In this video, I'm going to discuss three ways to visit the Palazzo Vecchio: one is a way that
is free, one is a way where you purchase just one ticket to see the collection,
and then another way is by purchasing some extras to visit the tower and also
um possibly an extra tour of the palace itself. So the "Palazzo Vecchio" just means
the "old palace" -- this is what the Medici called it once the medici were using it as a palace
when they were the grand dukes of Tuscany. So this became known as the old palace -- the "Palazzo Vecchio".
But at various times, it was also called the palace of the Priors or the "Signoria", which relates to
the Republic of Florence and the history of the city as a republic in the late medieval
and renaissance periods -- early renaissance periods. So a free way to visit the palace is just to
explore the Piazza della Signoria. In front of the palace, you see copies of Michelangelo's David. This
was the site that they decided to place the David once they saw how amazing it was. An original idea
was it was going to go on the Duomo [Cathedral] on one of the buttresses, but later on they decided because
it was so outstanding and this wonderful symbol of Florence, to put it in front of the Palazzo
Vecchio. But what you see now is a copy, so don't be fooled! Also, you have a copy of Donatello's Judith
and Holofernes, but you can see the original by going inside the Palazzo Vecchio -- that of course is
by buying a ticket, however, not not a free version of seeing the Palazzo Vecchio. In addition to that,
you'll see Baccio Bandinelli's Hercules and Cacus so kind of the story of a strong Hercules
overcoming Cacus and then kind of similar to the idea of David defeating Holofernes -- excuse
me -- David defeating Goliath. And so you have this idea of kind of good overcoming evil and the
city of Florence -- even though it was very small -- saw itself as very powerful and very important and so
David was a symbol they like to refer to; Hercules was a symbol that you that you often see
in Florentine art as well. And then in addition to that you have a sculpture -- the neptune fountain by
Ammannati -- and he was a student of Baccio Bandinelli -- so kind of in that later renaissance period; you
see bodies that are more muscular, more exaggerated. You can see that the the bodies aren't necessarily
as naturalistic as you see in the examples, the copies after Donatello and Michelangelo.
Off to the side of the Palazzo Vecchio is, of course the "Loggia de Lanzi" which is this wonderful
outdoor sculpture space. You can go into the loggia and kind of sit on the side benches and
just enjoy looking at the sculptures and kind of take your time. Last time I was there, I think
you had to be pretty careful about not bringing food in, so of course you don't want to bring
food into the Loggia dei Lanzi -- the "Lanzi" refers to the German mercenaries who were guards of Cosimo
I de' Medici -- Cosimo Primo -- so the first Grand Duke of Tuscany. He had these particular
guards, and I guess they would hang out in that in that particular loggia. Two works to look
at in particular are Cellini's "Perseus with the Head of Medusa" -- so after Perseus the greek hero
has slayed Medusa, and you see him holding her head aloft with the blood coming from her neck.
And then also her body is beneath his feet, so it's a very dramatic work. It's
one that you definitely want to walk all the way around and one that you can marvel at the bronze
casting. So this was something that Cellini bragged about in his autobiography. So he talked about how
challenging it was to cast this work, and how he had to try many times to get it just right and
it kind of used experimental mixes of of things like pewter that he added to the the mix of metals.
Also, be sure to look at Giambologna's "Rape of the Sabine Women" -- this is a work where Giambologna
was trying to create this very serpentine type of sculpture and also thinking about using a single
piece of stone to incorporate three figures and so this was something that sculptors were very
interested in especially after the discovery of the Laocoön -- so that was an ancient work
that incorporated three figures but in fact it is actually made of multiple pieces of stone.
But it was this idea of kind of a challenge of how to take these multiple figures and put it into one
piece of stone. And it refers to this idea of the founding of Rome and the need for women
when the the men were founding Rome, and so they went off and abducted and took the women
-- the Sabine women. In addition to that you'll also see other sculptures in the
Loggia dei Lanzi that have classical iconography including an ancient sculpture of Menelaus with
the body of Patroclus. This is of course from the Trojan War. This sculpture in particular has been
heavily restored, so just something to remember. There's also a large equestrian sculpture of
Cosimo I [de' Medici] in the Piazza della Signoria, and, of course, also if you look at the ground as you
go around the piazza, you'll see a circular plaque that commemorates the site of Savonarola's death.
Savonarola was a very powerful figure in both the government and religion of Florence or,
like, religious following of Florence in the 1490s. And we'll talk about him more when we get to San
Marco. If you go into the courtyard -- just off of the piazza -- this is free. You can just go and see the
fountain. You can see the grotesque decorations; also the views of the Austrian- Habsburg lands.
