Anfiteatro di Boboli, Garden amphitheater in Boboli Gardens, Florence, Italy

Anfiteatro di Boboli is a garden amphitheater with rising stone tiers arranged in a semicircular pattern, bordered by white marble statues along the upper edges. The curved seating structure creates intimate sightlines from different levels across the surrounding garden landscape.

The Tribolo planned the bell-shaped green amphitheater in 1550, completed in 1551 by Davide Fortini. In 1630 Ferdinando II commissioned the masonry tiers, finished by 1634 with Alfonso Parigi the Younger; it was inaugurated in 1637 for Vittoria della Rovere's coronation as Grand Duchess. In 1764 the cave was buried and the seating rebuilt in pincer form.

The amphitheater's bell-shaped green layout was copied in 1615 for Marie de' Medici's Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. In 1637 it was inaugurated with a horse carousel for Vittoria della Rovere's coronation as Grand Duchess of Tuscany. Later spectacles included Ferdinando Tacca's "Il Mondo festeggiante" in 1661 for Cosimo III's wedding to Marguerite Louise d'Orléans.

Visit through the main Boboli Gardens entrance without needing a separate ticket for this area. Wear comfortable shoes since the stone steps and surrounding garden terrain involve considerable walking on uneven surfaces.

The obelisk at the centre is the only Egyptian obelisk in Tuscany and one of the region's oldest monuments: it dates to about 1500 BC, long before the Etruscan civilisation, and came from Heliopolis in Egypt. It was placed here in 1790, under Pietro Leopoldo.