Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina
Map: Pitti Palace & Boboli Gardens
Map: Pitti Palace—Palatine Gallery
Napoleon’s Bathroom (Bagno di Napoleone)
The Pitti Palace offers many reasons for a visit: the palace itself, with its imposing exterior and lavish interior; the second-best collection of paintings in town; the statue-dotted Boboli Gardens; and a host of secondary museums. However, seeing it all is impossible, and choosing where to spend your time can be confusing. While famous, the Pitti Palace exhausts tourists.
Do yourself a favor and stay focused on the highlights: Stick to the Palatine Gallery, which has the painting collection, plus the sumptuous rooms of the Royal Apartments. The paintings pick up where the Uffizi leaves off, at the High Renaissance. Lovers of Raphael’s Madonnas and Titian’s portraits will find some of the world’s best at the Pitti Palace. For fashionistas, the Costume Museum is worth a peek. And if it’s a nice day, take a stroll in the Boboli Gardens, a rare and inviting patch of extensive green space within old Florence.
(See “Pitti Palace & Boboli Gardens” map, here.)
Cost: Everything is covered by the Firenze Card. Otherwise, you have three ticketing options:
Ticket #1 (the tour described in this chapter) costs €8.50 (€13 with special exhibitions). This ticket covers the recommended Palatine Gallery, Royal Apartments, and Gallery of Modern Art. You can’t buy a ticket for just the Palatine Gallery.
Ticket #2 is €7 (€10 with special exhibitions) and covers the Boboli and Bardini Gardens, Costume Gallery, Argenti/Silverworks Museum (the Medici treasures), and Porcelain Museum.
Ticket #3, a combo-ticket covering all of the above, costs €11.50 (valid 3 days; usually not available during special exhibitions).
Hours: The “ticket #1” sights (Palatine Gallery, Royal Apartments, and Gallery of Modern Art) are open the same hours year-round: Tue-Sun 8:15-18:50, closed Mon, last entry one hour before closing.
The “ticket #2” sights (Boboli and Bardini Gardens, Costume Gallery, Argenti/Silverworks Museum, and Porcelain Museum) vary depending on the season: daily June-Aug 8:15-19:30, April-May and Sept 8:15-18:30, March and Oct 8:15-17:30, Nov-Feb 8:15-16:30; closed first and last Mon of each month, last entry one hour before closing.
Reservations: Not necessary. If there’s a long line, bypass it by making a €3 “reservation” on the spot for immediate entry (just march up to the head of the line and go to window 3 on the right, marked reservation desk). You can also skip lines if you have a Firenze Card.
Getting There: The Pitti Palace is located several blocks southwest of Ponte Vecchio, in the Oltrarno neighborhood. Bus #C3 from the Santa Croce Church and bus #D from the train station stop right in front.
Getting In: The ticket office is at the far right of the massive facade. Once you have your ticket, enter through the main doorway in the center of the facade. Firenze Card holders should go directly to the main entrance (where you may be ushered to the head of the security checkpoint); then go to the bookstore on the left side of the courtyard to have your card swiped and get your tickets.
Information: Each room has some descriptions in English, and the paintings themselves have limited English labels. Tel. 055-238-8614, www.polomuseale.firenze.it.
Audioguide: An audioguide is available from the ticket office for €6 (€10/2 people). If you’re interested in the sprawling palace beyond the Palatine Gallery, the audioguide can help bring meaning to your visit.
Length of This Tour: Allow one hour for the Palatine Gallery and Royal Apartments.
Services: WCs are in the basement corridor underneath the café and the Palatine Gallery/Royal Apartments staircase.
Photography: Not allowed in the Palatine Gallery.
Eating: The basic café inside the palace courtyard is disappointing and overpriced. A better idea is to eat nearby before or after your visit. Several recommended Oltrarno restaurants are a few blocks away (see here). Across the piazza is a cozy wine-by-the-glass enoteca, Pitti Gola e Cantina, which also serves €10 antipasti plates, €8-12 lunches, and €14 homemade pastas (open daily, food served 13:00-15:30 & 19:00-22:30, wine served all day, Piazza Pitti 16, tel. 055-212-704). For picnics, a tiny alimentari is a half-block from the palace (€3-5 made-to-order sandwiches, Sdrucciolo de’ Pitti 6), and a supermarket is a short walk away, near Ponte Vecchio (see here). A drinking fountain is in front of the palace, at the base of the square.
