The Olive Tree of Peace

We finally made it to the beautiful city of Florence! It was projected to be super crowded, but we got there early enough so it wasn't too bad when we first arrived. We were able to visit the beautiful Boboli Gardens that were an anniversary gift from Laurenzo Medici to his wife. The land mass of those gardens was just incredible. I didn't think it would ever end! We were also able to visit the Uffizi later in the afternoon which was fantastic.

The thing that stuck out to me as most interesting though was this 300 year old olive tree, also know as the Olive Tree of Peace, that was tucked away on a side street of Florence. On May 27, 1993 there was a car bombing in Florence near the Academia that killed 5 people and injured several others. This terroristic act was an absolute outrage with Florence. There was also some damage to the Uffizi which cost over a million dollars to repair. In 2004, some members of the association of the Academia got together to replant this 250-300 year old olive tree in memoriam of those who were affected during this tragedy. 

In front of the olive tree, there bears a plaque in Italian that reads, "This olive, this generous mythological symbol of holiness and great values, has the emblematic capacity to regenerate its productivity, although it suffers events due to nature or man." This olive tree was planted to the people of Florence and all of its tourists would never forget to honor and remember those innocent souls who lost their lives to evil.
-Hannah Auer