Not far from my home in Florence lies a secret garden, the Orti del Parnaso, filled with lots of symbolism, including a ferocious snaked-shape fountain (water not playing in my pictures).

The garden’s name refers to Mt. Parnassus in central Greece.

The “snake” winds along the staircase leading to the lower garden and into the Giardino orticultura and its Tepidarium by Giacomo Roster.

You can enter the secret garden off via Trento, where an elegant iron gate leads to a beautiful belvedere.  This takes you into the Orti del Parnaso, the highest part of Florence’s wonderful horticultural garden.  Once inside, you find yourself on a splendid terrace overlooking a gorgeous panorama of the city of Florence.

Parnassus of course refers to the famous Greek mountain, which in ancient times was considered sacred to the god Apollo and the nine Muses who headquartered there. The mountain was the source of the river Castalia, which provided passage in mythology to the underworld and was a source of purification.

The fountain in this secret garden completed in 1990 based on a design by Marco Dezzi Bardeschi. It is meant to represent the myth of Python, the monstrous snake son of Gea.  According to the legend, Python was covered with the mud of the Flood and could wrap  the city of Delphi 7 times round with its coils. Python’s breath was so pestilential as to dry out all the plants with which he came into contact (in ancient Greek the verb “pyzein” means “to rot”). Apollo eventually killed Python on Mount Parnassus, near the Oracle of Delphi, and in its honor the pythic games were established. These games were some of the sacred holidays of ancient Greece.

In 2003 the Florentine Parnaso Garden became the seat of the Giardino dei Giusti, or the Garden of the Righteous, a place dedicated to the memory and commemoration of all those ordinary people who tried to save other human beings from persecution, genocide and acts of violence.

In recognition of this status, in the upper part of the park there is a Carob tree about 60 years old. This tree is symbol of the Garden of the Righteous of Jerusalem, dedicated to the memory of Chico Mendes, a Brazilian trade unionist killed in 1988 for his defense of the Indians of the Amazon.

In the same area there is also a 40 year old crepe myrtle, dedicated to the memory of the Tuscan cyclist Gino Bartali, who during the Nazi occupation courageously helped the Jews persecuted by the regime, an action that in 2013 earned him the appointment of  “Just among the nations. ”

And, finally, here’s a video I found on Youtube: