Boboli Gardens

This guide to the Boboli Gardens in Florence centers on a statue near the entrance: a nude figure astride a giant tortoise who turns out to be not a god but a court dwarf named Braccio di Bartolo, sold to the Medici as a child and renamed Morgante. It follows how Duke Cosimo I made him a trusted companion rather than mere entertainment, taking him on real diplomatic missions, and how the court sculptor Valerio Cioli came to carve his portrait. Look for the statue just inside the gate, near the start of the paths.