Historical Gardens: il Boschetto

In 1870, upon construction of the Navy base, also the city gardens underwent changes. Once the city development plan was approved, the areas of Piazza Vittorio Emanuele were decided to become public gardens. Hance, an English-style garden was built on the western side “for the evening”, and another was created “for the day” on the eastern part, where the Boschetto (literally, the Grove) already was. 
The garden for the evening featured a concentric ring layout, starting from a round flowerbed on the longest axis of the area and placed towards Corso Cavour, the symbol of the city expansion.
The garden for the day, of which only pictures are left today, did not include any flowerbed and was furnished with dozens of benches, as it had been designed to be the perfect place where to rest listening to live music being played at the Chiosco della Musica (literally, Kiosk of Music) by city or military bands during feast days. Today, this part of the park shows diverse vegetation and is decorated with marble statues and Tuscan terracotta vases. 
During the 20th century, the Boschetto was renovated and decorated with many polygonal flowerbeds aligned to the sides of the park and with open flowerbeds in the central area, following the geometry of two semicircles: the smaller one faces Via Chiodo, and the bigger one faces Viale Mazzini.
During the 30’s, upon the construction and inauguration of the Teatro Civico (literally, the Civic Theater), five statues from the theater were placed along Via Diaz and Via Chiodo. Among the statues within the gardens, there was also the Allegory of Spring or Flora, spared from bombing of World War II.