LIVE THE CITY
Little areas of green space hidden among the city’s buildings and large nature parks where you can enjoy an entire day outdoors: Empoli is filled with parks and gardens that make the city even more liveable. Perfect for taking a break between museum visits, for enjoying a picnic just outside the city centre or giving little ones a chance to play after an afternoon of shopping. Here are a few of the outdoor spaces where you can unplug for an hour or two.
The Parco di Serravalle is the “green heart” of Empoli, located in the part of the city devoted to sport, very close to the Carlo Castellani stadium and next to the city swimming pools.
It is a magnificent nature reserve, with a small lake populated by various bird species, ducks, turtles and coypus. Besides benches and play areas for children, there is also a fitness trail for those who like to walk or run outdoors.
During the summer, the park becomes the perfect place for concerts and events of all kinds, as well as picnics in the shade of the trees found in the hillier areas.
Between Empoli and Montelupo, in the area where the Arno once passed and was later used as a gravel quarry, there is now a small lake populated by migratory birds like mallards, cormorants, herons, grey herons and fisher martins as well as raptors, including sparrow hawks, kestrels, buzzards, marsh harriers, little owls and tawny owls, and animals typical of nature parks, like the fox, badger and porcupine. The reclamation of the area made it possible to create this small nature reserve just outside the city Here, you can walk along the shores of the lake, stopping at the wooden huts to birdwatch or go on one of the frequent guided hikes organised by the Centro RDP Padule di Fucecchio, which manages the nature park for the municipality of Empoli. There is also a tactile trail for the blind, with explanations and signage in Braille.
If you are in the city centre to do some shopping or enjoy a bit of culture and you are looking for a place to take a break or let your children play, the Piazza Matteotti park and Parco Mariambini are perfect! A short walk from anywhere in the city centre, both have lots of shade, benches and play equipment for little ones. For part of the year, there is also a funfair set up in Piazza Mazzini complete with an ice-skating rink. A little farther from the city centre but still easy to get to, the Piazza Toscanini park has slides and swings as well as a small outdoor gym.
There are lots of gardens and parks in the hamlets outside Empoli, and in some cases even small-scale nature parks. The Ponzano park is close to Empoli station, while Pontorme park, enclosed within the old city walls, is a smaller, cosy space perfect for playing, relaxing and even getting married!
The public parks of Corniola and Casenuove are larger and, like the Monterappoli park, are located in less urbanised, more rural areas south of the city, where it is difficult to distinguish between public park and surrounding countryside.
