Succulent greenhouses of the Giardino SottoVico (Vico d'Elsa botanical garden)

The garden began around 2002, when a group of cactus and succulent enthusiasts asked the municipality of Barberino Val d'Elsa for a plot on which to put a greenhouse. The land allocated, near Vico d'Elsa, was a dump; it took more than a year to clear, the association reports. Two enthusiasts are presented as the project's originators, backed by volunteers, the Cambiano cooperative bank, the municipality, the Florence Chamber of Commerce and local businesses.

Work on the first greenhouse began in 2007 according to the “Area botanica” page of the website; the “La nostra storia” page dates the installation of the 200 m² main greenhouse to 2008. After 2011, a second greenhouse of about 90 m² was built to house the collection of about 3,000 succulents given to the garden by one of the two founders, who had sown and grown them himself. The social activity was later taken over by another association, Le Tre e un Quarto, which works with vulnerable people. A 2016 article presents the garden as the first therapeutic garden in Italy.

The main greenhouse measures about 200 m² and stands about 6 m high; the association describes it as of tempered glass, fully automated and heated, with plants from the five continents. A free 2010 photograph on Wikimedia Commons shows a building with a two-pitch roof whose green-painted metal frame carries glass on the walls as on the roof, with a shade net stretched above the ridge and an entrance under a green arch. According to the association, the works rested on the dedication and labour of its volunteers. The second greenhouse, about 90 m², dates from after 2011; OpenStreetMap maps only one greenhouse, the “Serra Piante Succulente”, inside the garden.

Around it, the garden has a wooden reception building, a gazebo for social and educational workshops, a pond with a phytodepuration system illustrating the water cycle, a composting system for prunings and the “Percorso dei Sensi”. A Florence tourism website describes the garden as built on a “natural balcony” overlooking the Valdelsa.

The association reports more than 3,000 specimens of cacti and succulents, some very rare, from South America, Central America and Africa; a 2016 article speaks of about 5,000 donated plants, many of them endangered, from the five continents.

The second greenhouse holds the succulent collection of one of the founders, about 3,000 plants sown and grown by him according to the “La nostra storia” page; the 2016 article also mentions gifts from other collectors. Outside the greenhouses, Italian Wikipedia describes a garden with aromatic plants, and the “Area botanica” page a path of the senses meant to engage all five senses through plants.

The garden lies on a hill of the village of Vico d'Elsa, facing San Gimignano according to Italian Wikipedia. It is open every day, weekends and public holidays included, with a summer timetable (1 June–30 September) and a winter one (1 October–31 May), each split by a midday break, and admission is free. The greenhouses can also be visited from Monday to Friday by telephone reservation with the association.

The garden is run by volunteers and hosts therapeutic and educational activities. The Percorso dei Sensi, the pond and the aromatic plants can be toured together with the greenhouses, and the outline of San Gimignano opposite invites combining the visit with the town. No visit length is published.