Bardini Garden
Separated from the Boboli Gardens by a wall but connected by a shared ticket, the Bardini Garden is known to perhaps one in twenty of the visitors who troop through its famous neighbour. Yet its 16th-century baroque staircase, wisteria tunnel, and meadow of wild irises in May make it, in many ways, the more beautiful of the two.
The Wisteria Staircase and Iris Meadow
The garden's centrepiece is a grand baroque staircase flanked by stone balustrades that climbs steeply through a tunnel of ancient wisteria. In late April and early May, the wisteria explodes into cascading violet and white blooms so dense they block the sky — it is one of the most photographed natural spectacles in Florence, yet the garden is rarely busy even at peak bloom.
Below the staircase, a meadow is planted with hundreds of heritage iris varieties, many of them the deep purple Iris florentina that has been the symbol of the city since the Middle Ages. The combination of the baroque architecture and the wild-looking flower meadow is visually startling in the best possible way.
The Villa Bardini and the View
At the top of the garden, the 17th-century Villa Bardini houses a small museum dedicated to the Florentine fashion designer Roberto Capucci, whose sculptural gowns are displayed in frescoed rooms — a surreal and wonderful juxtaposition. The café terrace on the upper level has a direct, unobstructed view over the Arno rooftops to the Duomo that rivals anything in the city.
The garden is entered from Costa San Giorgio 2 or from within the Boboli Gardens via a connecting gate. Because it is ticketed separately from Boboli, crowds never migrate here in large numbers — even on a busy Saturday in June you may have entire terraces to yourself.
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