Pratolino is a small village north of Florence on the Via Bolognese (state highway 65), on the road toward Borgo San Lorenzo. It is worth visiting almost entirely for one thing: the Parco Demidoff, the vast park surrounding the former Medici villa.
The park was originally laid out for Francesco I de' Medici by the architect Buontalenti as a retreat for himself and his lover Bianca Cappello. The villa fell into ruin over the centuries and was demolished by Ferdinand III of Lorraine; in 1872 the estate passed to the Demidoff family, who restored the park and converted the old paggeria into the current villa. The result is more than thirty hectares of gardens crossed by well-marked walking paths.
The centrepiece is the Apennine Colossus by Giambologna — a cyclopean stone figure crouched over a lake, one of the most striking pieces of Mannerist garden sculpture in Italy. Also surviving from the sixteenth-century layout are a flight of steps with a fountain of the god Pan and Buontalenti's octagonal chapel. Admission is free on Sundays when the park is open to the public. A few kilometres further north, the Servite monastery of Monte Senario makes an easy extension.