June 20
We spent the bulk of today touring the Pitti Palace, the Palatine Gallery and the Boboli Gardens. We took a tour which was wonderful. If you ever go to Florence (and it should be on everyone’s bucket list) we recommend checking out florencepass.com. The is a tour company, not the 24 hour pass of the same name. Even though we bought the tour on Viator, the tour was organized by the tour company. Our guide, Roberta, was incredibly knowledgeable but the best part was that we didn’t have to follow a flag. In fact, since all of their tours are limited to no more than 12 people, they don’t ever use flags. The first part of the tour, which included the Palace and Gallery, had 9 participants. But the second part where we toured the garden only had four.
The Pitti Palace was first built in 1458. The Pitti family were rivals of the de’Medici family and built the palace to demonstrate their wealth. Unfortunately, once they built the palace they didn’t have their wealth any more so they had to sell. Of course, the only family with enough money to buy it was the di’Medici family who, throughout the years, enlarged it. It is now the largest museum complex in Florence.
The first place we toured was several rooms of the actual palace.
Then it was on to the Palatine Gallery. This was the di’Medicis’ private gallery. Every painting, table, stature and vase is in the exact spot that it was when the di’Medici lived there. There are over 1800 paintings in the gallery, 90% of which the di’Medici bought. Only 10% were actually commissioned by the family. There was so much to look at it was almost sensory overload but Roberta pointed out the most important pieces. Here are a few of my favorites.
Sandro Boticelli was a good friend of Lorenzo the Magnificent (grandson of Cosimo the Elder) and benefited from the patronage of the family. We saw many of his paintings but this was the only one I took a picture of.
There was an entire room dedicated to Raphael.
And then there was Rubens.
There were incredible ceilings.
And a 16th century floor.
And a door.
There were magnificent tables hand made of marble and semi-precious stones. There are master craftsmen who still make tables the way they did 400 years ago. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to own something so amazing!
The Palace was taken over by the Hapsburgs in the early 18th century when the last male descendant of Cosimo I (a cousin of Lorenzo the Magnificent who took over the rule when the last of Lorenzo’s family died out) died without heirs. Why the Hapsburgs (Austria) you ask? Well….the eldest son of Cosimo I married one of the Hapsburg, so they took over the rule of Florence. In the late 18th century, Napoleon made the Palace his headquarters.
After the tour of the Palace and Gallery, we took a short break before heading out to the Boboli Gardens. The land is adjacent to the Palace and was bought from the Boboli family so Cosimo the First’s wife (Eleonora) could have a garden.
The tour ended about 1:45 by which time we were hot, tired and starving so off to lunch we went. After lunch we slowly made our way back to the train station passing by many of the unique sites of Florence.
Given that we were here less than 48 hours, we packed in quite a bit. We knew we weren’t going to stay long but I’ll take any opportunity to visit Florence, even if it’s only for a few hours. What an amazing city!
Tomorrow we’re off to the Hilton Resort in the Tuscan countryside. It will be a nice place to relax for a few days.