Starring: Raphael, Titian, and the most ornate palace you can tour in Florence.
(See “Pitti Palace & Boboli Gardens” map, here.)
The plain and brutal Pitti Palace facade is like other hide-your-wealth palace exteriors in Florence. The Pitti family (rivals of the Medici family) began building it in 1458 but ran out of money. It sat unfinished until the Medici bought it, expanded it, and moved in during the mid-1500s, choosing to keep the name. It’s an imposing facade—more than two football fields long, made of heavy blocks of unpolished stone, and set on a hill. For nearly two centuries (1549-1737), this palace was arguably Europe’s cultural center, setting trends in the arts, sciences, and social mores.
• Enter the palace through the central doorway, passing through the metal detector and into the courtyard. From here, all of the sights are well marked: The Palatine Gallery entrance is to your right, the Boboli Gardens entrance is straight ahead, and the Argenti/Silverworks Museum is to the left. Climb several flights of stairs to the Palatine Gallery (Galleria Palatina).
(See “Pitti Palace—Palatine Gallery” map, here.)
• Enter Room 1 of the Palatine Gallery. (If there’s a temporary exhibit, your visit may begin in the large white ballroom, which then leads into Room 1.)
The collection is all on one floor. To see the highlights, walk straight down the spine through a dozen or so rooms. (Avoid the rooms that branch off to the side.) At the far end, make a U-turn left and double back. After the Palatine Gallery, the route flows naturally into the even-more-lavish rooms of the Royal Apartments.
You’ll walk through one palatial room after another, with frescoed ceilings that celebrate the Medici family and give the rooms their names (the Venus Room, Apollo Room, and so on). The walls sag with floor-to-ceiling paintings in gilded frames, stacked three and four high, different artists and time periods all jumbled together. Use the information folders in each room to help find the featured paintings. Even with their help, it’s still difficult to pick out the masterpieces from the minor pieces. Focus on my recommended highlights first, then let yourself browse.
• Immediately to your right as you enter is the...
Thank Cosimo I de’ Medici (1519-1574, with beard and crown) for this palace. Cosimo I (not to be confused with Cosimo the Elder, the 15th-century founder of the Medici clan) was the first Grand Duke, and the man who revived the Medici family’s dominance a generation after the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Cosimo I’s wife, Eleonora, bought the palace from the Pittis and convinced him and their 11 children to move there from their home in the Palazzo Vecchio. They used their wealth to expand the Pitti, building the gardens and amassing the rich painting collection. This would be the Medici family home for the next 200 years.
• Look out the windows to enjoy...
Dotted with statues and fountains, the gardens seem to stretch forever. The courtyard below (by Ammanati) is surrounded by the palace on three sides; the fourth side opens up theatrically onto the gardens, which rise in terraces up the hillside. Cosimo I and his descendants could look out their windows at eye level onto the garden’s amphitheater, ringed with seats around an obelisk that once stood in the Temple of Ramses II in Egypt. At this amphitheater, the Medici enjoyed plays and spectacles, including perhaps the first opera, Euridice (1600).
From the amphitheater, the central axis of the Boboli Gardens stair-steps up to the top of the hill (where there are great views of Florence and beyond). The gardens’ expansive sightlines, sculpted foliage, geometric patterns, Greek statues, and bubbling fountains would serve as the model a century later for the gardens at Versailles.
• Continue straight ahead through a handful of rooms until you reach a green-and-gold room virtually wallpapered with paintings.
• Inside this room, look for the fireplace topped with a round-framed painting.
