Palazzo Pitti

Palazzo Pitti stands on the south bank of the Arno, facing the Oltrarno quarter that has long been Florence's artisan and residential counterpart to the grander northern districts. The palace began as a private commission for the merchant Luca Pitti in the fifteenth century, passed to the Medici in 1549, and subsequently served as the principal residence of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, the House of Savoy, and briefly the Italian royal family. Its sheer rusticated facade, attributed in its original form to Filippo Brunelleschi's circle, stretches across a width that dwarfs almost every other building in the city.

Today the palace houses several distinct museums, of which the Palatine Gallery is the centrepiece, displaying works by Raphael, Titian, and Rubens in rooms whose gilded ceilings and heavy draperies remain largely as the Medici arranged them. Behind the building, the Boboli Gardens extend up the hillside in a formal Italian layout of grottos, fountains, and sculpture that has shaped garden design across Europe. Reserved entrance tickets with audio guides are available for the palace and Palatine Gallery, as well as combined access covering the Boboli Gardens alongside a Florence city audio guide.