{"id":10147,"date":"2014-09-22T07:44:28","date_gmt":"2014-09-22T05:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/?p=10147"},"modified":"2014-09-22T08:00:23","modified_gmt":"2014-09-22T06:00:23","slug":"medici-gardens-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/florence\/medici-gardens-morning\/","title":{"rendered":"The smell of a Medici garden in the morning"},"content":{"rendered":"

The crunch of gravel under your feet. The distant hum of traffic, overtaken by tweeting birds, the whooping of a dove. The smell of wet leaves, dry pine needles, and a hint of citrus. Running water from a fountain. I love the meditative feel of having a Medici Garden all to myself.<\/strong> I can imagine Isabella de’ Medici walking in the outer edges of the Boboli gardens at daybreak… did she ever walk alone, or would she have always been accompanied, even here, amongst the tall green walls?<\/p>\n

\"Villa
Villa Medicea at Castello<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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When I first came to Florence longer term, it was January 1999. I was doing a year-long masters in art history with Syracuse University in Florence, a program that culminates in the year’s students putting on a symposium based on a theme. The month of January was dedicated to seeing as much as we could in order to pick a theme. It had to work for a class of eight students with different interests. One theme we strongly considered was Medici gardens<\/strong>.<\/p>\n