This pure, radiant Virgin cradles a playful Jesus as he eats a pomegranate. Lippi’s work combines medieval piety with new Renaissance techniques. It may be Florence’s first tondo (circular artwork), an innovative format that soon became a Renaissance staple. Seed-eating Jesus adds a human touch, but the pomegranate was also a medieval symbol for new life and the Resurrection. In medieval style, the background relates episodes from different places and times, including Mary’s birth to Anne (in bed, at left) and the meeting of Mary’s parents (distant background, right). But these stories are set in rooms that are textbook Renaissance 3-D, with floor tiles and ceiling coffers that create the illusion of depth. The ladies bringing gifts to celebrate Mary’s birth add another element of everyday Renaissance realism.
Compare Lippi’s Madonna with two by Lippi’s star pupil, Botticelli (one on the left wall, one on the right, both hung high). Botticelli borrowed much from Lippi, including the same facial features, pale skin, precise lines, and everyday details.
• The next room is the...
This was the Grand Duke’s bedroom. One of Cosimo I’s favorite paintings hangs above the fireplace.
This work introduces us to the range of this great artist. There’s the creamy, rosy beauty of the Virgin alongside the gritty wrinkles of St. Anne/Elizabeth. At first glance, it seems like a stately scene, until you notice that Jesus is getting tickled. Everyone is in motion—gazes pointed in all different directions—but they’re also posed in a harmonious pyramid, with Jesus’ crotch at the center. Little John the Baptist sticks a foot in our face and points to Jesus as The One. Also typical of the always-busy Raphael: The work was probably completed by some of his 50-plus assistants.
• The next small room you pass by is known as...
The white-marble luxury and sarcophagus-shaped bathtub were intended for the great French conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, when he ruled Florence (1799-1814). Napoleon installed his little sister Elisa as Grand Duchess, and she spent her years here redecorating the palace, awaiting her brother’s return. But Napoleon was not destined to meet this water loo. After he was toppled from power, the palace returned to its previous owners.
Over the centuries, the palace hosted several rulers: 200 years of Medici (c. 1549-1737); 100 years of Austrians (the Habsburg-Lorraines, 1737-1860); 15 years of Napoleon (1799-1814); and 60 years under the Savoys, Italy’s first royal family (1860-1919), who made the Pitti their “White House” when Florence was briefly the capital of modern Italy.
• Pass through the final rooms and exit out the far end into the stairwell (with some handy benches). Ahhh. Admire the views of the Duomo, Palazzo Vecchio, and green hills of Fiesole in the distance. The Medici could commute from here to downtown Florence by way of a private, covered passageway (Vasari Corridor) that goes from the Pitti Palace and across Ponte Vecchio to the Palazzo Vecchio. If you look down into the Boboli Gardens, you can see the melted-frosting entrance to the Buontalenti Grotto.
As you continue on through the second half of the collection, the first room you enter is the...
This is the first of several former staterooms, used for grand public receptions. For centuries, Europe’s nobles, ladies, and statesmen passed through these rooms as they visited the Medici. They wrote home with wonder about the ceiling frescoes and masterpiece-covered walls. The ceiling frescoes depict the Greek gods cavorting with Medici princes, developing the idea of rule by divine right—themes that decades later would influence the decoration of Versailles. Turn your attention to the painting by the entrance door.
This rather plain-looking woman has one hand on her stomach and a serious expression on her face. She’s pregnant. Though she is no Madonna, and her eyes don’t sparkle, the woman has presence. Raphael’s sober realism cuts through the saccharine excesses of the surrounding paintings.
As one of Raphael’s earliest portraits, from his time in Florence, it shows the influence of Leonardo da Vinci. Like Mona Lisa, she’s a human pyramid turned at a three-quarters angle, supporting her arm on an armrest that’s almost at the level of the frame itself. It’s as if she’s sitting near the edge of an open window, looking out at us.
• Enter the next room.
This room boasts the second-biggest Raphael collection in the world—the Vatican beats it by one. A half-dozen Raphael paintings ring the room at eye level, ranging from dreamy soft-focus Madonnas to down-to-earth, five-o’clock-shadow portraits.
Raphael (like most Renaissance greats, known by a single name) is considered the culmination of the High Renaissance. (Note that the museum uses his Italian name Raffaello, or Raffaello Sanzio.) He combined symmetry, grace, beauty, and emotion. With his debonair personality and lavish lifestyle, Raphael also epitomized the worldly spirit of the Renaissance.
