Italy has this ability to keep delivering knockout punches in the cultural/artistic ring. We’d been rendered speechless by Siena’s Duomo and Florence’s Uffizi and Il Duomo (the king of Duomos) and there was still so much to see and no time left. I decided that we should take a good look at the Palazzo Pitti aka the Pitti Palace on our last full day because the admission ticket included everything the vast building had to offer as well as entrance to the huge Boboli Gardens; but we really had no idea what to expect exactly when we walked through the gates because neither of us had done much research on the place. We’d seen it from the outside the afternoon before and it impressed us with its sheer size but it was only after we’d been inside for about half an hour that we realized that it’s the most extraordinary experience. One thing that makes it so special is that tour groups are banned, or, at least, tour group leaders are not allowed to lead tours through the palace and stop at set points and give talks; they’re also not allowed to have everyone in their tour (for the groups still come in, though not in the throngs that ruin many other places of interest, mainly because of the restrictions I’m listing here) rigged up with headphones so that the tour leader can give them a less noisy audio experience to go with the phenomenal visual extravaganzas. Another great aspect is that photography is not allowed inside the palace. These factors make visiting the galleries in the palace a much more serene experience and makes one realise that half the problem, or maybe the main problem, with tourism in a lot of places, is tour groups. So, we exhort all other tourists - be a tourist, because that’s what we all are, let’s face it, but try not to go with a tour group.
Fountain in the Palazzo courtyard
Another fountain in the courtyard
I had a little notebook in my pocket and made many jottings as we moved through the Palatine Gallery and there are exclamation marks all over the pages, plus many “wow”s as well as the names of artists and paintings and feeble attempts to briefly describe the indescribably ornate and lavish rooms, which just keep coming.
It’s a Baroque wonderland and I had no idea there was going to be so much stupendous art on the walls: there are Raphaels all over the place plus scores of other masters like Caravaggio, Tintoretto, Titian, Velazquez, Giorgione, Bronzino, Rubens, Veronese and hundreds of others. The rooms are almost beyond belief with huge frescoes on every ceiling, fringed by gold and marble statues, elaborate wallpapers of a different colour scheme for each room. It just goes on and on; it’s a breathtaking experience! Once again, words cannot express how wonderful this whole building is! And it wasn’t crowded at all. If you go to Florence, you’ve got to come to this place and concentrate most of your time on the Palatine Gallery.
One of the many Raphaels
And then there are the gardens. The combination of the Baroque opulence of the Palazzo, especially the Palatine gallery and the beauty and expansiveness of the Boboli Gardens reminds one of Versailles, but without the swarming mass of people and tour groups. Versailles is more extravagant, both inside and outside, but it’s almost too much in its Rococo over-the-top-ness; the Palazzo Pitti and gardens are more intimate, though they’re still amazingly excessive in their riches.
View of the Florentine hills from the gardens
Another beautiful view from the edge of the gardens
Net loving the gardens
We were lucky enough to be let inside a strange grotto in the gardens. It’s one of the weirdest things we’ve ever seen, all dripping pumice stalactites and bizarre figures emerging out of the rock, and a fountain with classical figures. It’s an almost hallucinatory experience being in there.
Top of the entrance of the Grotto
Grotto's ceiling
We spent almost a whole day in the place and gardens and slowly wandered back to our hotel through the mass of people swarming all over the Ponte Vecchio.
The next day was dominated by the train trip to Rome and the usual problems of dragging suitcases on and off trains and along cobble-stoned streets trying to find our hotel with little help from the curt locals. Italy isn’t nearly as friendly as France, the people seem much less inclined to give you any of their time unless you’re a customer and even then they tend to be at best unenthusiastic.
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