Castles · Tour

Two Hours from the Annunziata to Pitti, Including the Forgotten Medici

A walk across the centre of Florence, from one side to the other, following the very uneven fortunes of the family the city is known for. Two hours of gossip and fact, covering the Medici everybody has heard of and the ones nobody has, which is where most of the good material is. The route starts in Piazza Santissima Annunziata and ends at the Pitti Palace. On the way it passes the Palazzo Medici, the first grand house the family owned, and stops in front of San Lorenzo, built to their taste and at their scale. Then the Duomo, and the part the family played in building what is still counted as the miracle of Renaissance architecture, Brunelleschi's dome. From there to the Palazzo Vecchio, the political centre of the city, across the oldest bridge in Florence, and out to the Palazzo Pitti, which is where Medici ambition finally arrived.