Boboli Garden was the garden of the princes who lived in the grand palace of Palazzo Pitti. The first family to live there was the Medici family, initially wealthy bankers, then Dukes of Florence and Grand Dukes of Tuscany. It was Eleonora di Toledo, the wife of Cosimo I de’ Medici, who bought the palace and the hill behind it from Luca Pitti, once a wealthy merchant but later fallen into ruin. They say Luca Pitti made a great deal because Eleonora gave him a lot of money!
After the Medici, the Lorraine family and then the Savoy family lived in the palace and adored the wonderful Boboli Garden that they saw every morning from their windows when they opened their eyes. It seems that Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoy, the King of Italy, when he came from Turin to Florence, was comforted by the fact that, yes, he would have to leave his mountains and woods in Piedmont where he loved to go for long hunting trips, but at least, considering the vast spaces of Boboli, he could bring his horses!
Who knows how many children have run in Boboli over the centuries. Who knows, maybe they had fun in winter watching the water in the basins freeze, and in spring watching the flowers bloom.
In my opinion, some mischievous children might have even enjoyed watching birds being caught with nets called “ragnaie”… Don’t know what those are?
Well, the word “ragnaia” comes from “ragno” (spider) and “ragnatela” (cobweb). “Ragnaie” were very fine and almost invisible nets, just like a cobweb. They were placed on trees where the branches were dense. Little birds that landed on the branches remained trapped. This way, it was very easy to pull up the nets, with many little birds caught, and make delicious roasts.
Oh, yes… For the little princes who lived a long time ago when there were no refrigerators or supermarkets, the Boboli Garden was more than just a play space; it was a large outdoor refrigerator. There were animals that could be hunted, fish in the basins that could be caught and cooked, as well as fruits and vegetables in abundance.
A somewhat crazy gentleman named Bernardo Buontalenti even invented a way to preserve food longer in “ghiacciaie,” small stone domes that he designed himself, where the snow brought from the Apennines kept the food cool. By handling the snow so much, one day he thought of mixing some eggs, lemon, and sugar with the snow and then tasting it. A delicious cream came out, which was given his name: Buontalenti.
Buontalenti can still be enjoyed today in some ice cream shops in Florence.
