May Day in Boboli gardens

Well there were tens of thousands of protests around Europe yesterday, May Day, the day of the worker but I guess really the day of the protester -- remember May 1968? (photo: that's right folks it's a BMW!)

Here in Florence it was certainly a frenetic Monday – but that was due to the sheer weight of tourists – including lots and lots of Italians mind you – pressing up against one another, everyone jockeying to get into the handful of “sites” open to the public.

Naturally we had to take part in this state of affairs and so a little after noon we left the apartment and headed for the Arno – crossed the Ponte Vecchio and then walked to the Pitti Palace and our objective for the day: the Boboli Gardens. One advantage of going on a holiday is that the ticket price was only a euro for each of us (regularly 6.50) so we paid our two euros, and then stood in line waiting to go through security – that’s right, picture airline security, x-ray scanner, metal detector, guy with a gun, odd we thought they would spend money for this sort of thing when everything else you see is in a woeful state of neglect and often disrepair. But they’ve got security cameras, yessirreee bob, but then you have to wonder if they work – given that not one of the fountains in the entire “giardino” was operating.

Anyway if you want to see lots of photos click here!

But hey it was a beautiful day – so is Tuesday morning actually – and we spent a wonderful time just strolling around wondering what it must have looked like when it was brand-new – and what did they do in all this space?

And it was great to see so many people out enjoying life, and thrilled apparently by just being here. And so are we.

Maybe you can help with a bit of a puzzle, though.


At one point along the major avenue in the gardens, leading from the palazzo down to the central fountain, we came across a most odd collection of statues: two men with blindfolds caught as it were in the midst of a game or perhaps something more lethal. It’s hard to tell. What do you think?

We were feeling a bit hungry so we decided to head for the exit. On our way out of the gardens, just before exiting in fact, we came across one of several “grottoes” in the gardens, filled with truly unique paintings. Pretty cool.


And of course the last thing one sees before leaving is “Bacco”, Bacchus I assume, although frankly I would have thought he might have been better dressed and would’ve had a cooler ride than a tortoise. But obviously he’s in no hurry.

And neither were we really.

We headed over to one of our favorite spots, the Golden View and spent the rest of the afternoon having pizza and sipping a truly superb red wine from Trentino if you can believe it, “San Leonardo”.

Wish you were here,

Steve