Raphael lived a charmed life. Handsome and sophisticated, he quickly became a celebrity in the Medici family’s high-living circle of bankers, princes, and popes. He painted masterpieces by day and partied by night. Both in his life and art, he exuded what his contemporaries called sprezzatura—an effortless, unpretentious elegance. In a different decade, he might have been thrown out of the Church as a great sinner, but his love affairs and devil-may-care personality were perfectly in keeping with the optimism of the times.
Raphael employed a wide range of styles and techniques, but there are some recurring elements. His paintings are bathed in an even light, with few shadows. His brushwork is smooth and blended, and colors are restrained. Works from the Florence years (1504-1508) show Leonardo’s influence: Mona Lisa poses, sfumato brushwork (soft outlines), and lots of sweet Madonnas and Holy Families in a pyramid format. On the other hand, Raphael’s portraits are never saccharine. The poses are natural, and individual quirks are never glossed over. He captures the personality without a hint of caricature.
In his later years, Raphael experimented with more complex compositions and stronger emotions. In group scenes, Raphael wants you to follow his subjects’ gazes as they exchange glances or look off in different directions. This adds a sense of motion and psychological tension to otherwise well-balanced scenes. Raphael’s compositions always have a strong geometric template. Figures are arranged into a pyramid or a circle. Human bodies are composed of oval faces, cylindrical arms, and arched shoulders. Subconsciously, this creates the feeling that God’s created world is geometrically perfect. But Raphael always lets a bit of messy reality spill over the lines so his scenes don’t appear static. His work comes across as simple and unforced...sprezzatura.
When Raphael died in 1520, he was one of Europe’s most celebrated painters (along with Michelangelo and Titian). His style went out of fashion with the twisted forms of Mannerism and over-the-top drama of Baroque. The 1700s saw a revival, and today’s museums are stuffed with sappy Madonnas by Raphael’s many imitators. It’s easy to dismiss his work and lump him in with his wannabes. Don’t. This is the real deal.
• Next to the door you just came through, find...
Raphael presents Mary in an unusually simple pose—standing, while she cradles baby Jesus under his bum. With no background, the whole focus is on Mother, lost in thought, and Child, looking right at us. Mary’s dreamy face and Jesus’ golden body seem to emerge from the shadows. Try as you might, you can’t quite discern the outlines of the figures, as they blend seamlessly into the dark background (Leonardo’s sfumato technique).
The apparently simple pose is actually a skillful, geometric composition. Mary’s head and flowing mantle form a triangle. The triangle’s base is, first, the neckline of her dress, then her belt, then the horizontal line formed by her arm and Jesus’ thighs. The geometric symmetry is enlivened by an off-kilter touch of reality: Mary’s head tilts ever-so-slightly to the side.
This Madonna radiates tenderness and holiness, the divine embodied in human form. The iconic face, the pale colors, the simple pose, the geometric perfection—all are classic Raphael.
• Now survey a few more paintings, moving clockwise through the room. At the right end of the same wall is...
Wearing his bright red Cardinal’s suit, Tommaso was the friend and librarian of the Medici pope, Leo X. Raphael captures him during an unposed moment, as he pauses to think while writing. Without glossing over anything, Raphael shows us the man just as he was, complete with cleft chin, jowls, lazy eye, and all.
• On the next wall, look for...
These portraits are as crystal clear as the Madonna del Granduca is hazy. They’re a straightforward look at an upwardly mobile Florentine couple. He was a successful businessman in the textile trade (who commissioned Michelangelo’s Holy Family in the Uffizi), and she was the daughter of one of the city’s richest families. Raphael places them right at the edge of the picture plane, showing off his fine clothes and her jewelry.
• Immediately to the left of the door leading to the next room is...
