In 1549 Cosimo I commissioned the landscape gardener, Nicola Pericoli , to convert the hill behind the Pitti Palace into a garden. Based on his designs, Ammannati and then Buontalenti turned Boboli into a fine example of an Italian terraced gard..

At the entrance to a small, shady park, the Villa Stibbert (19C) houses the art collections brought together by the Garibaldian Anglo-Italian hero Federico Stibbert. They include weapons and armour, sculptures, paintings, furniture, earthenware, tape..

In the middle of the 16C the first "secondary homes" came into existence. All grand Florentine families had their own villas, designed by the most prestigious architects. These include the Villa del Castello , bought by the Medici family i..

The Roman Popes had a passetto built leading from their Castel Sant'Angelo apartments to the Vatican. Cosimo I commissioned Giorgio Vasari to design a similar passageway from the Palazzo Vecchio to his Palazzo Pitti residence on the other bank of..

The museum is located in the Davanzati Palace (circa 1350), a narrow, three-storied building, embellished by a covered terrace supported by four small columns, added in the 16C to replace the medieval crenellation. On the ground floor are three wid..

This vast esplanade offers a magnificent panorama over Florence: you can make out landmarks including, from right to left, in the foreground Santa Croce , behind and a little further left the cupola of the Duomo and the bell tower with, in front..