The Gucci Garden in Florence: All You Need to Know About

We all know Gucci as a brand of luxurious items including elegant and trendy dresses, leather goods like handbags, eye-catching accessories like watches, and fashionable footwear. Additionally, it creates perfumes, fragrances, and cosmetic items under the brand Gucci Beauty. However, there is more to Gucci than we know.

Guccio Dario Maria Gucci; a businessman and fashion designer, founded Gucci in 1921 in Florence, Italy. Gucci became a world-famous brand under his son Aldo Gucci’s era. He made Gucci the icon of the Italian Dolce Vita period. Furthermore, this classical brand continued to flourish, becoming one of the most popular luxury brands worldwide.

So, we have a place for you to explore if you are visiting Italy and want to discover more about the history and present of the Gucci fashion house. It is the Gucci Garden of Florence. Here, we are going to discuss all you need to know about this nostalgic site. Let us get into the journey without further delay.

What is the Gucci Garden

Gucci Garden was inaugurated on the 90th anniversary of Gucci in 2011. It was initially called the Gucci Museo, which later on was modernized to make the Gucci garden.

The Gucci garden is located in the historic Palazzo Della Mecanazia; present in the heart of Florence. You can get the ultimate experience of the Gucci world through its store, exhibition room, bookstore, and restaurant.

Alessandro Michele; Gucci’s creative director designed it. His idea behind this contemporary place was to protect the memories of all the splendid years of Gucci and bring nature together with fashion.

He said, “The garden is real, but it belongs above all to the mind, populated with plants and animals: like the snake, which slips in everywhere, and in a sense, symbolizes a perpetual beginning and a perpetual return.”

What is Inside the Gucci Garden?

The three-floor building of the Gucci garden has an ancient and classic structure with a baby pink ribbon hanging from it and a pink eye sign. Inside the Gucci garden are the Gucci Osteria, the Gucci store, the Gucci museum, and the Gucci bookstore. Let us know more about these enchanting places.

1. The Gucci Osteria

The Gucci Osteria is a modern-style Italian restaurant. It was introduced in 2018 under the leadership of Michelin three-starred chef Massimo Buttora. This high-end restaurant is a partnership between the world’s top fashion brand and the world’s most skillful chefs. The restaurant keeps a green, brown, and white theme with two tones of green on the walls and traditional brown decoration pieces.

So, when you want a break while exploring the Gucci Garden, this restaurant is right there for you. Its menu offers an A la carte menu, a tasting menu, and a wine menu which is prepared under the guidance of Karime Lopez; a top chef, and lover of art and music. She bought together traditional Italian cuisine recipes with playful creativity.

To elaborate further, the dishes in A la carte menu range from the plates like Purple Corn Tostada and Taka’s Bun to deserts like Carley Marley. Their price range from 22 to 65 euros.

The tasting menu includes several options like Short Journey in Ostria; costing 150 euros, Our Souvenirs; costing 170 euros, and Our New Memories; costing 200 euros. Moreover, you can add wine to the menu for 70-120 euros.

Lastly, the wine menu has some premium options including white wines, champagnes, red wines, fortified wines, and rose wines. It features several of the most expensive and richest wines.

2. The Gucci Store

Next to the Gucci garden, comes the Gucci store that is located on the ground floor. It is equally, if not more, alluring. Two big rooms are dedicated to the Gucci store. It keeps the items exclusive to the Gucci Garden; the items you would not find in any of the other marketplaces.

The items are displayed in such an aesthetic way that even people who know nothing about fashion will fall in love with the most beautiful collections of the Gucci garden store. This boutique has almost everything you can ask for including Gucci’s statement blazers, coats, sweaters, sparkling hairpins, hair clips, other hair accessories, gorgeously printed scarves, modern footwear, and stylish handbags.

Additionally, there are items with symbols like bats on custom jewelry and leather products and an eye on gift items. You can also find some original pieces and one-of-a-kind items here. Moreover, there are several attendants ever-ready to help you look for the stuff you want.

