This episode takes us to the Palazzo Pitti, the must-see palace on the ‘other’ side of the River Arno, just across the Ponte Vecchio. Hear how the Medicis lorded it over the Pittis by buying up the grand palace which the latter could no longer afford. There are brief biographies of the later Medici, some who patronised the arts and sciences and others who murdered each other to ensure their own succession. Find out which one was the ‘spendthrift cardinal’ and which one was said to have ‘passed his brief life between luncheons, receptions and literary or scientific debates.’ Finally, hear about the most noteworthy things to look out for at the Palazzo, such as the Boboli Gardens and paintings by Raphael and Titian.
MORE INFORMATION COMING SOON
More information about Florence coming soon.
Listen to the POdcast
Links & Reading
3 useful websites for tourists
Feel Florence
Visit Florence
Destination Florence
4 guidebooks on Florence
Pocket Rough Guide to Florence
Time Out Florence City Guide
Blue Guide Florence by Alta Macadam
Strolling through Florence by Mario Erasmo
2 more guidebooks on Florence and Tuscany
Lonely Planet Guide to Florence and Tuscany
Eyewitness Travel Guide to Florence and Tuscany by Christopher Catling
3 history books and a guide to art and architecture
Florence, the Biography of a City by Christopher Hibbert
The Medici by Paul Strathern
The Medici by Mary Hollingsworth
Art and Architecture in Florence by Rolf C Wirtz
3 anthologies
Florence: A Traveller’s Reader by Edward Cheney
Florence Stories Everyman’s Library Pocket Classics
A Literary Companion to Florence by Frances King
2 memoirs of Florence
Florence: A Delicate Case by David Leavitt
A Florence Diary by Diana Athill
4 novels set in Florence
The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone (Biographical novel about Michelangelo)
A Room with a View by E M Forster
Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel
