Cosimo and Eleonora were beautiful, young, and, they say, very much in love. He, at seventeen, had become the Duke of Florence and had asked for the hand of Eleonora, the daughter of the Viceroy of Naples, Don Pedro di Toledo. Let’s be clear. They were not in love, huh! They didn’t like each other! They weren’t friends! They hadn’t even seen each other before. Cosimo and Eleonora met on the very day of their wedding, and, in a very strange turn of events, they looked at each other, liked each other, and fell in love.
They had eleven children! Maria, Francesco, Pietro, Giovanni, Isabella, Garzia, Ferdinando, Lucrezia, and others. They lived in Palazzo della Signora, the castle in the center of Florence, which is still the most important Public Palace in the city today, where all the offices of Florence are. At some point, however, Eleonora didn’t like the house at Palazzo della Signoria anymore. She wanted an even bigger one, but especially one with more light and a bit of green for all those children to play outdoors! Cosimo wanted to please her and told her to do exactly as she wished. So, Eleonora, from Luca Pitti, bought a large palace, still named after the Pitti family, the first owners. Along with the palace, she bought the entire hill behind, the Boboli hill, which she turned into a grand garden where her children could run and play. The palace was also transformed according to the needs of the new family that would live there: large and bright rooms, with huge windows overlooking the greenery.
And today? Today, we have preserved this Medici home exactly as it was. Entering what were once their apartments, we can see that they lived surrounded by many paintings, statues, carpets, tapestries, and very heavy curtains at the windows to protect from the cold and even from the heat. The paintings hanging on the walls are numerous, really numerous, so many that it seems at some point they didn’t even know where to put them and for this reason hung them everywhere, on the fireplace, in the corners, one behind the other…
Many of these are portraits. Portraits. Do you know what a portrait is? A portrait is like a photograph. I wonder how many photographs you have at home, on your parents’ computers, or on their phones—of your friends, grandparents… When there were no photographs or phones to take them, portraits were made with a brush or even with a chisel if the portrait was to be a marble statue. The portraits (photographs) in this extraordinary palace are of the homeowners or their friends. The little princes of the Medici studying with their mom and their teacher, the princesses dressed up for a party, the friend who had come to visit them from Denmark, or the youngest children, still newborns, wrapped in swaddling clothes, as was the custom at the time, almost as if they were mummies.
Walking through these rooms, through these corridors, and concentrating well, you can still hear the pitter-patter of little feet and the voices of children who ran through these corridors. You can also meet other characters. For example, did you know that I once met a mule? Yes, a mule! A mule that had been so good at helping the workers who had to build the Palace that they dedicated a monument to her, the famous Monument to the Mule that can still be seen in the courtyard! In short, this mule was looking for the bathroom to freshen up, and I helped her find it! Don’t believe it? I’m waiting for you at the Palace!
