Brief return to Florence

In the morning we went to the Pitti Palace, the home of the medici family. They were bankers to the pope and the vatican , were unbelievably rich, built much of florence, and were patrons of the best artists of their time, as well as many lesser ones! The art was hung on the walls of the Palace and is now available to the public. Sadly there is no system to the way the paintings are hung, they are mostly three or even four deep up the walls, very few have any description, other the name of the artist, so its impossible to really find your way through them all, and very frustrating!

Afterwards we walked across the city to the Dominican church and monastery of Santa Maria Novella. They were also incredibly rich and decorated the church and monastery walls with spectacular frescos and paintings, dating from the 1200's to the 1500's.

Although the weather forecast was for periods of rain all day, we didn't get any until we were back the apartment in the late afternoon.

On to Turin next.En savoir plus