Bardini Garden

The Mozzi family, wealthy bankers, owned this steep hillside plot above the Oltrarno from the Middle Ages, but the garden's dramatic character dates to the 17th century, when the architect Gherardo Silvani laid out a Baroque staircase that climbs the slope in a sequence of terraces, statues and grottoes — the backbone the garden still follows today.

In the 19th century, an English-style garden with a small ornamental pond was added around the neighbouring Villa Manadora, softening the formal Baroque design with the more naturalistic, romantic style then fashionable across Europe. In 1913, the antiques dealer Stefano Bardini bought the whole four-hectare estate, reshaping its paths and planting to his own taste and using parts of the grounds as an open-air showroom for the architectural fragments — columns, doorways, fountains — that he bought and sold, giving the garden a slightly eclectic, curated character it still carries.

The garden's most photographed feature is its 130-metre wisteria pergola, which bursts into a tunnel of pale purple blooms for a few weeks each April — arguably the single best reason to time a Florence trip around a garden visit.

Because it climbs the same hillside as the much larger Boboli Gardens next door, directly across the Arno from central Florence, Bardini offers close-up, uncrowded views of the Duomo that many visitors find more striking than the wider panoramas from Boboli or Piazzale Michelangelo — without the crowds either draws.

Bardini is noticeably quieter than Boboli, which makes it a good choice if you'd rather stroll at your own pace than navigate tour groups; the paths are steep in places, so comfortable shoes help. The garden is closed on the first and last Monday of each month.

As of 2026, Boboli and Bardini can also be visited on a single combined ticket that grants one entry to each garden, though it's sold only at the Uffizi Galleries ticket offices on the day of your visit rather than online — worth asking about if you're planning to see both on the same trip.