Handpicked experience · Florence
Florence, Italy
A palace begun to spite the Medici and finished by them, pictures still hung in tiers by eye, and a garden shaped like the quarry it once was.
A small group capped at twelve people
A licensed English-speaking guide leading throughout
Admission arranged for you, with reservations handled where required
Earsets provided for parties of three or more
Three hours across the river with a licensed guide, covering the Pitti Palace, the picture rooms of the Palatina and the gardens climbing the hill behind. The group is capped at twelve and admission is arranged for you, so the three hours are spent looking rather than queuing.
You meet outside the palace and go in with your guide, through the state apartments and into the gallery, then out into the Boboli gardens to walk the terraces above the city. The commentary is continuous but the pace is a walking one, with stops in front of the pictures that reward standing still. Three hours covers the interiors and the formal gardens rather than every far corner of the grounds.
Luca Pitti was a banker who wanted a house that would put the Medici in their place, and legend has it he specified windows wider than the doorway of their palace. He ran out of money before it was finished. His family sold the shell to the Medici in 1550, and the dynasty he built it against lived in it for the next two hundred years, extending it in both directions until it reached the width you see today.
The Palatina is not arranged by school, date or artist. Canvases are stacked in tiers from waist height to cornice, chosen so that each wall balances the next — a large one flanked by two small, a vertical answered by a vertical. This is how a grand-ducal collection actually looked, and it is one of the few places in Europe where nobody has since rearranged it into a history lesson. You are looking at the taste of the owners rather than the logic of a curator.
Nowhere outside the Vatican holds more of them. The famous round one, a Madonna painted to fit a circle with the composition curling into the frame, hangs here, as does the portrait of a woman in a veil, the sleeve of which is worth as much attention as the face. They are hung among Titians and Rubens at the same close density, without a rope keeping you back.
In 1565 the Medici had a covered passage built from their offices across the river and over the top of the Ponte Vecchio to this palace, so they could go to work without walking among the public. The butchers who then occupied the bridge were evicted and replaced with goldsmiths, because the family did not want to smell meat on the way home. That is why the bridge sells jewellery to this day.
The stone for the facade came out of the hillside directly behind the building, and the great grassy amphitheatre stepping up from the courtyard is the hole it left. An Egyptian obelisk stands at the centre of it, by way of Rome. Further up, a dripping artificial cave with figures struggling out of the rock once held Michelangelo's unfinished sculptures, and copies stand there still.
The gardens are steep and largely unshaded. Bags above cabin size are not admitted to the gallery. Cancellation is free up to a day ahead.
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What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
The state apartments, the picture rooms of the Palatina and a walk through the formal Boboli gardens above the city, with a licensed guide throughout and admission arranged for you.
A banker named Luca Pitti, who wanted a house that would put the Medici in their place and ran out of money. His family sold the unfinished building to the Medici in 1550, and they lived in it for two centuries.
Because nobody has rearranged them. Canvases are stacked in tiers and chosen so each wall balances the next, which is how a grand-ducal collection looked — the owners' taste rather than a curator's chronology.
Eleven, the largest concentration outside the Vatican, including the famous round Madonna composed to curl into its circular frame and the portrait of a woman in a veil.
A covered passage built in 1565 so the Medici could walk from their offices to this palace above the public. The butchers on the bridge were evicted for goldsmiths so the family would not smell meat on the way home.
Because it is the quarry. The stone for the palace facade came out of the hillside directly behind it, and the hollow left behind was landscaped into the great grass bowl, with an Egyptian obelisk at its centre.
Twelve people maximum, and earsets are provided for parties of three or more so the guide can be heard without crowding.