Sunday and Monday Boboli Gardens

Yesterday  I stayed in for the day, with only a few excursions to the local bar for my morning coffee,  and to a trattoria for lunch. I was able to organise come of my photos.

Today I walked to the other side of the river, then up and up again to the main (I thought it was the main one, but maybe not.)entrance to the Boboloi Gardens. These were started for the Medici family in the mid 1500s  According to the guide book they are a ' perfect example of stylised Renaissance gardening' .  I was not overly impressed but maybe I was just having an off day. There is a cafe in the map on my guide book , and there are signs in the gardens to it. I found the building but it is clearly not in use  as a cafe and has not been for a while ( the signs should be fixed) . There are lots of meandering paths, particularly up the top, where I started. And  lots of quite big  stone stairs you can use . But no hand rail anywhere. Maybe that is just my problem  at the moment. Some interesting plants. A long avenue of cypress tress with many, many  classical statues along it, but most were quite gungy looking ( green moss? Alge? Changing stone colour? The Neptune fountain, one of the main attractions, was being repaired and there were temporary opaque fence things all around it  so that was out too. When I left a French couple were struggling at the exit/ entrance  with the attendant who had no English or French.  They were asking her how much walking was there , were there things to see. I was able to quickly glance at my watch to see my steps, convert that to km, describe how much of the park I had covered, said the views were OK but told them where I had been a few days ago which had better views, about No Neptune  and No cafe etc.  They saved themselves 10 euro each. 

Then I walked back, As soon as possible i  stopped at a small local bar, and sat for my coffee. Usually toilets in smal bars in my experience are small and uninviting. However this one was quite new and there was a white, real cyclamen ( mind you, I saw cyclamens in the markets for 5 euros each the other day) . On the way out i said in French  -  Good bye, thank you and I like your flower. The barman had been polite, but bordering on abrupt , but he was busy. When I mentioned the flower , he gave me a great big smile and looked  really pleased.  Such a small thing for me to do, but clearly he appreciated it.

Having deliberately  had no pasta for a few days, and  having walked 13 km today  I think I will go to  1 of the local places for a plate of pasta and an aperol spritz.