'Monty Don's Italian Gardens' on BBC2

Monty Don, renowned gardening expert has a short series looking at Italian gardens at the moment on BBC2 and, tonight, he focused on Renaissance gardens in Florence. Naturally, I had to watch it.

It started off with lots of street scenes around Florence, grand views of the (not so green) River Arno and the bridges over it, a short walk through Vasari's Corridor, wandering through the Boboli Gardens and then out into gardens in the countryside around Florence. It was thoroughly enjoyable as Monty explained the artistic principles of the Renaissance applying to formal gardens, the endless greens and the surprise of colourful flowers, the statues and the fountains and streams. It was gloriously sunny. And green. Naturally, there's a book to accompany the series.

It's always a pleasure to see Florence and it's magnificent architecture and art - and I'll now add gardens to that list. It made me wish I'd gone there years ago - decades before I actually did. I need to explore it more, there is so much to see and experience in Florence. The only disappointment with the programme is that it didn't try to analyse the Renaissance landscape and garden in paintings against the reality of the Renaissance garden. Still, it's thoroughly enjoyable and I'll be watching the rest of the series.