Map: Palazzo Vecchio—First Floor
Grand Hall (Sala dei Cinquecento)
Apartments of the Elements (Quartiere degli Elementi)
Map: Palazzo Vecchio—Second Floor
Private Apartments of Eleonora di Toledo
Hall of Lilies (Sala dei Gigli)
Old Chancellery and Hall of Geographical Maps
With its distinctive castle turret and rustic stonework, this fortified “Old Palace”—Florence’s past and present Town Hall—is a Florentine landmark. The highlight of the interior is the Grand Hall: With a Michelangelo sculpture and epic paintings of great moments in Florentine history, it was the impressive epicenter of Medici power. The richly decorated rooms of the royal apartments—though hardly the most sumptuous royal quarters in Europe—show off some famous art, creative decorative flourishes, and aristocratic curiosities. It’s open very late in summer, making it a fine after-dinner sightseeing option.
While there are plenty of sightseeing options here, this tour focuses on the “museum” part of the palace.
(See “Heart of Florence” map, here.)
Cost: Courtyard—free, museum—€6.50, tower climb—€6.50, museum plus tower-€10. Both the museum and tower are covered by the Firenze Card (get ticket at ground-floor information desk before entering museum).
Hours: Fri-Wed 9:00-19:00, until 24:00 April-Sept, Thu 9:00-14:00 year-round; ticket office closes one hour earlier. The tower keeps similar but shorter hours.
Information: Tel. 055-276-8224, www.museicivicifiorentini.it.
Tours: A videoguide is available for €5 (€8/2 people). Tours in English are offered daily, last 1.25 hours, and are free with admission (though you must pay an extra €2 if you want to sightsee afterward). The tour schedule varies, and it’s wise to reserve in advance (tel. 055-276-8224).
Activities for Kids: The palace’s family program offers an ever-changing range of activities, usually requiring reservations—check online at www.palazzovecchio-familymuseum.it, call the tours number above, or ask at the reception by the ticket office (no activities after 17:00). See the 
Florence with Children chapter for more details.
Nighttime Terrace Visits: In summer, you can join an escort for an un-narrated walk along the “patrol path”—the balcony that runs just below the crenellated top of the building (€2 plus regular admission ticket, every 30 minutes between 21:00 and 23:00, no tours Oct-March). Note that this tour doesn’t go to the top of the tower.
Length of This Tour: One hour.
Starring: The spacious grand hall known as the Salone dei Cinquecento, lavish royal apartments, and statues by Michelangelo and Donatello.
Nearby Eateries: For restaurants near Palazzo Vecchio, see here.
(See “Palazzo Vecchio—First Floor” map, here.)
• Stand in Florence’s main square, Piazza della Signoria, and take in the palace’s grand facade.
Around the year 1300, the citizens of Florence broke ground on a new Town Hall, designed by Arnolfo di Cambio, who also did the Duomo. Arnolfo’s design expanded on an earlier palace on the site, turning its small tower into today’s 308-foot spire and increasing the building’s architectural footprint, which is why the tower ended up slightly off-center.
In Renaissance times, Florence was a proud, self-governing Republic, and this building is where its governing council (signoria) met. The entrance sported a statue that symbolized the city’s independent spirit—Michelangelo’s David. (The statue standing here today is a copy, of course—the original David was moved to the Accademia for safekeeping in 1873.) The palace’s imposing, castle-like exterior announced to all of Europe’s kings, popes, princes, and tyrants that Florence was determined to remain an independent city governed by its citizens.
But then came Cosimo I, who changed everything. (See a statue of him riding a horse, left of the palace.) In the 1530s, Cosimo assumed power and turned Florence’s republic into a tyrannical dukedom. He and his wife Eleonora moved into the Palazzo Vecchio and transformed it from a symbol of the people to a luxury palace of the aristocracy. Let’s go in and see what kind of extreme makeover they did to the place.
• Enter the courtyard (free admission), walking past the fake David and Bandinelli’s Hercules and Cacus.
This courtyard has long been a showcase for great Florentine art—art that made a statement to the city’s populace.
Anchoring the courtyard is a copy of Putto with Dolphin, an innovative work of Renaissance 3-D by Verrocchio, Leonardo da Vinci’s teacher. With a twisting spiral form, this statue was one of the first intended to be equally enjoyable from any angle—an improvement on medieval statues that only worked when seen from the front. It stands where the original used to, spouting water piped in from the Boboli Gardens.
Verrocchio’s cherub took the place of Donatello’s bronze David (now in the Bargello, and described on here), an even more groundbreaking statue—the first male nude sculpted in a thousand years. Donatello’s David also made a bold populist statement, with an inscription on the base that said, “Behold, a boy defeated a tyrant, so fight on, citizens!”
