Piazza Pitti

Piazza de' Pitti, almost completely dominated by the imposing ashlar facade of Palazzo Pitti, is one of the most beautiful squares, recently pedestrianized, in the Oltrarno. The Pitti complex, in addition to the Boboli Gardens, includes 5 museums: the Palatine Gallery, the Gallery of Modern Art, the Treasury of the Grand Dukes, the Museum of Fashion and Costume, the Porcelain Museum.

Built in a secondary area of ​​the city, on the slopes of the Boboli hill, the palace was commissioned by the banker Lucca Pitti (1457); it was then expanded, about a century later, when it was bought by the Medici, becoming the family's most prestigious residence. In 1620 Giulio Parigi enlarged the façade, while in the eighteenth century, the Lorraine family built the two lateral wings that delimit today's slightly uphill square, to further underline the majesty of the complex.

In the square, in addition to Palazzo Pitti, there are other important buildings, including Palazzo Guicciardini and Palazzo Temple Leader. In the square some plaques mark the houses where illustrious people lived: at no. 18 is the home of Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli (the astronomer who inspired Christopher Columbus), while at no. 2 the house where Fyodor Dostoevskij worked on his masterpiece, The Idiot. In the immediate vicinity of Piazza Pitti is Casa Guidi, the house-museum where the English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning lived.