Garden Tours at the Bardini & Chalet Fontana
Sunday, April 9: Guided Visits at the Bardini Garden. The first signs of life are starting to show after a cold Florentine winter. First to welcome the warmer weather and longer days are the wisterias now blooming throughout Tuscany. The Bardini Garden offers a pop of purple and it is opening its doors at 3 & 4:30 pm with several guided tours led by a landscape architect to admire the blossoms against the backdrop of an iconic overlook of Florence. Each tour is an hour long and the entrance is from Via dei Bardi 1. The cost of the visit is €7 and a reservation is required. To reserve a spot please visit http://www.beemyguide.com/
The cost includes a chance to visit the entirety of the Bardini Garden, which has long been a charming little getaway from the bustle of the busy city below. The Bardini Garden sits along a steep hill visible from Ponte Vecchio. The garden has a long history of restorations from the time Ugo Bardini bequeathed the area to the city in 1965 until recent times. Preserving the features added by each successive, new owner through the years has made an opportunity for a fascinating walk through horticultural history. One will see the influence of the Baroque period in the installation of a long wall, fountain, and dramatic steps.
The garden also has a small amphitheater nestled on a lawn and an agricultural grove with traditional varieties of Tuscan fruit trees reminiscent of the medieval orchard this place used to be before it was transformed into a garden. In addition to the blooming wisterias, the garden is also starting to teem with an array of delicately beautiful camellias and the elegant hues and gradients of hydrangeas. Although only some of the garden’s plant life is beginning to come to life, the space is designed to bloom from March to September, reaching its peak in May making this a pleasurable place to visit any time of the year.
Saturday, April 8: Chalet Fontana’s Plant Nursey Opens. Also unlocking its gates to welcome in spring is the garden of restaurant Chalet Fontana, just a short distance from Piazzale Michelangelo on viale Galileo 7. On Saturday, April 8 at 11:30 am the nursery will be open again to the public for the first time since autumn. The Calicanto nursery is full of organic plants for cooking and even edible flowers. Products will go on sale on Sunday from 10:30 am to 11 pm, and gardening consulting service will be available.
Chalet Fontana and the nursery have also worked in conjunction to create Noa Food, a biodynamic vegetable garden that grows organic products for sale. The special cultivation techniques are based on a method developed by the University of Pisa that uses volcanic lands to increase the color, smell, and taste of food products. (martha gonzalez)
