Palazzos

This museum is also known as the Museum of the traditional Florentine house. The Palazzo was erected in the 14th century by the Davizzi family, who were wealthy members of a wool guild. In 1516 it was sold to the Bartolini family, and, later that century, to the Davanzati family, who held it until 1838. After the suicide of Carlo Davanzati, it was split into different quarters and modified. After escaping the numerous demolitions of 19th century Florence, it was bought by Elia Volpi, an antiquarian, who restored to its original state.

In 1910, Volpi opened the building as a private museum. The contents of this museum kept changing as Volpi sold the furniture at auctions, including in a major sale of 1916 in New York. In the 1920s, Egyptian antique dealers Vitale and Leopoldo Bengujat acquired the building and its contents. It was acquired by the Italian State in 1951.

The Palazzo is entirely furnished with paintings, furniture and objects partly derived from other Florentine museums and partly from donations and acquisitions. Apart from the furnishings, which faithfully reflect those of a Florentine home from the medieval to the renaissance periods, the museum also has an important collection of lace from Italy and elsewhere.

Museum of Palazzo Davanzati
Via di Porta Rossa 13
Florence, Italy 50122
+39 055 2388610
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/english/davanzati

Current scholarship agrees that the Palazzo Rucellai was designed by the famous artist, architect, and humanist Leon Battista Alberti, but built by Bernardo Rossellino in the mid-fiftheenth century. It is notable for being one of the first palazzos to express humanism in Renaissance residential architecture. This new style is evidenced by an elegant design that sets the building apart from the more fortress-like structures that had been built before in Florence, including the Palazzo Medici with its more heavily rusticated ground floor.

The Palazzo is currently home to the Institute at Palazzo Rucellai, a school that offers diverse study abroad possibilities to international students, especially in the field of liberal arts. A tour of the facilities offers a great opportunity to view Renaissance art, and in particular beautiful vaulted ceilings decorated with mythological figures and motifs.

The Rucellai family still occupy the top floor of the Palazzo.

Palazzo Rucellai
Via della Vigna Nuova, 18
Florence, Italy 50123
+39 055-2645910 (The number is for the Institute - visits can be arranged by appointment.)

Located near the San Lorenzo Market, the Palazzo Medici is one of the finest and most famous palazzos of Florence. It was built in the fifteenth century on the commission of the Medici family by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi, a disciple of Ghiberti and collaborator of Donatello. The palazzo is a prototype of Renaissance civil architecture and effectively represents the power and influence of the Medici family. The building exerts influence on new architectural projects to this day, and has many features, like the rusticated stones on the lower level and the finer cuts stone at the top that have been copied for centuries.

The Palazzo Medici contains a museum with regular exhibitions dedicated to major figures in modern and contemporary art (like this exhibit by Yang Maoyuan). The palazzo has a beautiful seventeenth-century staircase that leads to the Chapel of the Magi, containing imaginative frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli that are considered to be some of his finest work. There is also a fine statue of Orpheus by Baccio Bandinelli in the ornate courtyard.

Palazzo Medici Riccardi
Via Camillo Cavour n.1
50129 Firenze
Telephone +39 055 2760 340

need to edit - straight from their site:

Piazza della Signoria has been the heart of Florence from the Medieval times to the present day.

The square is not only the civic center of the city but is also a magnificent open air museum.

Some of the most important palaces surround the square. Palazzo Uguccioni is in fact one of these splendid palace. The building, with its noble and harmonious façade, was created by Mariotto di Zanobi Folfi in 1549 to a design by Raphael.

From the ground floor, constructed with large ashlars forming three arches, two stories rise above and are divided by twin columns of the Ionic and Corinthian order which are set on plinths.

On the first floor, above the entrance, is a bust of Cosimo I. It is in this magnificent building that our five charming apartments can be found and where one may experience an unforgettable stay and enjoy the most beautiful view in the world.

http://www.palazzouguccioni.it/english/index.htm

Palazzo Strozzi was begun in 1489 by Benedetto da Maiano for Filippo Strozzi, a rival of the Medici who desired to have the most magnificent palace in the city. Filippo Strozzi was left in ruins by the cost of the project and died in 1491. The palazzo was eventually finished in 1538 by Il Cronaca (Simone del Pollaiuolo).

Today the Strozzi houses 2 separate exhibition spaces (the main space, and the Strozzina in the basement) with rotating exhibits (3 a year), a brand new café, administrative offices, and a library.

Palazzo Strozzi
Piazza Strozzi, 50123 Firenze
Telephone +39 055 27 76 461/06
info@fondazionepalazzostrozzi.it

One of the swankest new places to stay in Florence:

"Scheduled to open in early 2008, Palazzo Tornabuoni (866-753-6667), a stunning renovated 15th-century Florentine palace being divided into apartments, is offering fractional shares from around $230,000."

There is an excellent "slow" market set up in Piazza Santa Croce until May 1. We just had a quick lunch there (calzones), with a glass of Mossio Langhe Nebbiolo which was great (I bought a bottle for €14.50). Mossio is a small producer with 10 hectares under cultivation producing about 50,000 bottles a year. There are also many kinds of cheeses, salamis, olives and other fresh and prepared foods available at the market, to eat or take home. Definitely worth a visit and a good place for an affordable lunch or dinner.

This sounds interesting, from the BBC:

"A painting by the French artist Paul Cezanne that was lost for more than 60 years is to go on show in Italy. The picture disappeared after its last exhibition in 1945, before being found recently in a private collection by art historian Francesca Bardazzi. It will be shown from 2 March as part of an exhibition of Cezanne's work at the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence. Mr Bardazzi dates the painting, depicting a scene from the New Testament, to between 1860 and 1870. Cezanne is considered a major influence on many 20th Century artists and art movements, particularly Cubism."

Photo credit to the BBC and AFP

A captivating ancient bronze statue of "Apoxyomenos" is on show at the Palazzo Medici Riccardi until January 2007. This statue is a first century BC copy of a 4th century BC original and was found in about 45 meters of water off the coast of Croatia in 1999. The exhibit has an extensive and detailed presentation of the discovery and conservation of this magnificent antiquity (there are some more photos and information here). Highly recommended if you are here in the next few months. The 5€ admission to the palace also includes the regular museum, including the Gozzoli frescoes.

Over the summer Ammannati's statue of Neptune had his hand repaired. You may recall that a drunk accidentally tore it off while trying to climb the massive statue last year. The fountain is also running, which it wasn't for all of last year, and large planters have been placed inside the steel railing that surrounds the whole thing to further thwart the over zealous from trying to wade in the fountain or climb the sculptures. The planters have also been strategically placed to keep people off the steps of the Palazzo Vecchio.

The restoration cost €11,000 - the city is trying to raise an additional 1.5 million Euros to completely restore the fountain.