (Bianchi, or Whites), Santa Maria Novella (Rossi, or Reds), and San Giovanni (Verdi, or Greens). The game was invented by rich aristocreats and took place every night between Epiphany and Lent. The rules of the Calcio Storico were first published in 1580 by Giovanni de’ Bardi. These days it's a somewhat rougher event - actually, brutal is the appropriate expression and I sometimes wonder whether there are any "rules" at all. It's even rumoured that some players are released from jail for a day to participate - I don't think that's true.

On 24 June at 4 pm, the feast day of St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence, a spectacular parade in historical costume starts in Piazza Santa Maria Novella and wends its way through the centre of Florence to Piazza Santa Croce. The four contrade of Florence are represented and you’ll see the players going by as they go to play the final, even those who won’t be playing the final. The parade starts roughly around 4pm since the final should start around 5 pm.

Calcio Storico Fiorentino 2022

To watch the match in Piazza Santa Croce, you need a ticket and they don't come cheap. Tickets cost €80 for Tribuna Onore Centrale, €60 for Tribuna Onore Laterale, €40 for Tribuna C and €29 Curve colori. These need to be bought in advance at the headquarters of BoxOffice Toscana on via delle Vecchie Carceri, 1, or at Teatro Verdi.

These are the hours:

• Monday 6 June from 4 pm BoxOffice (at 9 am can pick up numbers for line) 
• Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday7, 8, 9 June 9 am - 4 pm BoxOffice
• Friday, 10 June from 12 - 7 pm only at Teatro Verdi (Via Ghibellina 99)
• Saturday 11 June at Teatro Verdi, from 12 - 6 pm.
  

You can also watch on Toscana TV, channel 18, and various streaming services.

Don't forget to visit my Tuscany Travel Guide! Up-to-date news on what to see and where to stay in Chianti and all of Tuscany. Tuscany Travel Guide

Author: Anna Maria Baldini

All content copyright © ammonet Italian Web Site Promotion 2022. All rights reserved.

Open gardens day in Florence: Cortili e Giardini Aperti a Firenze

As my faithful readers will remember, I am an enthusiast for the formal gardens of Tuscany, especially those of the larger villas of Tuscany. I therefore always look forward to Open gardens day in Florence (Cortili e Giardini Aperti a Firenze) which in 2022, takes place on 22 May, when the private gardens of Florence are open to the public - see the list here. In 2018, I took the opportunity to visit some gardens in the Oltrarno which I either hadn't seen before at all or only a long time ago.

The one I want to describe in some detail is the Giardino San Francesco di Paola which extends upwards and away from the former home of Harry Brewster, "the last of the cosmopolites of Florence". Brewster, a descendent of William Brewster of the Mayflower, was also the grandson, on his mother's side, of the German sculptor Adolf von Hildebrandt, whose studio occupied part of the former Minimite convent of San Francesco di Paola. The convent is located at the foot of Bellosguardo, the beautiful hill that dominates the Oltrarno. It was an evocative experience for me to walk up Via Villani to the circular Piazza San Francesco di Paola. Although there are 19 C and modern buildings on two sides of the piazza, the old church and the wall and gate of the convent are still there, just as described by Brewster. The main structure was long ago divided up into apartments and, alas, the building is looking much the worse for wear. Indeed, so are some of the remaining Hildebrandt sculptures standing in the loggia at the back of the villa.

The loggia of the Villa of San Francesco di Paola - much in need of some restoration

However, the garden is beautifully kept up, as is the hay shed (fienile) which Brewster converted into a neat, strangely English-looking, cottage covered in roses and surrounded by a small lawn, where he himself lived in frugal simplicity writing his books. One continues up a series of irregular steps to Brewster's beloved belvedere from which there is a beautiful view of Florence, which because of its lower altitude, is almost more beautiful than the vista from the top of Bellosguardo.

View of Florence from the belvedere in the Giardino San Francesco di Paola

Next I walked to entrance of the Giardini Torrigiani not far from the Pitti palace. I have often passed the fine iron gates of these gardens - little did I know that there are 17 acres of gardens hidden behind the walls in the centre of the Oltrarno. In fact, the Torrigiani gardens are the largest private gardens within city limits in all Europe.

A view of a small part of the Torrigiani Gardens, In Florence

The Torrigiani gardens were originally planted by the founder of the Italian Botanical Society, the oldest such society, and the garden still has an uncommonly wide variety of trees, especially exotic species, in keeping with its 19 C “English Landscape” style. The gardens were designed at the height of the Romantic movement in the early 19 C, forming an idyllic oasis of green around the original 16 C villa. The garden hosts rare tree species, wide English-style lawns, herb and vegetables gardens, sculpted lions, a beautifully restored greenhouse and remains of the city walls built under Cosimo I in 1544. The layout of the garden is also profoundly symbolic and I strongly advise visiting it with a good Tuscan garden guide book in hand.

The astronomical tower in the Torrigiani gardens

Last but not least, I visited that exquisite jewel of a garden, the Giardino Corsi Annalena, nearby on via Romana. This garden is located on land formerly owned by the monastery of San Vincenzo which was founded in around 1441 by Countess Anna Elena (Annalena) Malatesta. During the long struggle for supremacy between Florence and Sienna, the area was dominated by the fortifications created by Cosimo I de’ Medici, including an underground passage that until this day connects the Boboli, Corsi and Torrigiani gardens. Following the destruction of the fortifications in 1571, the area was left abandoned for many years. In 1790, the Marquis Tommaso Corsi purchased the land, then known as the "Moors’ Garden", and the architect Giuseppe Manetti designed what can be considered the first English garden in Florence. It was completed during the years 1801 to 1810. If you have the chance to visit this beautiful garden, please don't miss it.

The Giardino Corsi Annalena in Florence

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Author: Anna Maria Baldini

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