The Egyptian obelisk

At the centre of the garden rises an Egyptian obelisk, set there by the Medici to proclaim their power. The original, covered in hieroglyphs, left for Florence in 1790 and today adorns the Boboli Gardens; this one is a faithful copy. Beneath the great umbrella pines, it governs the perspective of the walks and recalls the Renaissance taste for the most distant Antiquity.

The Egyptian obelisk beneath the pines — now a copy, the original is in Florence