Eleonora of Toledo with her Son Giovanni de Medici
by Agnolo Bronzino

Duchess Eleonora di Toledo de’ Medici got fed up living in the gloomy Palazzo Vecchio. So in 1549, with her own money, she bought a palace on the other side of the Arno that the Pitti family had up for sale. What with her eight kids and failing health (hubby Duke Cosimo I had given her syphilis), Eleonora wanted someplace away from the city racket where she could have a garden. The choice was connected to her past: she’d been born in sunny Spain and grew up around lush gardens in Naples, the daughter of the city’s Viceroy.

She was so raring to relocate she even moved in while renovations were going on, with architect Vasari doubling the palace in size. Right off the bat, she hired a landscaper for the backyard. Now the Pitti Palace Eleonora bought is home to six museums and the beautiful Boboli Gardens. It’s all too much for one visit, so I say go to the Costume Gallery for a change of scene from painting and sculpture. It’s an absolutely glam place, the only museum in Italy dedicated to fashion design and is relatively new to the Pitti, opened in 1983.

You’ll find it in the Palazzina della Meridiana, that was added to the palace and completed in 1858. Luscious chandeliers, gold-framed mirrors, and brocade walls decorate room after room (eighteen in all), that takes you through 300 years of Italian fashion.

Displays rotate every two years and on my last visit, the show began with eighteenth-century Marie Antoinette styles—impossibly wide skirts of richly textured fabrics. There were fantastic silk Neapolitan wedding dresses, satin bustled ensembles worn by contessas in the nineteenth century, beaded Italian flapper wear from the 1920s.

But what I most adored were the post-World War II fashions, where Italian designers broke loose and the styles were outrageously chic. There’s a scrumptious blue velvet cocktail dress from 1950, completely covered in primary-colored beads, by Alma Maria Lami, who was a protégé of Elsa Schiaparelli. There are sparkling gowns by Florentine designer Cesare Fabbri, choice vintage pieces from revered fashion artists like Valentino, Gianfranco Ferre, and Maurizio Galante. It’s fun to imagine Italian women out and about flaunting these threads. Many come from the closet of an eccentric Bologna department store heiress, Cecilia Matteucci Lavarini, who’s world famous for collecting couture and has sent some of her overflow to the museum.

The last room of the exhibit honors Eleonora. The dress she was buried in is displayed there. It’s in tatters, spread out in a glass case, but you still can get an idea of the style of this fabulous woman, who kept a staff of ten weavers working full time to create her elegant get-ups.

Eleonora married Cosimo I de’ Medici in 1539, when she was seventeen and he was just a year older. The Medici rep was at a low point, so it was a coup for them to have this beautiful woman descended from Castilian royalty added to their mix. Eleonora became a beloved first lady, winning the Florentines over with her generous patronage of artists and the peasantry. The marriage worked out: she put up with Cosimo’s notorious mood swings, he put up with her penchant for gambling. He even named her regent when he’d take trips away from Florence, which was a most unusual position for a woman of those days. Most importantly, Eleonora popped out heirs, bearing eleven children in their first fourteen years of marriage, five of them male. This was tough on her five-foot-tall body. By the time she was forty, she was emaciated, there were hairline fractures on her pelvis from the child-birthing, and her bones were deteriorating from the syphilis. She took a trip with her son Garzia to see her older son Giovanni in Pisa, even though he’d warned them there was a malaria outbreak. One by one, first Garzia, then Giovanni, then Eleonora succumbed to the disease. From the looks of the dress, her funeral must have been grand.

Right down the steps from the gallery is the wondrous expanse of the Boboli Gardens. In the warmer months, you can stroll paths bordered by lemon trees and blooming flowerbeds, just as Eleonora did.

Pitti Palace: Houses the Palatine Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art, Porcelein Museum, Boboli Gardens, and the Costume Gallery. Costume Gallery
Open Daily: 8:15-4:30 or 6:30, depending on the season. Closed 1st, 3rd, and 5th Mondays of the month, and 3rd Sunday of each month.

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Golden Day: Enjoy wandering around the Costume Gallery and Boboli Gardens, linger in the Oltrarno with lunch nearby at Olio e Convivium (Via Santo Spirito 4, 055 2658198), which is not only a restaurant, but a high-end shop that stocks Tuscan wines, fresh baked breads, and other regional specialties. They also offer cooking classes.

Today’s guest post is an excerpt from 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go, by Susan Van Allen and published by Traveler’s Tales. The book is a celebration of Italy’s sensual and feminine best – from an historical, cultural and travel perspective. Van Allen’s treasure hunt of delightful destinations, charming stories and practical information bring a unique richness to visiting one of our favorite destinations, Italy!

