pitti palace
the first time i was in florence, i did not visit the pitti palace. i really had no idea it exists in a way! we decided we definitely needed to visit it on this trip.
it is quite impressive to see as you walk up to it. after the tiny narrow streets of florence, this palace takes up a few city blocks with a large stone "lawn" in front of it.
the museum was two tickets for entry to various exhibits. each ticket allows entrance to various museums and gardens in the palace. of course, the two top areas, the palatine galleries and the boboli gardens are on separate entry tickets. i wish they had charged a higher rate and put them all on one ticket. we went to one gallery thinking it was on our ticket and of course, it was not.
we went straight to the palatine gallery and was lucky enough to reach it before the tourist groups did! it had some beautiful renaissance art. it is definitely a quantity museum with rooms filled to the brim of paintings. unfortunately, three of the top ten works of art owned by the museum were either being refurbished or loaned out while we were there. i understand that you have to share and fix, but 30% of your top works seems a little high.
after we viewed this gallery, we did attempt to go to the costume gallery just to find that it was on the other ticket. on the way back to the entrance, we walked through a special exhibit which contained art from the italian city that had the earthquake a year ago. it was titled from boldini to de pisis: florence welcomes the masterpieces from ferrara. the art tended to be modern or at least 20th century pieces, which contrasted nicely to all the renaissance art from earlier in the day.
we contemplated buying the second ticket just to get into the gardens, but ended up deciding not to.
overall, it is a beautiful spot with a weak gift shop and a need to come up with a better pricing scheme. one option could be have an expensive ticket with the top three exhibits and the other ticket would be cheaper with the less visited items.
time in museum/palace: 2.5 hrs
times visited: 1
overall: A-
it is quite impressive to see as you walk up to it. after the tiny narrow streets of florence, this palace takes up a few city blocks with a large stone "lawn" in front of it.
the museum was two tickets for entry to various exhibits. each ticket allows entrance to various museums and gardens in the palace. of course, the two top areas, the palatine galleries and the boboli gardens are on separate entry tickets. i wish they had charged a higher rate and put them all on one ticket. we went to one gallery thinking it was on our ticket and of course, it was not.
we went straight to the palatine gallery and was lucky enough to reach it before the tourist groups did! it had some beautiful renaissance art. it is definitely a quantity museum with rooms filled to the brim of paintings. unfortunately, three of the top ten works of art owned by the museum were either being refurbished or loaned out while we were there. i understand that you have to share and fix, but 30% of your top works seems a little high.
after we viewed this gallery, we did attempt to go to the costume gallery just to find that it was on the other ticket. on the way back to the entrance, we walked through a special exhibit which contained art from the italian city that had the earthquake a year ago. it was titled from boldini to de pisis: florence welcomes the masterpieces from ferrara. the art tended to be modern or at least 20th century pieces, which contrasted nicely to all the renaissance art from earlier in the day.
we contemplated buying the second ticket just to get into the gardens, but ended up deciding not to.
overall, it is a beautiful spot with a weak gift shop and a need to come up with a better pricing scheme. one option could be have an expensive ticket with the top three exhibits and the other ticket would be cheaper with the less visited items.
time in museum/palace: 2.5 hrs
times visited: 1
overall: A-
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