Stroll around. The faded maps indicate foreign-policy concerns of the Duchy of Tuscany. The squiggly wall painting (called “grotesque”) was all the rage around 1500, inspired by ancient Roman art, which was being excavated at the time.
While the Palazzo Vecchio’s exterior and courtyard reflect the tastes and ideas of the Florentine Republic, most of the interior decoration dates from a later era. When Florence came under the rule of Cosimo I de’ Medici, he suspended the city council and ruled as a “Grand Duke.” He transformed this building from a civic center of the people into his personal palatial residence.
• To see the rest of the palace, you’ll have to buy a ticket at the desk deeper in the complex. After buying your ticket, start your tour with a quick look at the Tracce di Firenze exhibit, near the ticket office (it’s free, but you must show your ticket). Compare the big painting of the city “Fiorenza” (from 1490) with the version at the opposite end of the room (from 1936) to see how much—or how little—the city has changed over the centuries.
Now head upstairs, following signs to the Museo. (Firenze Card holders must get a paper ticket on the ground floor before ascending.) On the first floor, enter one of the highlights of the palace, the 13,000-square-foot...
This vast room—170’ by 75’—is also called the Salone dei Cinquecento (Hall of Five Hundred). Originally built under Savonarola in 1494 to house the Florentine Republic’s 500 Grand Councilors, it was expanded under Cosimo I to accommodate 500 party-goers. The ceiling and huge wall paintings, all by Giorgio Vasari and his assistants, are a celebration of the power of Florence, specifically the power of the Medici. Consider this magnificent room in its proper context: In an age when there was no mass media to use as a mouthpiece, this was how a fabulously wealthy person waged a public-relations campaign (and kept the people down).
Cosimo I is the star here, looking down from the circular medallion in the center of the ceiling. He’s dressed as an emperor, with his highness-ness affirmed by the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor and blessed by the staff and cross of the pope. He’s circled by a kaleidoscope of symbols of Florentine craft and art guilds, and the shields of his domain, all asserting his power.
In the square frame, find the letters “SPQF.” In place of the Roman motto of SPQR (Senatus Populus Que Romanus—the Senate and People of Rome), Cosimo used “SPQF,” implying that Florence is the new Rome. From the stage at the far end of the room, Cosimo sat on his throne, overseeing his fawning subjects.
But now sitting in the front of the room is a statue of Pope Leo X, looking down from his own throne. The son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Leo X was the first of three Medici popes. When he became pope in 1513, the family suddenly had religious authority and some seriously good connections, helping them eventually become bankers to the Vatican.
Giorgio Vasari’s wall paintings show great Florentine victories: over Pisa in 1497 (on the left) and over Siena in 1555 (on the right). In the Pisa paintings, check out the third painting from the left: In the upper-left corner you can see the Field of Miracles, with its church and Leaning Tower. In the Siena paintings, watch the Florentines storm Siena’s gate by lantern light. Vasari’s style features crowded canvases, contorted bodies in every imaginable pose, bright color, and a “flat” surface design. If you’re into Mannerism, this is your Sistine Chapel.
While Vasari’s battle scenes are impressive, they pale in comparison to what some scholars believe was first painted on these walls. Around 1500, this hall was the scene of a painting contest between two towering geniuses—young Michelangelo and aging Leonardo da Vinci. Unfortunately, Michelangelo never got around to starting his proposed Battle of Cascina (and his paper sketch of it is lost to history). But Leonardo may have painted the Battle of Anghiari here. Art historians have long suspected that this famous-but-unseen Leonardo masterpiece lies hidden beneath Vasari’s Battle of Marciano (on the Siena wall, third painting from the left). Vasari himself may have hinted at it to later scholars by painting an enigmatic clue: a banner (40 feet up, hard to find without binoculars) that reads Cerca trova—“He who seeks, finds.”
Underneath Siena, in the middle of the right wall, stands Michelangelo’s Victory (La Vittoria, 1533-1534), showing a young man triumphing over an older man. It was designed to ornament the never-finished tomb of Pope Julius II in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Victory was the prototype of the hall’s many spiral-shaped statues by other artists. Taking their cue from Michelangelo, later artists twisted and contorted their sculpted figures into almost ridiculous acrobatics. Six of the statues are the Labors of Hercules.
• From here, we enter the royal apartments that housed Cosimo I and his family and guests. Be aware that some rooms on our tour may be temporarily closed to visitors—the Palazzo is a working city hall, after all.
Exit the Grand Hall in the corner, and enter the first of the royal apartments, known as the...
In 1540, Cosimo I and his wife Eleonora of Toledo moved into the Palazzo Vecchio, turning the Town Hall into their private residence. They set about redecorating with frescoes and coffered ceilings in the Mannerist style. They wanted each room to have a theme. These rooms were dedicated to great members of the Medici family who preceded Cosimo I.
