If you’re thinking, hmmm that photo above doesn’t look like a garden, you are quite right. But when we went searching for the Sienna Botanical Gardens on a recent trip this is where the map took us. There was a patch of grass outside that didn’t look exactly botanical so we soon gave up. (The old hospital has an interesting history here though.)
Eventually we got a better map – or rather my husband took over the map-reading – but look … still no luck.
We started to wonder whether the gardens wanted to see us… it wasn’t raining that much. Was there a conspiracy? We weren’t alone being puzzled either. We sat in the courtyard in front and watched tourists from all over the world getting confused….
But luckily when we came back the next day, it was in the right place still and it was open. It was even welcoming.
The Botanical Garden is such a shift in pace from the rest of Sienna. It really is an oasis right in the centre of the city. It’s a direct successor from the original Orto dei Semplica, a 16th century medicinal garden attached to the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, and now has more than 2,000 plant species from Italy and overseas.
And about as many stairs.
The gardens are about two and a half hectares, and it was interesting to see how many different constructions of walls there were. Those plants weren’t going anywhere… or were they?
And the views, oh the views.
It’s definitely worth finding. I’m a sucker for vegetable gardens, wild flowers, rock gardens, and also those plants that can defend themselves.
I haven’t been to the art of Siena exhibition at the National Gallery yet and of course that’s a much earlier period, but I’m looking forward to it, and seeing how gardens are represented in the paintings. But in the meantime, my imagination is still hung up on the idea of a garden roaming about a city and only rarely letting anyone catch it.
The Lost Garden
Sarah Salway
It moved around the midnight city,
pulled its walls on a carpet of grass,
trees leant down to let their leaves
smother the tender plants shrieks.
No one in the city can guess
where it would appear next,
some claim they smell green
as it sweeps past houses,
only those who shouldn’t be out
catch glimpses, remain silent.
It’s over in a matter of minutes
counted backwards in the stars.
Although look, I think this cat knows exactly where the garden will appear next...
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