Iris Garden

Another beautiful spring day today, and I took the bus up to the Piazzale Michelangelo, from where there's one of the best panoramas of the city (the picture on the banner at the top of the page was taken there). It's definitely getting more and more crowded in the city as the high season of tourism has arrived.
But I was not primarily here for the view, but rather for the iris garden, open for only a few weeks in the spring. The iris is a symbol of Florence, having been the inspiration for the fleur-de-lis, and can be found on the city's emblem. There were truly hundreds of varieties of irises there in all colors imaginable. Apparently, there's also an iris competition, and some of the entries for 2010 were already planted.