The first room honors Cosimo the Elder, who launched the Medici dynasty in the 1400s. You’ll see Cosimo portrayed on the ceiling, including one scene where he greets Brunelleschi and Ghiberti. (Find all the details on the information charts in each room.)
The next room is dedicated to the greatest of the Medici, Lorenzo the Magnificent, shown in the central ceiling painting on a throne in his purple robe. Here you feel the passion of this avid patron of the arts. Lorenzo died in 1492, when Florence was at its pinnacle (and a self-governing republic), when the New World was still a mystery, and the center of European power hadn’t yet moved to Spain, France, and England. Enjoy the fine examples of the erotic, mystical, and fanciful art of his time. After Lorenzo the Magnificent died, the Medici were exiled from Florence for 20 years.
Continue into the final room to see what came next. The room honors Lorenzo’s son, who was exiled but eventually became Pope Leo X. A wall painting shows Leo’s triumphal return to Florence, where citizens celebrate outside the Palazzo Vecchio. Note Michelangelo’s David guarding the entrance.
This palace is all about Cosimo I de’ Medici. His presence is everywhere. In the famous statue on the square outside the palace, he sits like a Roman emperor astride a horse. Inside, in the Grand Hall, he looms high above in a ceiling painting. And his aesthetic vision is on full display in the Royal Apartments, which were personally decorated with care by Cosimo and his high-maintenance wife Eleonora.
Cosimo’s Medici forebears had been Florentine big shots, but Cosimo was the first to have a royal title, after the pope made him a Grand Duke in 1569. Don’t confuse Grand Duke Cosimo I with his equally famous ancestor, Cosimo the Elder, who established the Medici dynasty a century earlier. To see how Cosimo I fits into the Medici family tree, see the chart on here.)
Before Cosimo I took charge, the loggia in front of the palace (Loggia dei Lanzi) had been used as a gathering place, where Florentines discussed the issues of the day. Cosimo changed it into an art gallery, swapping out public discourse for statues that personified the power and strength of his family. Perseus, holding the head of Medusa, sent a clear message about how the Medici dealt with their enemies.
It was Cosimo I who moved the family out of the Medici-Riccardi Palace and into these digs—officially called the Palazzo della Signoria. Cosimo left the exterior as-is, which is why it still looks like a medieval fortress. But he completely revamped the inside, updating it to match the outlook of the Renaissance. Later, when his wife Eleonora complained about needing a fancier place with a bigger yard, they moved across the river to the Pitti Palace, where she could stroll the sprawling Boboli Gardens. The Vasari Corridor was built over Ponte Vecchio to connect the two palaces. After they’d moved out, the Palazzo della Signoria began to be known as the “old” palace—the Palazzo “Vecchio.”
• From here, go up the staircase to the second floor, then turn left, entering the...
(See “Palazzo Vecchio—Second Floor” map, here.)
As Cosimo considered himself an enlightened Renaissance Man, he wanted his apartments decorated in the spirit of the classical world. Each of his personal living rooms has a name, usually derived from the ceiling and wall paintings.
Giorgio Vasari—painter, architect, and writer—has been dismissed by history as a Renaissance hack, a man who was equally mediocre at many things. But his influence on Renaissance history is undeniable.
During his lifetime, Vasari enjoyed respect and accumulated a considerable fortune. He was consistently employed by patrons in the Medici family in Florence and Rome. In Florence, you’ll see his mark everywhere. His huge frescoes color the main hall of the Palazzo Vecchio and the dome of the Duomo (see here). His oil paintings hang in the Church of Santa Maria Novella (see here) and the Uffizi Gallery. He built the tomb for his hero Michelangelo in Santa Croce Church (here). As an architect, he designed the Uffizi Gallery and the Vasari Corridor over Ponte Vecchio, which connects the Uffizi with the Pitti Palace.
Vasari is most famous, though, as the first Italian art historian. His book, The Lives of the Artists, was an early work that chronicled the Renaissance (with a bias that favored Florentine painters, sculptors, and architects). For that classic alone, we can say “Grazie tante!”
The first room (with paintings by Vasari and assistants) depicts the four classical elements. On one wall is “Water,” showing the birth of Venus from the foam of the waves. Next is “Fire,” with Vulcan at the forge hammering away while cupids pump the bellows and sharpen their arrows. “Earth” shows the abundant cornucopia of the world’s produce. And on the ceiling, representing “Air,” are scenes from the sky—the chariots of the sun and moon, and Cronos defeating Saturn to create the world.
Circle around this wing. Find the balcony with a stunning view of Piazzale Michelangelo (closed in winter). One room displays Verrocchio’s original Putto with Dolphin (1476), from the courtyard downstairs. The statue originally stood in the Medici family’s rural villa before Cosimo I brought it to the Palazzo Vecchio. It may have captured the newlywed couple’s innocent joy and abandon as they moved into their new home together.
