Founded in 1545 to furnish medicine to the Medici, Florence's botanical gardens – managed today by the university – are a wonderfully peaceful retreat in a stretch of the city with little green space. Its greenhouse is fragrant with citrus blossoms, and medicinal plants, Tuscan spices, 220 tree types and wildflowers from the Apennines pepper its 2.3 hectares. Don't miss the magnificent yew tree, planted in 1720, and an ornamental cork oak from 1805. Several themed footpaths wend their way through the gardens.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Museo di San Marco

0.12 MILES

At the heart of Florence's university area sits Chiesa di San Marco and an adjoining 15th-century Dominican monastery where both gifted painter Fra'…

2. Chiesa della Santissima Annunziata

0.15 MILES

Established in 1250 by the founders of the Servite order and rebuilt by Michelozzo and others in the mid-15th century, this Renaissance church is most…

3. Museo Archeologico

0.18 MILES

Set a little bit back off Piazza della Santissima Annunziata is Florence's archaeology museum. Its rich collection of finds, including most of the Medici…

4. Piazza della Santissima Annunziata

0.18 MILES

Giambologna's equestrian statue of Grand Duke Ferdinando I de' Medici commands the scene from the centre of this majestic square, dominated by the facades…

5. Galleria dell'Accademia

0.2 MILES

A queue marks the door to this gallery, built to house one of the Renaissance's most iconic masterpieces, Michelangelo's David. But the world's most…

6. Museo degli Innocenti

0.21 MILES

Shortly after its founding in 1421, Brunelleschi designed the loggia for Florence's Ospedale degli Innocenti, a foundling hospital and Europe's first…

7. Cenacolo di Sant’Apollonia

0.23 MILES

Once part of a sprawling Benedictine monastery, this cenacolo (refectory) harbours arguably the city’s most remarkable Last Supper scene. Painted by…

8. Palazzo Medici-Riccardi

0.37 MILES

Cosimo the Elder entrusted Michelozzo with the design of the family's town house in 1444. The result was this palace, a blueprint that influenced the…