Tired of the beautiful architectures and of the masterpieces of Renaissance? Leonardo da Vinci was a keen observer of nature - Tuscany has lots of national and regional parks to visit, but if you have just a couple of hours and want to go birdwatching, you can do it also in the city. The best season is in the cold months, when they come to winter, and you find many birds coming from the nearby countryside to enjoy the warm and the food of the city.

Arno river until the Cascine
The river Arno is the most important body of water in Florence; more or less from Ponte Vecchio walking downstream along the Lungarni you can see various birds on the riverbanks: egrets are everywhere, grey herons, mallards, gallinules, seagulls; with some luck, kingfishers. Go on and enter the Parco delle Cascine: more egrets, ducks but also cormorans, night herons. The Cetti's warbler and icterine warbler are also said to nest here.

Parco delle Cascine
It is the Florentine Central Park, 39 species of birds are represented: in the wood you can spot jays, common chiffchaff, wood nuthatch, short-toed tree-Creeper, coal tit, blue tit.

Parco di Villa Vogel
Practically opposit to the Cascine, on the other side of the river Arno, established 1981, one of the youngest parks in Florence, small but worthy a visit if you live in the vicinity: look for european serins, eurasian wrynecks, sardinian warblers, in winter wrens, red breasted flycatchers, long-tailed tits.

Parco di Villa Strozzi
Close to the Ponte alla Vittoria, quite forgotten e ignored by the guides - but very interesting - dense wood with shrubs and not too much maintained: tawny owl, great tit, short-toed treecreeper, hoopoe, red-backed shrike, hawfinch,dunnock, black redstart .

Parco di Villa Fabbricotti
On the other side of the city, formerly seat of the Universita` per Stranieri, it has the same quality of the previous Strozzi: lot of shadow, many shrubs, a good leafy terrain for insects. You find spotted flycatchers, nuthatches, sardinian warblers, eurasian wrynecks, old world warblers firecrests, short-toed treecreepers, greenfinches, chaffinches, goldfinches, dunnocks, there are tawny owls, hoopoes, green woodpeckers, red-backed shrikes nesting, but difficult to spot.

From Villa Fabbricotti you can enter the Parco Tosco-Laziale and then the famous Parco Stibbert, surrounding the Museum Stibbert, home of a famous collection of arab and japanese weapons. The whole area is worth a visit if you stay in Florence for more than a week. Bus 4 from the Station, stop at Villa Fabbricotti.