• Return to the top of the stairs and cross over to the Apartments of Eleonora of Toledo. On the way, you’ll pass along a balcony overlooking the Grand Hall. Gaze out over the opulence and imagine it filled by a lavish Medici wedding celebration with a 500-person guest list. Now enter the apartments, starting in the Green Room.
Eleonora of Toledo (1522-1562) married Cosimo I in 1539. Their marriage united the Medici clan with royal bloodlines all over Europe. The following year, the couple moved out of the Medici-Riccardi Palace (as it’s now known) and settled in here. As Florence’s “first lady,” Eleonora used her natural grace and beauty to mollify Florentine democrats chafing under Cosimo’s absolutist rule.
In the Green Room (Sala Verde), you’ll find the Chapel of Eleonora, brightly painted by Agnolo Bronzino (1540-65). After serving as their artistic wedding planner, Bronzino became Cosimo and Eleonora’s court painter. The chapel’s ceiling features St. Michael with a sword, battling a demon; St. John with his symbolic eagle; St. Francis receiving the stigmata; and St. Jerome with his companion the lion. In the center is the three-faced Trinity. Bronzino and Vasari were the two big stars of the Mannerist style, and this palace was their enormous blank canvas.
Before leaving the Green Room, find the other little room (likely Eleonora’s private study) and a door, locked tight with a padlock, which leads onto the Vasari Corridor. From here, Eleonora and Cosimo could enter a private passageway that led through the Uffizi, across Ponte Vecchio, and into their other home across the river—the Pitti Palace.
Continue through the next half-dozen rooms, making your way to the large Hall of Lilies. Each of these rooms features virtuous women of history, thus putting Eleonora in their company. In the Room of the Sabines, the ceiling painting shows the Sabine women bravely stepping between their men and the enemy Romans to appeal for peace. In the next room, Esther kneels before the Persian king to plead for her Jewish people. Next, Penelope spins at her wheel, faithfully awaiting the return of her lost husband Odysseus. The Penelope Room also has a Madonna and Child by Botticelli.
• Continue through these rooms (passing by Dante’s Death Mask) to reach the large hall with the high, gilded ceiling.
The coffered ceiling (from the 1460s) sports the fleur-de-lis—the three-petaled lily that’s the symbol of Florence. Check out the great view of the Duomo out the window, and compare it with a painting on the wall (by Ghirlandaio) showing a glimpse of the Duomo, circa 1482. (Can’t find the Duomo in the painting? Let the lion point the way.)
The room’s highlight is Donatello’s 11-piece bronze, Judith and Holofernes—cast in 1457, when the artist was in his prime. It shows a Biblical scene easily interpreted by its Renaissance audience: the victory of the weak-but-virtuous Judith over Holofernes the tyrant. The statue was commissioned by Cosimo the Elder to use as a fountain in the garden of the Medici-Riccardi Palace (note the holes in the cushion’s corners). Since then, it’s served as Florentine propaganda, displayed to justify the strength of whoever was in power. The Medici saw themselves as the noble Judith slaying their (drunken, sleepy) enemies. But when the Medici were driven out by Savonarola in the 1490s, the Florentines took the statue from the Medici-Riccardi Palace and placed it at the Palazzo Vecchio doorway (where the fake David now stands) as a symbol of their triumph over the corrupt family. A decade later, it was replaced by Michelangelo’s David, the symbol of Florence victorious.
• End your tour with a visit to two nearby rooms.
The Old Chancellery (Sala delle Cancelleria) was once the office of Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527). Ponder the bust and portrait of the man who faithfully served the Florentine Republic as a civil servant from 1498 to 1512, while the Medici were exiled as tyrants. When the Medici returned to power (under Pope Leo X), they tortured and exiled Machiavelli. He then wrote The Prince, a poly-sci treatise about how a ruler can ruthlessly gain and maintain power. Ironically, Machiavelli’s cautionary advice soon came to be exploited by the man who would end the Florentine Republic for good—Grand Duke Cosimo I.
Finally, the Hall of Geographical Maps (Sala delle Carte Geografiche, the palace’s former wardrobe) is full of maps made in a fit of post-1492 fascination with the wider world. Most date from about 1560 and show how serious cartography had become in the first 70 years after Columbus landed in the New World. They also say a great deal about what 16th-century Europeans did—and didn’t—know about faraway lands. For example, Cosimo’s huge mappa mundi globe was obviously made before the discovery of Australia. On other maps, some Texans and Southern Californians can even find their hometowns (far right corner of the hall, upper level). Florentines excelled at creating and publishing maps—which is why, even though Columbus beat the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci to the New World, our continent isn’t called “North Columbia.”
• To exit, return to the Hall of Lilies; the door on the left leads to stairs that take you down to the courtyard. You’re at the center of Florence—the city awaits.