Boboli Gardens behind the Pitti Palace

What it is

Boboli is the garden the Medici made for themselves behind the Pitti Palace, on the Oltrarno hill, and one of the first Italian-style gardens. It is large and almost all uphill: an open-air museum of ancient and Renaissance statues, fountains, grottoes and hedge-lined avenues, with views over the city and the countryside from the top. It is run by the Gallerie degli Uffizi, like the palace.

What to see

• The amphitheatre, the great horseshoe-shaped esplanade right behind the palace, with an Egyptian obelisk in the centre.
• The Buontalenti grotto, the most famous in the garden, with rooms decorated like caves. It is next to the exit of the Vasari Corridor, which arrives here from the Uffizi.
• The Fountain of Neptune, in the pond you see as you climb from the amphitheatre.
• The Fountain of the Ocean, on the island at the southern end, at the end of the long Viottolone avenue.
• The Kaffeehaus, an 18th-century pavilion, one of the few examples of rococo in Tuscany.
• The Limonaia, the citrus greenhouse, from 1777–1778.

The Porcelain Museum, at the top, is closed for refurbishment.

Hours

Open every day from 8:15. Closing time changes with the season:

• November to February: 16:30.
• March (winter time) and October (winter time): 17:30.
• March (summer time), April, May, September and October (summer time): 18:30.
• June, July and August: 19:10.

Last entry is always an hour before closing. It is closed on the first and last Monday of each month and on 25 December. In bad weather it may close or change hours without prior notice.

Tickets

• Boboli: €10 at the ticket office on the day, €13 with online booking. Reduced, €3.
• Pitti Palace + Boboli: €22 on the day, €25 booked.
• Boboli + Bardini Garden: €15, only at the ticket office and on the same day.
• 5-day PassePartout (Uffizi, Pitti and Boboli): €40, or €58 with the Vasari Corridor.
• Annual pass for Boboli only: €25.

The conditions for reduced and free entry are on the Gallerie degli Uffizi website. Buying at the ticket office is cheaper; booking is only worth it in high season, if you want to avoid the queue.

Where to enter and how long it takes

There are four entrances: the Pitti Palace courtyard, the Annalena entrance on Via Romana, the Porta Romana and the Forte di Belvedere. The normal thing is to enter by the Pitti and climb up. Allow two hours for a full unhurried visit; in one hour you see the amphitheatre, Neptune, the Kaffeehaus and the view from the top.

If you have time left, the Bardini Garden is a downhill stroll from the Belvedere, and from there you can continue to San Miniato al Monte for sunset.

From the centre you walk across the Ponte Vecchio: in ten minutes you are at Piazza Pitti. Don't come by car; the centre has limited traffic.

With children and accessibility

It works well with children: there is space to run, grottoes and statues to find, and a baby-changing area next to the toilets at the amphitheatre. There are also toilets at the Annalena entrance and drinking fountains at several points, but bring water in summer. The cloakroom in the Ammannati courtyard is free.

The ground is earth and gravel, almost all on a slope. The two accessible entrances are the Pitti courtyard (left side) and the Porta Romana, and the Gallerie state that the garden is accessible only with a companion.