Sept 28th, Florence Royal Palace

9/28     Saturday

We’re still hoping to see something more of the bike races, as we walk past the spectator barricades, but we don’t seem to be able to match up with the racers. Today, we’re going across the Ponte Vecchio to the Pitti Palace, which has several different museums in the palace compound. The Boboli Gardens are there also, but, although they look like a pleasant park for a good long walk, it’s more expansive than we want to deal with for now.

We go to the billeteria for our tickets, and find that it’s European Heritage Day, so for all the State museums in Florence, there is No Admittance Fee, something the guy at the ticket office is clearly tired of explaining to everyone. Hurray for us! There are also no lines, so it would seem the program isn’t working all that well either. Or, more probably, everyone is at the free Uffizi.

In any event, we enter into the massive stone building that was the palace and home of the Medicis, the Hapsburg-Lorraines, Napoleon, and the Savoys. It was home to King Victor Emmanuel II, he of the massive monument to himself in Rome, who donated it to the Italian people. Today, we hope to see the Modern Art Collection, the Costume Museum, the Royal Apartments, and the Silver Museum. Were we of sufficient stamina, we could visit the Carriage Museum and the Boboli Gardens as well.

We are quite astonished as we walk through the rooms and corridors of the palace. It’s one of the most spectacularly decorated buildings we’ve seen. The walls and ceilings are covered with extravagant faux painting, columns and architectural elements, statues and clouds, gilded borders, tapestries, inlaid marble, one great room after another. It almost makes the Sistine Chapel look like a puny effort in comparison.

We happen to come to the modern art collection when they are having a trade of exhibits with the Musèe d’Orsay in Paris, so we are treated to some French works, Cezanne, Degas, Renoir, but not the best stuff, naturally. The rest of the collection is primarily Italian work, from the 17^th to the 20^th Century. It’s all nice, but not overly impressive.

The Costume Museum is fun enough, placing older 17^th or 18^th century garments with modern pieces, 40’s or 80’s gowns, with some Pucci, Schiaparelli, Armani or Cavelli pieces, highlighting a silhouette or fabric style, demonstrating a consistency in fashion over the years.

We are more impressed with the Royal Treasures, which includes a temporary exhibition of incredible ivory sculptures, hundreds of them, collected by the Medicis. The works are unbelievably delicate and intricate. Now, of course, we are sensitive to the use of ivory. All these pieces are from the 15^th, 16^th and 17^th centuries, representing the epitome of what was then an art form of dramatic intricacy, and still hard to believe today.

            After our touristing day, we treat ourselves to a dinner out, since we have a lovely little family-run taverna right on our corner. It’s exactly right, small, rustic, terracotta colored walls, stuff hanging from the rafters. We have a house special pizza with anchovies and mozzarella, no tomato sauce. When we leave, there are more than twenty people in the street waiting for a table.

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Florence Royal Palace