This was created in commemoration of the marriage of one of Cosimo's sons Francesco
de' Medici, who married Joanna of Austria -- so that part is free. Also when you go into the ticket
area, of course that's free which is just adjacent -- and then we move into the paid part of the tour.
This is where you will go up the stairs. You can visit the Hall of 500 -- the Salone dei Cinquecento.
This was created with the idea of having many people involved in the Florentine government --
around the time of Savonarola, but eventually it just became a space for individuals to gather
who were kind of supporters of Cosimo I de' Medici, the first grand duke of Tuscany.
In that space, you're going to see a sculpture by Michelangelo, the Genius of Victory, which has
this combination of an older and younger figure -- younger figure kind of conquering an older figure,
which may relate to Michelangelo specifically, and it was intended to be part of the tomb of Pope
Julius II -- and so that of course [i.e. the planned larger tomb in St. Peter's Basilica] never happened and now it's in this collection. You'll also
see a sculpture of Pope Leo X. This was to remind individuals who visited that the Medici had
entered the highest levels of the church. There were other medici popes including Clement VII.
There's also just a general celebration of Cosimo I. If you look up you'll see this roundel
or essentially it looks like an apotheosis of Cosimo. In this room, there were supposed to be
paintings by Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Michelangelo's never really got past the cartoon
phase and Leonardo apparently used one of his one of his experimental techniques that didn't go very
well [if he even started painting at all!] There's kind of this constant desire to look underneath the current paintings that are
by the studio of Giorgio Vasari and Vasari himself, so there's kind of this search for the missing
Leonardo. And if you do take a tour, I'm sure they will mention this. So you can kind of hunt for
it yourself if you're interested and this would be the Battle of Cascina [Michelangelo] and the Battle of Anghiari [Leonardo da Vinci].
These were battles where florentines defeated other cities like Pisa and Milan.
There are also apartments of Leo X -- some of these are city offices. I've never been able to go
into them, but I do see in some guidebooks that other individuals have. Remember that the Palazzo
Vecchio is still used for civic purposes. It is a city hall for Florence still today
and sometimes the hall of 500 -- the Salone dei Cinquecento will be closed because there'll be
civic events going on. So sometimes, if there's like an important -- last time I was there, there was
like a fashion event [Pitti Uomo] going on and so they were having a press event in the
salone, and so you couldn't go in while that press event was going on. Sometimes things will even be
happening kind of right in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. if you're interested in getting married
at the Palazzo Vecchio, they do have a room called the "Sala Rosa" and so those who really love Florence
and want to have a civic ceremony in Florence that could be something to look into. I don't know if
in the current travel conditions, that's possible, but it might be something to explore.
As you go up to the the next level, you'll enter into the apartments of Cosimo I and Eleonora
de Toledo, his wife. Cosimo and Eleonora had these multiple room apartments that you can kind of move
through. Cosimo's spaces are defined by the elements. There's a room representing
water, fire, earth, and air, and there's also a loggia that has a beautiful view of San Miniato al Monte
and a sculpture by Verrocchio who was the teacher of Leonardo da Vinci and so you can
kind of tour through those spaces. People tend to really love the loggia, especially to kind of
enjoy some fresh air as they're moving through the tour. As you enter into the rooms of Eleonora,
you'll be able to see some of her names and markers as you're moving through the space.
There's a green room that connects to the Vasari corridor -- corridor you'll see a big kind of lock on
that particular door and usually there's a guard close by. So you can check with them to just ask, "Is
this the Vasari corridor?" Just for reference, the Vasari corridor was a -- was a corridor that
led from the Palazzo Vecchio. It went through the Uffizi and over to the Pitti Palace. So actually once
they moved over to the Pitti Palace, it was really from that direction that they would travel in
the morning and then move the other direction. This meant they didn't have to go down into the street.
So there's a room with this obvious door to the Vasari corridor. Then, you also see a beautiful
chapel painted by Bronzino for Eleonora. There are also a lot of rooms that celebrate
historic and heroic women so the Sabines, Esther; there's also a Penelope room; Penelope was known
for being a very -- very loyal, very faithful wife to Odysseus. There's also another chapel that you
move through -- this one is not specifically for Eleonora. You'll see a mask of Dante, so
people tend to really love seeing that Dante mask. I remember my students loved taking pictures of it.
There's an audience room where Cosimo I could have audiences; that's smaller of course than
the Salone dei Cinquecento. And then they tend to have historic exhibitions. They'll tend to have
documents on display or drawings, and so it's always nice to see what they have on display.