Read more on Susan Van Allen’s blog.

Note: Image of Duchess Eleonora di Toledo de’ Medici is not included in the book. Permission for us to publish this excerpt as a guest post has been given by, and copyright remains with, Susan Van Allen and Traveler’s Tales publishers.

Located in Piazzo San Marco, the Convento di San Marco was home to more than one Renaissance monk/artist, but probably the most humbly famous of them all was Fra Angelico, who painted a number of frescoes on the convent’s walls.

Now a museum, this former Dominican convent was commissioned by Cosimo de Medici I in 1436, and soon after it was completed the Dominican monks from Fiesole moved in. Designed by the architect Michelozzo, it was probably also at Cosimo’s prodding that Fra Angelico set to spearhead the painting of the frescoes throughout the convent.

For Fra Angelico, the move from Fiesole brought him down from the hill town and into the very heart of the Renaissance Florence and one of its most popular technical manifestations – fresco painting. The first painting that is known to be by him is his Madonna of the Linen Guild done in 1433. Among the other works at the convent that are considered to be by him are the Crucifixion with St. Dominic in the Cloisters and the great Crucifixion in the Chapter House. In the Convent are
frescoed Noli mi Tangere, the two Annunciations, Transfiguration, Mocking of Christ, Presentation in the Temple, Virgin and Child with Saints, and others.

Probably the most famous frescoes outside of the Vatican, Fra Angelico’s two versions of The Annunciation are displayed, one at the top of the stairs on the way to the cells, and the other in Cell 3.

The beauty of both of The Anunciation frescoes are their simplicity and delicate nature. There is nothing dramatic about these paintings, no flashes of light, no fluttering of wings or suspension of angels in the air. No pointing, no crying , no awe. All is quiet. Only Mary in her bare surroundings, listening piously to the Angel Gabriel informing her, and her acceptance of her blessed fate, that she was going to have child. The entire story is told in the moment of the painting.

The Convent of San Marco also holds an important collection of 16th century paintings, including numerous works by Fra Bartolomeo and The Last Supper fresco by Domenico Ghirlandaio. The cells are kept sparse to get the feeling of what it was like when the monks lived in them, and to make better viewing of the individual frescoes.

Another monk that is associated with the Convent of San Marco is the infamous Savonarola, but his is another story.

Painting above : The Annunciation by Fra Angelico in Cell 3

But it is impossible to bestow too much praise on this holy father, who was
so humble and modest in all that he did and said and whose pictures were
painted with such facility and piety. – Vasari

Painting: The Annunciation, circa 1438-45 by Fra Angelico at the top of
the stairs

Piazza San Marco 3, 50121 Firenze

Visiting Hours:

Monday to Friday: 8:15 – 13:50

Saturday and Sunday: 8:15 – 19:00

Closed: On the 1st, 3rd and 5th Sunday and the 2nd and 4th Monday of each month,
New Year’s Day, May 1st and Christmas Day.

Tickets: Full price: € 4,00; Reduced: € 2,00

The Last Supper, by Domenico Ghirlandaio

Like a lot of buildings in Florence, The Bargello can be deceiving. The interior seems much larger than the outside lets on and because of its fortress construction, it’s very easy to think that the rooms inside this building will be dark and dank. Not so.

This stone fortress is the oldest public building in Florence, built for the Capitano del Popolo in the mid-13th century, which later became the seat of the Podestà (the city magistrate) and Council of Justice. The building also served as a prison where many people served out their sentences living in squallor and filth behind its fortress doors and executions were continually held in the courtyard, at least until they were abolished by Grand Duke Peter Leopold in 1786. The courtyard is now a quiet and peaceful place, one that belies, mercifully, its cruel history.

The Bargello probably served as a model for Il Palazzo Vecchio which was built during the very early Renaissance.

In 1865 the building became Il Museo Nazionale del Bargello, displaying the largest Italian collection of Gothic and Renaissance sculptures from the 14 – 17th centuries. In this museum you will find Donatello’s most famous works, his youthful David and the Saint George Tabernacle, some of Michelangelo’s smaller sculptures, and the terra cotta work of the Della Robbias.

This museum has always been a quiet and cool respite from the throngs of people meandering through the corridors of the Uffizi and the rising heat of a late Florentine morning. It’s one of those places where you might wonder if stones could talk.