This colorful, round painting (also known as the Madonna of the Chair) is one of Raphael’s best-known and most-copied works. Mary hugs Baby Jesus, squeezing him along with little John the Baptist. This Mary is no distant Madonna; she wears a peasant’s scarf and a colorful dress and looks directly out at us with a cheerful half-smile. The composition plays on the theme of circles and spheres. The whole canvas is patterned after round sculpture-relief tondi. Mary’s halo is a circle, her scarf forms a half-circle, and her face is an oval. The pudgier-than-normal Bambino exaggerates the overall roundness of the scene. Mother and child fit together like interlocking half-circles. As in a cameo, the figures seem to bulge out from the surface, suggesting roundness. Bathed in a golden glow, Mary enfolds her child into the safe circle of motherly love.
• Head into the next room.
Here in the throne room, the Grand Duke once saw visitors beneath a ceiling fresco showing Jupiter receiving legendary guests.
• To the left of the door leading into the next room is...
The dark-haired beauty’s dark eyes stare intently at the viewer. The elaborate folds of her shiny silk dress contrast with her creamy complexion. It’s a study in varying shades of white and brown, bathed in a diffuse golden glow. A geometric perfection underlies this woman’s soft, flesh-and-blood beauty: Her ovoid face, almond eyes, arch-shaped eyebrows, and circular necklace are all framed by a triangular veil. She is the very picture of perfection...except for that single wisp of loose hair that gives her the added charm of human imperfection.
Who is she? She may be the same woman Raphael depicted topless for a painting in Rome and as a Virgin (in Dresden). The biographer Vasari claims (and scholars debate) that La Velata is Raphael’s beloved girlfriend Margherita Luti, known to history as La Fornarina, or the baker’s daughter. Raphael became so obsessed with her that he had to have her near him to work. Vasari says that Raphael’s sudden and premature death at age 37 came after a night of wild sex with her. Whoever La Velata is, she’s one of the beauties of Western art.
• Pass through the Sala di Marte (Room 30) and into the Sala di Apollo (Room 31). Two paintings by Titian flank the entrance door.
According to medieval lore (but not the Bible), Mary Magdalene was a prostitute who repented when she heard the message of Jesus. Titian captures her right on the cusp between whore and saint. She’s naked, though covered by her hair, which she pulls around her like a cloak as she gazes heavenward, lips parted. Her hair is a rainbow of red, gold, and brown, and her ample flesh radiates gold. The rippling locks (echoed by gathering clouds in the background) suggest the inner turmoil and spiritual awakening of this passionate soul.
Among the upper classes in Renaissance times, Mary Magdalene was a symbol of how sensual enjoyment (food, money, sex) could be a way of celebrating God’s creation. The way this Mary Magdalene places her hand to her breast and gathers her hair around her is also the classic “Venus Pudica” pose of many ancient Greek statues. It’s simultaneously a gesture of modesty and a way of drawing attention to her voluptuous nudity.
This unknown subject has so mesmerized viewers that his portrait has become known by various monikers, including The Young Englishman, The Gray-Eyed Nobleman, and Doctor McDreamy’s Evil Twin. The man is dressed in dark clothes and set against a dim background, so we only really see his face and hands, set off by a ruffled collar and sleeves. He nonchalantly places his hand on his hip while holding a glove, and stares out. The man is unforgettable, with a larger-than-life torso and those piercing blue-gray eyes that gaze right at us with extreme intensity. Scholars have speculated that the man could be a well-known lawyer...eternally cross-examining the museumgoers.
• In the next room, you’ll find several more Titians.
• Survey the room in a clockwise order. First up, turn around and face the door you just came through. Immediately to the right is...
Titian presents a beautiful (bella) woman in a beautiful dress to create a beautiful ensemble of colors: the aqua-and-brown dress, the gold necklace, pearl earrings, creamy complexion, auburn hair, and dark jewel-like eyes. She embodies the sensual, sophisticated, high-society world that Titian ran around in. The woman is likely Titian’s Venus of Urbino, standing up and with her clothes on (see here). Scholars speculate on who she really was; perhaps she’s Eleonora the Duchess of Urbino, or the mistress of the previous Duke, or maybe she’s just a paid model that Titian found to be...beautiful.
• At the right end of the same wall is...
