During a day trip to one of my favorite city’s in the world Florence I ran into Gucci Garden, a jewel in the crown of the Florentine fashion house. Totally unprepared I got completely overwhelmed by it’s beauty.

The fashion house opened up a full restaurant and concept store, located on the famous Piazza Della Signoria (next to Palazzo Vecchio) in Florence, Italy, for the fine dining lover, museum-goer, and fashion addict. Did I mention the most amazing boutique?

Superstar creative director Alessandro Michele is behind the concept, it was Michele who has made Gucci THE luxury brand it is today, since he took over in 2015. Michele said in a statement:

“The garden is real, but it belongs above all to the mind, populated with plants and animals: like the snake, which slips in everywhere, and in a sense, symbolizes a perpetual beginning and a perpetual return.”

The ground floor boutique stocks products exclusively designed for the Gucci Garden and not on sale in any other Gucci stores. Also on the ground floor is an intimate restaurant helmed by star Italian Chef Massimo Bottura. Internationally renowned for his three-Michelin-starred Osteria Francescana.

The Gucci Garden Galleria occupies the first and second floors of the palazzo, and tells the story of the house via an exhibition of clothing, accessories, video installations, artworks, documents and artefacts curated by Alessandro Michele and Maria Luisa Frisa, head of the BA degree course in fashion Design and Multimedia Arts at Iuav University in Venice.

Though ‘open to all’, Gucci Garden maintains exclusivity through elements such as charging for museum entry, and through its one-of-a-kind collections. Half of the 8-euro ticket price for the Gucci Garden Galleria will be donated to support restoration projects in the city of Florence.