There's an Old Chancellery room that has a bust of Machiavelli the author of "The Prince,"
who probably wrote "The Prince" commenting on some of the ruling style of the Medici.
And then there's a wonderful hall of geographical maps that was commissioned by Cosimo I
de' Medici. And this is extraordinary because it really gives you a great sense of kind of
how the world was opening up in the 16th century, and there was greater understanding of the world.
And usually there's a wonderful guard or guide in the room who you can ask where different
locations are in the room, and they'll show you where it is. So if you say, "where's California?"
or where's this specific place, they'll be able to tell you where it is, if it is included in the room.
The room was never finished according to Cosimo's design, but it does have a lot of features that you
can explore, and it was designed so there could be kind of cupboards where you could store objects.
If you want to do extra parts to the Palazzo Vecchio, a lot of people like to
add the tower of Arnolfo, so the Torre di Arnolfo, which means just the tower of Arnolfo
di Cambio, who was the designer or the architect of the Palazzo Vecchio. And so that can definitely be
something to add, if you're into climbing. So I think you climb something like 400 or 500
steps. It's not a terribly difficult climb. If it's very hot it can be a bit more challenging,
but it's a really wonderful view and a little bit less crowded sometimes than climbing to the top of
the cupola on the duomo. And so it's something that I recommend if you have a bit more energy and you
want to get some great photos, or you want to post something to social media. A tour that i really
loved was the "Secret Passages" tour. So I found a "Secret Passages" tour because I wanted to see
the Studiolo of Francesco de' Medici. He had this wonderful studiolo that i could never get into
when the museum was just open regularly. So I found the "Secret Passages" tour that was wonderful -- not
too expensive -- just a couple of extra euro added on to my regular ticket. They talk about
the history; they show you how the building was -- how they expanded the building over time.
They discus the history of the priors -- kind of the early rulers -- how the early government
system worked in Florence. And then they start showing you how the Medici used these spaces, so
they do take you into the Studiolo of Francesco de' Medici, which is kind of this early museum
space, where he would have objects in different cupboards. The whole space was kind of taken
apart and then reinstalled, so it's not perfectly accurate. We don't know if it's perfectly accurate,
but it's really fun to go in and you tend to be with a group that's excited to be there. There's
also a small little "camerino" for Cosimo I de' Medici. You also get to go into the Hall of
500 with your tour guide, and your tour guide will talk you through the space, and then also you go
to this elevated space above the hall of 500, which is also really interesting if you're --
you want to think about kind of the structure of the room. As an overview in terms of what to eat
around this space, you're kind of right in the heart of the tourist [laughing] -- like the tourist area of
Florence -- but there's a couple of areas around the Piazza della Repubblica that i can recommend --
that I enjoyed -- that seem to be okay. So if you're looking for an aperitivo, I highly recommend going
to the roof of the Rinascente department store. So you just go in, take the elevator to the top,
and then come out of the elevator and take a little stairway up to the roof. And it tends
to be busy, but not kind of overly crowded; just wait your turn, and it's good food and a nice view.
You can also have an apertivo at the outdoor tables at the Savoy Hotel -- that's pretty expensive,
but if you want to do something really special, if you have a special occasion to celebrate,
that can be nice as well. If you want to go inside -- it's really cold or really hot --
the Red Feltrinelli bookstore. It's nice just to go and get a coffee or a pastry or a snack and
they have a big space and lots of tables to sit. In terms of sit-down restaurants on the Piazza della
Repubblica, there's Fiorino d'Oro which some people say is just kind of a tourist trap, but i thought
it was good for kids. They have high chairs and there's pizza and fruit. It's pretty basic, and
there's restrooms if you go [laughing] --- go inside and go downstairs. So I thought it kind of -- it "fit
the bill" for some basic food -- a little bit more expensive, of course, because you're in a desirable
location, but it has a view of the carousel and there's great people watching. And then kind of
the same for [Caffè] Gilli, which is more of a pastry and coffee place that's just across the Piazza
della Repubblica, so those are just some options -- not super close to the Palazzo Vecchio
-- but close enough where it's a relatively easy walk, so generally I recommend to go over to the
the Piazza dell Repubblica. There's a lot of sandwich places right behind the Palazzo
Vecchio, but I haven't necessarily become an expert in those so the ones that I
recommended earlier are the ones that I've tried and are generally pretty good. So I hope you have
a great visit to the palazzo, and please leave any comments or suggestions below. Thank you!