This exclusivity comes with a price. But it is great to have a priceless souvenir to cherish if you can afford it.

3. The Gucci Museum

The Gucci Museum is present next to the store and was curated by Maria Luisa Frisa. The museum is designed in more of a more playful manner than conventional museums. It has peculiar motifs, bright and cool colors, and prints using floral and animal details.

It has items from 1921 to 2022 representing the past, present, and beyond according to the vision of its founder, Michele. This unique museum will take you through the history of Gucci, the ancient and modern trends in addition to Gucci’s advanced aesthetics and goals.

The Gucci museum is spread over two floors having everything from clothing to accessories. It has stuff including 1921’s clothing pieces, 1930’s antique suitcases, 1950’s bright floral prints, 1970’s multicolored jewelry, and recent artwork.

Moreover, this unconventional museum space displays art, documents, videos, and graphic work arranged in a unique timeless order to elaborate on how far the brand has come and the efforts it has made over the years. A red-velvet theater room in the Gucci museum shows experimental films, videos, and related stuff over a projector.

Additionally, there is a separate section that illustrates the work of Gucci’s previous director; Tom Ford. There are two rooms dedicated to this section, one for accessories and the other for clothing items. You can find Ford’s GG-themed accessories and faceless mannequins here.

4. The Gucci Bookstore

Lastly, the Gucci garden has a calming bookstore. So, it is a must-visit compartment of the Gucci garden if you are a literary person who finds refuge in bookshops. This bookstore has magazines, publications, and artwork. In addition, there are several stylish notepads, diaries, mobile phone covers, paperweights, home decor accessories, scarves, and design books.

The Gucci bookstore is the most affordable part of the Gucci garden. So, this is the best place to buy beautiful commemorative gifts for your beloved ones. The tour ends with visiting the bookstore which is also a small gift shop.

How to Get to the Gucci Garden in Florence?

The Gucci garden is located in Plazzo della Mecanazia, just between Piazza della Signoria and the Bargello. It is located just 22 meters away from Piazza della Signoria. furthermore, it is only a 5 minutes walk to the Gucci garden if you are visiting the banks of River Arno.

The nearby places of the Gucci garden include the Uffizi gallery, Palazzo Vecchio, and Ponte Vecchio. However, the Gucci garden is often not included in visiting places when you are traveling with a tourist company. So, it is better to make your own plan to discover this beautiful place as it is not worth missing out on.

You do not even need a full day or many hours to visit the whole garden. Although it has several sections and many things to observe, it is located in a compact building. So, all you need is 1 hour other than the taking meal at the Gucci Osteria.

What are the Cost and Opening Hours of Gucci Garden?

The Gucci garden is open to visitors 7 days a week from 10 am to 7 pm. And it only costs 8 euros. Half of the revenue generated is donated to Florence authorities for the renovation of the city.

Moreover, you get a free ticket to the museum if you are only eating at its restaurant. Delicious food along with a great memorable time, right? And you also get to enter after paying nothing or just 6 euros if you show your student Id. Plus if you are an inhabitant of Florence, you do not need to pay on Monday.

The Gucci garden is totally worth the visit. Also, the cost is really low considering the experience you gain and the memories you make.

Conclusion

The Gucci garden is a place you would want to visit if you are in Italy. It holds evidence of the growth of Gucci as a brand along with paying tribute to its previous director. Building the garden right at the location where Gucci began its struggles as a luxury brand and then came all the way to the top also has nostalgia of its own.

You get to explore a restaurant with the world’s best chefs and yummiest food, a museum that documents the history and present of the Gucci world, a store to display all the items Gucci has manufacturers, and a bookstore that offer moderately-priced items so that you do not end your tour empty-handed.

Not to mention its nature-inspired theme that displayed flowers, animals especially snakes, and the brand’s logo along the way. Additionally, its low price and ergonomic building help you enjoy your time while saving it for visiting more places.