When I go around I do it and I feel I can recommend it to all of you, low cost tourists: in the cities, check for a botanical garden and go and visit it. It is a very valid alternative to a visit to the museum: they are usually not very popular, they are beautiful in mid-seasons, cooler in summer, and in any season they are well-kept, beautiful, informative and inexpensive places. In Florence for example the Botanical Garden or Garden of Simple is very ancient, the third oldest in the world after Pisa and Padua. It was established by the Medici family in 1545 and is now part of the University and represents a section of the Natural History Museum. It is located in via Micheli 3, a few meters from Piazza San Marco.
It consists of some large greenhouses, both hot and cold, of a large outdoor area with nineteenth-century trees and tall or very high stems - from record plants, such as the Baccata taxus, here sown in 1720; then you will find potted plants that, depending on the season, enter and leave the greenhouses.
Each season has its own charm: azaleas bloom in spring, followed by roses. Beautiful citrus fruits, whose hybridization in Florence was particularly curated by the Medici; the palms; medicinal plants; carnivorous plants; the exotic, which at the time of the great expeditions to the new lands were brought to Europe and planted in environments similar to the original ones.
The ticket costs 6 euros.
