The Bardini Garden and Costa San Giorgio
The steep walled lane out of the centro, a wisteria tunnel, and the roofs of Florence below. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Ponte Vecchio (south end)
Cross to the Oltrarno side of the old bridge and turn your back on the goldsmiths. The lane climbing away to the left, Costa San Giorgio, is where the crowd thins almost at once.

2. Costa San Giorgio
A steep walled lane of garden gates and faded ochre, climbing toward the old city gate. Number 19 was Galileo's house for a time. No traffic to speak of; just the slope and the wisteria spilling over walls.

3. Porta San Giorgio
The oldest surviving city gate in Florence, with a worn relief of St George over the arch. Through it, Forte Belvedere sits to the right; the Bardini entrance is down to the left. Catch your breath under the vault.

4. Giardino Bardini — the wisteria pergola
Through the gate and into the garden. In April the long pergola becomes a tunnel of hanging wisteria — the single best ten minutes of spring in Florence. The rest of the year it's a green corridor with the city flickering through.

5. The Bardini belvedere
The terrace where the garden tips toward town: the duomo and Palazzo Vecchio's tower laid out over the roofs, with far fewer people than the Boboli next door. There's a café in the loggia if you want to sit with it.

6. Down to Porta San Niccolò
Leave by the lower gate and follow the slope down toward the river and the tall medieval gate at the bottom. The Bus 12/13 passes here, or walk the last stretch along the Arno.

The Bardini Garden and Costa San Giorgio