Sunday, April 13, 2008

The Boboli Garden

The Boboli Garden in Florence is the family garden of the wealthy Medici family. I have been there twice. The first time I endeavored to see the entire garden which I mostly did. I didn't take every side trail because after a while they all looked kind of the same, from what I could tell. If I lived in Florence, I would break up the garden into sections and know for sure. But I saw all the fountains, statuary and grottos and belvederes. Three museums are also located adjacent to the garden and I have managed to see only one of them because after wandering all over the garden for a large part of the day, I just got pooped out!

This is the fountain closest to the "house".
A very nice view of the Duomo!
Okay. Look at this stone "bathtub". Notice that it has lifting rings carved into it. I probably wouldn't have paid much attention to the lifting rings had I not had safety seminars of loads and crane signals and load tie downs. Nowadays, we use a lot of slings for lifting heavy loads. For those of you not familiar with construction, think about what these lifting rings mean. Since they are carved from stone, they are not functional. But whatever they were copied from were. So they had tubs that probably were metal. And, being metal, any that were lying around were probably melted down in some stupid, long ago war for cannon or cannonballs. But, nevertheless, let's think about it. They had metal bathtubs! And they had lifting rings that worked. Okay, enough construction geekiness.
Oh, another fountain! Still more steps! Keep going up!
Am I there yet? Did I really walk this far up? Do I have to walk all the way down?
Oh, this is what is at the top. Beautiful box hadges and peonies! And, another museum. (I think I passed on the museum not having much interest in porcelain.)
Look at this beauty!
Oh, and another stature! Then, back down into the museums! I posted this to remind myself that my garden in not too small. After all of the weeding, raking, pruning, planting, washing, fertilizing, spraying, hauling, and filling of trash bins I have done in the last several weeks, it may, in fact, be too large! Happy gardening!

5 comments:

joe@italyville.com said...

I'm embarrassed to say that I lived in Florence for several months and have visited many times.... and still have not seen the gardens. The last time I was there it was 100 degrees and there was a super long line.... it seems I'm getting closer to actually entering:) Next time?

Homebody at Heart said...

Joe,

Well,I don't think I would want to walk up to the top in 100 degree weather, either! Although, I think a lot of locals maybe do go there to escape the heat. It would be a great place to picnic or wander around, if I lived in Florence. I think that when you live somewhere, there is no urgency to see everything, like I get when I am on vacation. But, don't feel bad about not seeing the gardens. My Italian hostess for two weeks told me that she had never been to the Uffizzi or seen David inside the Accademia and she lived an hour away from Florence her whole life! (Mostly because of the lines!)

Homebody at Heart said...

Thank you Aluguel! Are you from Brazil? Sorry, I don't understand much Portugese except when it resembles Spanish or Italian. But thanks for stopping by :).

Meg said...

I think the tub may be either a copy of an ancient Roman one or from an ancient Roman one- remember the big bathtub fountains in p. Farnese? They're from the baths of Caracalla, and are almost identical to the one you phtographed, which makes me thing that it's likely from an ancient roman bath. Or... not, since it's just a guess on my part.

Homebody at Heart said...

Oh Meg,

I haven't made it to the Piazza Farnese yet. I'm working my way through all the churches, museums and bath complexes that I can each trip. The lifting rings just made me freak because I realized it must be a copy of metal. If the metal tubs had lifting, what was lifting them? Surely, not humans! And, if they had big ones, they surely had smaller ones. I bet not everyone went to the public baths. They must have had tubs for home use, too!