ローマ・フィレンツェ・ベネチア・ミラノのレストラン、ホテルなど観光情報を紹介 イタリア観光ブログ

Dear Bloggers,

I would like to let you know about a suggestive Japanese garden built in Tuscany, in a small town called Certaldo, the birthplace of Boccaccio, the Italian writer and poet who wrote a number of notable works, including The Decameron.

It is opened to visitors who want to explore it and it is situated in the Palazzo Pretorio, a palace built as a residence for the Florentine governors and rulers of Certaldo. The palace was recently restored and the façade of the palace is adorned with a coat of arms made from ceramics. The interiors are equally impressive with several beautiful frescoes of the 13^th to the 16^th century.

The ancient garden of the Palazzo Pretorio lives again today as a Japanese garden, the work of the artist Hidetoshi Nagasawa.

This work of art gives a proper context to a teahouse, the gift of Kanramachi, a sister city to Certaldo, removing its air of being out of place, which characterized it when it first arrived.

Japanese stylistic elements (like the black marbles of the wall) are united with the typical Tuscan materials (like the bricks of the corners) and they synthesized that there is a constant interplay between the two civilizations.

The Japanese house is not only the symbol of and enduring friendship between the two cities, but aims also at being a valuable reminder of the culture of its country of origin, unknown to most people, through the Japanese tea ceremony “Chashitzu”, comparing the life styles of East and West and giving to us a moment of reflection: a way of loving the ordinary world “ichi-go ichi-e”.

How to get there
By car.
From Florence: take A1 motorway and exit "Firenze Signa", take the road Pisa-Livorno and exit "Empoli ovest", take SS 429 direction Siena.
From Siena: from Firenze-Siena exit "Poggibonsi", take SS 429 towards Empoli, and stop at Certaldo

By train.
Take railway line Firenze-Empoli-Siena, and stop at Certaldo

By plane.
Florence A. Vespucci Airport 40 Km
Pisa Galileo Galilei Airport 50 km

Thank you for reading

Guenda