Description
Much has been written to tell the story of Florence through its architecture, less frequent are the accounts which presume to know the city by describing its gardens, its parks and its tree-lined squares. Florence is rich with green spaces: in the historical center they wedge between the palatial villas, appear romantically behind stone walls, and reveal the golden aura of the Renaissance city. But no less notable is the 19th century bourgeois expansion which created the splendor of the tree lined public squares, the great Cascine Park and the soft curves of the Viale dei Colli (Avenue of the Hills), designed and built to give a formal frame to the Capitale del regno d?Italia (from 1865 to 1871 Florence was the temporary capital of the Kingdom of Italy). And then, there are the surrounding hills dotted with villas which for centuries shaped the desires of the nobles and great families, from the Medici to the Lorena, or realized the dreams of the English who, between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, populated many of them in a search for classical perfection which only these places could inspire. Here, the aspiration to beauty materialized in the ?Italian style? gardens where the search for harmony between man and the universe found the possibility to express itself in a geometric rigor of language made familiar among the topiary hedges, pergolas, basins and pools of water, and enchanting panoramas. This book is a guide to the history and images of the parks and gardens, public and private, moving between places and persons, among artists, architects and owners, in an attempt to present a pleasing cultural itinerary to follow which illustrates the variety of the types and styles which make up the complexity of the green spaces of Florence and her surrounding hills.
