Review of Surrounding Country Side

Boboli Gardens, Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, and the Orto Botanical

The Boboli Gardens are my socket. I could not live in Florence without them. I wander the grey, wet, dark, stone streets of Florence purely on battery power. Don’t misunderstand, these streets are some of the most incredible, amazing, and beautiful in the world to me, but they ever so minutely drain me. A constant drain that I always feel in the city, any city. I feel the life slowly leave me and it is at that time that I return to my favorite place in Florence: the Boboli Gardens. I go there to recharge, to get my daily dose of green, and if it is green you are looking for these are the gardens to go to. So large are they, so magical, and so beautiful that there is no other substitute. Built in 1550, everything within them is full of energy; from the huge variety of trees (cypress, oak, ect.) to the design of the gardens, nothing is lacking except for flowers. But it is winter so we can excuse this. I walk through the gardens, heading south towards my favorite spot, right at the end of Cyprus Alley in the famous reflecting pool called L’Isolotto (or Little Island). The energy in that very spot is unlike any other, it is my socket, my place to recharge. My place of solitude where I gain the energy to survive for another couple of days. It smells of nature, the sound of birds fills the air. People talk and laugh on the main streets, and to feel sunshine! Oh nothing is better than getting that dose of vitamin C. If I had not found this place I could never of been as happy as I am now. My time in Florence would have been one continuous drain, but luckily I did find it.

In comparison to the two other places I visited, The Orto Botanico (also known as the garden of the simples) and the Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, the Boboli’s are no comparison. Yet, these two places serve very different purposes than the Boboli’s. Piazza della Santissima Annunziata is one of the most fantastic piazzas in Florence. Dating from the early 13^th century, the true magnificence of the piazza is do to the influence by Filippo Brunelleschi’s Loggiato dell’Ospedale degli Innocenti (1419-1451). Most consider this work by Brunelleschi to be the first true renaissance piece, the sloping arches with the white babies and blue background give this pizza something different. The Innocenti was Europe’s first orphanage, with a system allowing mothers to drop of unwanted children anonymously. This gives it a odd air, because it was one of the first outreaches to the needy. It is the first open arched piazza to be placed in Florence and one of the first of its design in Europe. It has a sense of…dare I say abandonment? Yes, it has a sense of abandonment to it, as if people have forgotten the significance of this place. People stand in groves, staring at the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, Plaza Vecchio, yet no one seems to stand a stair at the significance of this place. This is why I like it, because I do know the  importance. I have not forgotten.

            My third spot, unfortunately, I could not get into. It is closed for various reasons, none of which I was able to figure out, but I was still able to stand a stair at the Orto Botanico. The Boboli’s are my place of rest, the Loggiato dell’Ospedale degli Innocenti is my spot of wisdom, but the Botanico is my glimpse of ancient Medici, a quick view of the past that is so utterly different than the other monuments of Florence. The Duomo is beautiful, significant, and very old. The Palazzo Vecchio is even older, but both do only one thing: intimidate me. These gardens though are meant to do nothing of the sort. They were possibly the first Botanical gardens in Europe, used to grow medical herbs. Founded by nuns, and eventually controlled by Cosimo the first in 1545. Covering over 400 acres, and containing over 6000 different herbs it is a very straightforward garden. Not meant to impress but rather to serve a purpose. A purpose now looked at very different; hospitals, medicine, drugs, and the sort are not often thought of as gardens, but rather plastic pill containers. But this place is a mixture of the two, almost eerie for some reason, it contains an entirely different form of beauty the other two locations. A beauty far reaching, and much deeper.