From EUR 265
I will meet you in front of the enormous façade and entrance to the Pitti Palace complex dating back to the 1400’s, for a private half-day tour to discover the treasures housed within these imposing walls. The Palace, located near the Ponte Vecchio on the South side of the Arno river, saw the rise and fall of four dynasties: the Medici, the Habsburg-Lorraine, Napoleon, and most recently the Savoy who were the kings of Italy until 1946. Each successive owner added to the incredible works of art including paintings, furniture, costumes, jewelry and precious gold and silver items. Unless you request otherwise, our focus will be on the most representative part of the building, the Palatine Gallery: located on the noble floor of the building. It includes more than 500 Renaissance paintings by Raphael, Titian, Perugino, Peter Paul Rubens and Pietro da Cortona. Although now a state museum, the Palazzo Pitti has retained the feeling of a private collection, with most of the rooms being decorated with antique furniture and objects collected by the different families living there over the centuries. The ceiling frescoes that follow the sequence of the deities based on Ptolomaic cosmology: Venus, Apollo, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. They reference the planets that the friend of the Medici family, Galileo Galilei, observed and studied. Time permitting, I would be delighted to take you to the splendid fountains and grottoes of the Boboli gardens created by the Medici family, or to one of the other lesser known collections within the Palazzo including the Royal Apartments, Modern Art Gallery, Silver Museum, Porcelain Museum or Carriages Museum.