Parco Mediceo di Pratolino, Villa Demidoff
A Medici park north of the city built around the Appennino, a colossal stone giant by Giambologna crouching over a pool.
- Area
- Outside the centre
- Checked
- August 2026
Francesco de’ Medici built the garden in the 1560s as a machine of grottoes, fountains and automata. Most of it is gone. What remains is worth the trip on its own: Giambologna’s Appennino, a stone giant over ten metres high, hunched at the edge of a pond with water running from his hand, hollow inside and once full of rooms.
Around him are meadows, a long avenue of trees, ponds and enough space to lose children for an hour. A UNESCO site since 2013, and almost entirely local at weekends.
Bus 25A from Piazza San Marco towards Pratolino, about half an hour. Free entry, seasonal opening days.