Painting:The Bargello

Via del Proconsolo 4, 50122 Firenze

Visiting Hours: Monday to Sunday 8:15 – 13:30

Closed: 1st, 3rd and 5th Sunday and the 2nd, 4th Monday of each month; New Year’s
Day, May 1st, Christmas Day.

Tickets: Full price: € 4,00; Reduced: € 2,00

The Accademia di Belle Arti is not only a gallery museum that holds Michelangelo’s most famous work, The David. The Accadamia di Belle Arti is also an art school and library.

In 1784, this academy became the umbrella for all of the art schools in Florence by decree of Pietro Leopoldo, then Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Renaissance works on display here include a collection of 15th and 16th century Florentine paintings by artists Paolo Uccello, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Sandro Botticelli and Andrea del Sarto. Also on display is Giambologna’s original plaster for the Rape of the Sabine Women.

The work in the Gallery changes from time to time as aquisitions are made and some work is loaned out to other exhibitions. Occassionally work is transferred to more appropriate galleries within Florence.

But the most famous works in this gallery are by Michelangelo. The David, brought here to be restored when it was damaged in the Piazza della Signoria, had a special tribune built for the sculpture. It was put on display here in 1873 and it immediately became a hit with the tourists.

The David was created by Michelangelo between the years of 1500 and 1504 from a block of, what was thought to be, defective marble. The marble, owned by the Operai – those who oversaw the building of the Duomo – was to be commissioned to an artist for one of the Old Testament sculptures
for the cathedral. Two sculptors had previously tried working on the block, Agostino di Duccio and Antonio Rossellino, before it was abandoned in the cathedral workshop. Michelangelo started this project when he was twenty-six years old. Originally the intention was to display the statue on the Duomo, but because of the delicate nature of both the marble and the original crack running through the block, it was first considered for a spot under the cover of The Loggia and then it was decided to put it in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.

This David is unique from those sculptures that came before it in that it depicts David before he has slain the giant Goliath, rather than after.

As you wind your way through the line to enter the gallery where The David lives, don’t forget to notice some of Michelanglos’s other breathtaking, and almost modern, work, The Four Prisoners. If the gallery is extremely crowded they are almost invisible, but they are so extraordinarily beautiful that they should not be missed. The Four Prisoners exhibit Michelangelo’s philosophy that a sculpture already exists within its block of marble – the artist is just removing the excess stone.

Photograph: The David, Michelangelo

Piazza degli Signoria, 50122 Firenze

Via Ricasoli 60 – Firenze

T: 055 2388609

Visiting Hours: 8.15 am – 6.50 pm; the ticket office closes 45 minutes before the museum closing time.

Festivo: 8.15 am – 6.50 pm; the ticket office closes 45 minutes before the museum closing time.

Closed: Monday

Tickets: € 6,50

Il Palazzo Vecchio, The Old Palace, is probably the second most well known landmark in the skyline of Florence. The building was built in the late 14th century, and added onto in the two subsequent centuries, and houses the city government of Florence. The building is a unique combination of government and art, one that only an Italian city steeped in the Renaissance could pull off.

In modern times the building is probably most well known as the seat of the Medici family, and having the tower cell that held Savonarola in 1498 before his famous execution out on the piazza. It currently still holds the office of the Mayor and the City Council. The rest of the building is a museum that holds courtyards and murals, as well as sculpture, tapestries and furniture.

The most spectacular room is on the first floor of the building, the Salone dei Cinquecento, or the Hall of Five Hundred, even though the murals of Michelangelo and Leonardo were replaced in the late 15th century by the Mannerist works of Vasari and his students. The room does hold the Genius of Victory, a sculpture by Michelangelo.

Just off of the Salone is the Studiolo, the Studio of Francesco I de Medici. This barrel vaulted studio was designed by Vasari between 1570-1575. Most of the paintings in this room were done by Vasari and his students and represent the four elements of air, fire, water, and earth.

The first floor also has rooms that are dedicated to the members of the Medici family and the frescoes reflect the personalities of the people that the rooms were named after.

The second floor has a number of frescoed rooms, including the Sala degli Elementi, Apartment of the Elements, which has five rooms, and the Apartment of Eleonora of Toledo, the wife of Cosimo I. Eleonora’s apartment has frescoes by Bronzino that are dated 1503-1572 in her chapel, and has paintings in another room by the Flemish painter Jan Stradan.

The David that stands outside the palazzo overlooking the Piazza della Signoria is a copy of the original, which actually stood here until it was damaged in 1873. The stairs below the sculpture are a great place to rest weary feet. Here you’ll meet locals and travelers alike and many rendez-vous have been made here.

Photograph: Palazzo Vecchio