What do you do when you’ve already been to a place several times and you’ve got some time to kill? Recently I found myself again in Florence because of work and I had no idea what to do with a couple of hours of free time. I had lunch and absolutely no plans for my free afternoon. So I just kept walking when I left the restaurant. I wasn’t really walking in the unknown direction because I have actually walked down that street previously but after a couple of turns I saw something new in the distance. A grey tower. I came closer and saw that it was the oldest Anglican church in Florence. How funny that I manage to find English things wherever I go. 🙂
But I didn’t remember the name of the church and when I tried to find it on Google for the purpose of this post I couldn’t. There wasn’t such church on the map and when I googled Anglican church in Florence the search engine gave me a different result. After quite a bit of the research I found my mystery church. It is the Holy Trinity church which was acquired by the Waldesians in 1967. It was the first Anglican church in Florence built in the first half of the nineteenth century by Domenico Giraldi. Only fifty years later the English expat community of Florence decided to rebuilt the church in an English perpendicular style to designs by George Frederick Bodley. There are statues of St John the Baptist, King David, St Alban, St Augustine, St Stephen, St George, St Andrew and St Patrick on the grey church tower. The main English church today is St Mark’s English Church.
After admiring the marble statues of the saints on the church tower I crossed the street and saw a park and thought that I might sit there for a while and enjoy the sunshine. But this park wasn’t actually an ordinary park; it was the Botanical garden of Florence and so I decided to visit it. The entry cost me only 3 euros. I walked around the botanical garden, sat and soaked up the sun and then explored some more. In the end I decided to take some photos with my phone and maybe write a few words about it for my travel blog :).
There were only a few people wandering around the garden. It was the perfect place to relax far away from the hustle and bustle of tourist crowded Florence. However, the Botanical Garden isn’t really far away from the Duomo (cathedral). It’s actually only a couple of minutes from the famous Accademia Gallery Museum where you can see the original statue of David by Michelangelo. Nevertheless, it offers peace and tranquility seldom found in beautiful but noisy Florence. It was also the first botanical garden I have ever visited.
The Botanical Garden of Florence is among the oldest botanical gardens in Italy and in the world. It was founded in 1545 by the Medici family who ruled all of Tuscany. There are hot houses and greenhouses and plots with medicinal plants and poisonous plants and rose bushes and oriental gardens and much more. October may not be the best month to visit a botanical garden but I still found a lot of interesting plants. There are also tall majestic trees and lofty palm trees and even a cocoa tree. I have never seen a pink tree trunk until this visit. It belongs to some water plant found in southern American states. The only downside of my visit was that I got bitten by mosquitoes. In October, I know! Autumn hasn’t sprinkled its lovely yellows and reds yet on the trees in this botanical garden and there weren’t many flowers in bloom so I wonder how it looks like in spring or later in the autumn. It was definitely an interesting visit and a very pleasant surprise.
The address: Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università di Firenze – Orto Botanico “Giardino dei Semplici” , Via Micheli 3, Firenze
Have you ever been to any botanical garden?
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The gardens look glorious and making me pine for Spring!
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I actually visited it in October:) I gather the garden looks even better in Spring
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[…] a botanical garden in Florence, […]
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I love Florence! Completely missed the botanical Gardens though! Must return:) Thanks for linking to #MondayEscapes
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🙂 thanks for reading:)
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Mosquitos in October! Now that IS bad luck. The gardens look beautiful though. #MondayEscapes
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🙂
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I would have liked to visit this gardens last time I was in Florence, but the weather wasn’t too great. It was raining almost every day. Thanks for joining us for #TheWeeklyPostcard.
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next time then?:) thanks for stopping by
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Florence looks so beautiful! Will have to go one day!
#wkendtravelinspiration
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:)yes, you should go:)
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What a great find – it’s nice to take a breath from all the hustle and bustle of the city.
I’ve been to Botanical Gardens in Madeira, incredible! 🙂
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:)thanks for stopping by
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What a great find! Love those unexpected discoveries. #mondayescapes
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yes, thanks:)
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I’m heading to Florence for the first time in a couple of weeks! I’ll be hitting up all the tourist areas, but hopefully I’ll have some time to spare to explore to find hidden gems like this!
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great!enjoy Florence:) thanks for stopping by
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What a lovely series of happy ‘accidents!’ It looks like a small-ish Botanical Garden but so beautifully laid out. I hope this steers you towards exploring more B.G.s – they’re truly a wonderful way to calm down and restore your senses in a busy city.
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yes, it’s not big but it’s lovely:) thanks for stopping by
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Love discovering new corners and wonders by accident! My mom always dragged my sister and me around to botanical gardens, so I’m moderately burned-out, but I know they are super beautiful! #MondayEscapes
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yes:) thanks for commenting
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I really love just wandering around cities without a plan (wish I had more time to do this). It is always interesting what you find! I am glad after researching you were able to find out the name of that church! Thanks for sharing on #TheWeeklyPostcard.
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🙂 yes, sometimes the best things happens when you don’t plan and just stumble upon something:) thanks for hosting the linkup
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Those botanical gardens are beautiful. What a gorgeous place to escape the city for a little while. #wkendtravelinspiration
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yes, it was a nice respite from the crowds:)
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I wish I knew about this place when I was in Florence.
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now you know:) for some other trip to Florence, thanks for stopping by
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I love Florence! My husband and I got stuck there one Christmas Eve, flight was cancelled due to the fog. We only got back to London on Boxing day and missed Christmas day with the family. If we had been stuck anywhere else it would have been awful. As it was Florence we managed quite well.
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good to hear that it hasn’t completely spoilt Christmas:) thanks for stopping by
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Oh, Firenze! Be still my heart…
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🙂 what’s your favourite part of Florence?
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It looks beautiful!
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it is:) thanks for stopping by
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