Boboli Gardens with Reserved Entry and Audio Guide

Overview

Behind Palazzo Pitti in Florence, the hillside gives way to the Boboli Gardens, laid out from 1549 onward for Eleonora di Toledo, wife of Cosimo I de' Medici. Niccolò Pericoli, called il Tribolo, drew up the original scheme, which Bartolomeo Ammannati and Bernardo Buontalenti later carried forward, turning the grounds into the archetype for Italian Renaissance gardens — a sweeping outdoor museum of clipped hedges, statues, and long formal views. Its centerpiece is the Grotta del Buontalenti, a strange and theatrical Mannerist grotto raised between 1583 and 1593, lined with artificial stalactites and once the setting for Michelangelo's unfinished Prigioni. Further along, the amphitheater, the Neptune Fountain, and the island garden of the Isolotto open up in turn, framed by sculpture ranging from Roman antiquity to the 20th century. Guests can also explore Boboli, and Florence more broadly, at their own pace with a digital audio guide.