The most notorious and outrageous figure in Renaissance high society was the writer Pietro Aretino (1492-1556). In 1527, he fled Rome, having scandalized the city with a collection of erotic/pornographic sonnets known as the Sixteen Ways (or sex positions). He took refuge in luxury-loving Venice, where he befriended Titian, a fellow connoisseur of eroticism and the arts. Titian and Aretino were both commoners, but they moved easily in court circles: Titian the diplomat and Aretino the fiery satirist who tweaked the noses of arrogant princes. (In fact, Aretino was part of the Rat Pack of rowdy Medici that included the father of Cosimo I.)
This portrait captures the self-confidence that allowed Aretino to stand up to royalty. Titian portrays him with the bearded face of an ancient satyr (a lecherous, untamed creature in Greek mythology). His torso is huge, like a smoldering volcano of irreverence that could erupt at any moment. Rather than the seamless brushstrokes and elaborate detail of Titian’s earlier works, the figure of Aretino is composed of many rough strokes of gold and brown paint. Around age 60, Titian radically altered his style, adopting this “unfinished” look that the Impressionists would elaborate on centuries later. Aretino joked when he saw the portrait, “It breathes and moves as I do in the flesh. But perhaps [Titian] would have spent more time on my fine clothes—the robe, the silk, the gold chain—if I’d paid him more.” Aretino gave the portrait to Cosimo I as a gift.
• On the facing wall, just over the small table, find...
An organ-playing man leans back toward his fellow musician (a monk), who’s put down his cello to tap him on the shoulder. A young dandy in fancy clothes and a feathered cap looks on. The meaning of the work is a puzzle, perhaps intentionally so. Titian may have collaborated on this early painting with his colleague Giorgione, who specialized in enigmatic works used by cultured hosts as conversation starters.
Maybe it’s just a slice-of-life snapshot of Venetian musicians briefly united in their common task. Or maybe it’s a philosophical metaphor, in which a middle-aged man, blithely engaged in the gay music of his youth, is interrupted by a glimpse at his future—the bass notes and receding hairline of old age.
• In the middle of the Sala di Venere stands...
This pure white marble statue of Venus looks like the Venus de’ Medici with a sheet (see here). Like the Medici Venus, she’s nude, modestly crossing her hands in front of her (the “Venus Pudica” pose), while turning her head to the side. But Canova’s Venus clutches a garment, which only highlights her naked vulnerability.
Titian the Venetian (the museum uses his Italian name Tiziano or Tiziano Vecellio) captures the lusty spirit of his hometown. Titian was one of the most prolific painters ever, cranking out a painting a month for almost 80 years. He excelled in every subject: portraits of kings, racy nudes for bedrooms, creamy-faced Madonnas for churches, and pagan scenes from Greek mythology. He was cultured and witty, a fine musician and businessman—an all-around Renaissance kind of guy. Titian was famous and adored by high society, including Cosimo I and other Medici.
Titian’s style changed over his long career. In his youth, he painted alongside Giorgione, even working on the same canvases (scholars still debate who did what). When he reached middle age, he found his voice: bright colors (particularly the famed “Titian red”), large-scale canvases, exuberant motion, and complex compositions, rebelling against the strict symmetry of early Renaissance. In his sixties, his technique became more impressionistic. He applied the paint in rough, thick brushstrokes, even using his fingers. In these late works, his figures don’t pop from the background; instead, they blend in, creating a moody atmosphere.
Throughout his life, his bread and butter were portraits of Europe’s movers and shakers—kings, popes, countesses, mistresses, artists, and thinkers. Without ever making the people who sat for him more handsome or heroic than they were, he captured both their outer likeness and their inner essence. Their clothes and accessories tell us about their social circle, so collectively, his portraits are a chronicle of the Renaissance in all its sensual glory.
In 1796, a young French general named Napoleon Bonaparte toured the Uffizi and fell in love with the Venus de’ Medici. A few years later, when he conquered Italy, he carried Venus off with him to Paris. To replace it, the great Venetian sculptor Canova was asked to make a copy. He refused to make an exact replica, but he agreed to do his own interpretation, combining motifs from many ancient Venuses of the Pudica (modest) and Callipigia (ample derriere) styles. Canova’s Venus Italica stood in the Uffizi until Napoleon was conquered and Venus de’ Medici returned.
