La Ménagère
La Ménagère in Florence is a unique eatery that marries a bistro, restaurant, concept store, and flower shop. It’s made up of a few loosely connected rooms, each with its own distinct, beautiful, garden-esque decor. Freshly cut flowers, floral wallpaper and other highly-detailed design elements truly make you feel like you’re in a lush garden, but surrounded by chatty people, tranquil jazz music, and loads of books! The second floor of La Ménagère provides access to a small courtyard garden, with orange trees and a variety of potted flowers. I chose this location, as it reminds me of our discussion of gardens (and even of forests) in the Divine Comedy: in the final cantos of the Purgatorio, Dante enters the Garden of Eden. Here, he meets Matelda, who explains to Dante that he is in the terrestrial paradise in which humans were originally created (before they disobeyed god and were expelled). While La Ménagère is not a real garden, and a good amount of the floral decor has not been picked from the earth, I would still describe the place as “naturally” beautiful and alive, as Dante describes the Garden of Eden in Purgatorio 28: “divina foresta spessa e viva” (28.2).
