Day three - Fiesole

Day three started with a trip to the north of Florence to see three gardens in the hills overlooking the city. The first was Villa la Pietra, which was owned by an English art dealer around 1900. He seems to have bought and sold art, statues, architecture and managed to keep an awful lot of it too. His house and garden is so stuffed with art and statues, that it is a wonder that there are any left elsewhere! He recreated his garden to look like a much older design and the effect is overwhelming!
See pics 1-2 (Just to explain, I can't seem to insert pictures into my text, I shall blame it on Italian wifi and have to add all photos at the end - sorry)

Then onto the altogether nicer Villa Medici (there are a lot of Villa Medici around Florence- they owned a lot!) which had a stunning view and was much smaller terraced garden, with an amazing wall of oranges and lovely roses.
See pics 3-6

Finally, and after a delicious lunch overlooking the city, we visited the Villa le Baize which was just around the corner from the Villa Medici. It had lovely garden rooms and a gorgeous raised rose walk covered in little cream Banksia roses, and lots of bits that would be fantastic to incorporate into my garden (if only I had the climate/space/time!)
See pics 7-10

And everywhere there are lemon trees in pots looking divine!