• From here, the rooms of the Palatine Gallery lead into the...
These 14 rooms (of which only a few are open at any one time) are where Florence’s aristocrats lived in the 18th and 19th centuries. The decor reflects both Italian and French styles. In the 16th century, the two countries cross-pollinated when Catherine de’ Medici (Lorenzo the Magnificent’s great-granddaughter) married the king of France. Soon power shifted northward, which is why many of these rooms mimic the Versailles style, rather than vice versa. You’ll see rooms of different themes and color schemes. Each room features the style of a particular time period. Ogle the velvety wallpaper, heavy curtains, white-and-gold stucco ceilings, chandeliers, and Louis XIV-style chairs, canopied beds, clocks, and candelabras. Gazing over it all are portraits of some of the people who lived in these rooms. Here, you get a real feel for the splendor of the dukes’ world.
(See “Pitti Palace—Palatine Gallery” map, here.)
If you’ve got the energy and interest, it’d be a Pitti to miss the palace’s other offerings: the Boboli and Bardini Gardens, Argenti/Silverworks Museum (the Medici treasures), Costume Gallery, and Porcelain Museum (all covered by ticket #2).
Art lovers can hunt down Titian’s Portrait of Filippo II of Spain and Portrait of Ippolito de’ Medici; Giorgione’s Three Ages of Man; Caravaggio’s Sleeping Cupid and Portrait of Antonio Martelli (Cavaliere di Malta); and many more.
On the second floor, this gallery features Romantic, Neoclassical, and Impressionist works by 19th- and 20th-century Tuscan painters.
Also on the second floor, this fine collection displays centuries’ worth of men’s and women’s fashions, with thoughtful explanations about the philosophical underpinnings of clothing styles. This is worth a linger for those interested in fashion, and interesting to anybody. The darkened room at the far end of the exhibit displays the clothes that Cosimo I and Eleonora of Toledo were buried in (later retrieved from their tombs and preserved—a rare chance to see original 16th-century garments).
This Medici treasure chest (on the ground and mezzanine floors) holds items such as jeweled crucifixes, exotic porcelain, rock-crystal goblets, and gilded ostrich eggs, made to entertain fans of the applied arts.
For those eager to escape the halls upon halls of fancy apartments, two adjoining gardens are located behind the palace. Enter the Boboli Gardens directly from the Pitti Palace courtyard. The less-visited Bardini Gardens are higher up and farther out behind the Boboli, rising in terraces toward Piazzale Michelangelo. Both gardens are similar, providing a pleasant and shady refuge from the city heat, with statues, fountains, and scenic vistas down tree-lined avenues.
A few fun little sights are in the low-lying area to the far left as you enter the Boboli Gardens. First, near the end of the palace, is the much-photographed Bacchus Fountain (Fontana di Bacco, 1560), starring Cosimo I’s fat dwarf jester straddling a turtle—a fitting metaphor for this heavyweight palace.
Just beyond Bacchus is the Grotto of Buontalenti, an artificial cave crusted with fake stalactites and copies of Michelangelo’s Prisoners, which once stood here (and are now in the Accademia). Playful figures—a hunter with his dog, goats, a monster—seem to morph into existence from the cottage cheese-like walls. At the top of the hour (check posted schedules), the grotto gates are opened for five minutes of frolicking among the statues.
You can also stroll up the steep terraces directly behind the palace. From the top, you’re greeted by a panoramic view of the palace and Oltrarno churches (but only peek-a-boo views of the old town center, the Palazzo Vecchio, and Duomo). On your way up, you’ll pass the amphitheater (ringed with statues). At the top, just beyond the hillcrest, is a pleasant rose garden with bucolic views of the rolling Tuscan hills (punctuated by cypress trees). The small building adjoining the rose garden houses the Porcelain Museum, with a modest and sparsely described collection of ducal dinnerware. From here, you can follow signs around to the Belvedere Fortress, with even higher and better views, and the Belvedere Gate, which leads to the Bardini Gardens.