Florence by Denis: PALATINA GALLERY OF PALAZZO PITTI

Hello guys,
yesterday evening I went to visit the Palatina Gallery - situated inside the Pitti Palace.
Find here some important informations about the Gallery...

Address: Piazza Pitti, 1
   50123 - Firenze

Tickets: Full €8,50 (but mandatory special exhibitions often raise the price to € 12)
   Reduced € 4,25
   Includes entrance to Gallery of Modern Arts

Opening hours: From Tuesday to Sunday - 8.14 am to 6.50 pm
   Closed on mondays

Getting there: The Pitti Palace is located several blocks southwest of the Ponte Vecchio, in the Oltrarno neighborhood

Phopography is not permited in the Palatine Gallery.

The Palatine Gallery occupies the whole left wing of teh first floor of the Pitti Palace, which was the residence of the medici Grand Dukes. In 1828, when Tuscany goes under the rules of the Lorraine family, the most important paintings in the Palace were hung in the Gallery and opened to public. it is an impressive collection comprising works of painters like Raphael, Titian, Correggio, Rubens, Pietro da Cortona, Caravaggio, Van Dyck, Sanzio and many others.

The Gallery seems like a private picture gallerywith a sumptuous combinations of lavish interior decorations and the rich picture frames oredered by the Medici family. The Palatine Gallery layout follows no order. You can find paintings of different period or painting of different size hanged together in the same room. This is great!

The rooms occupied by the Gallery overlooking the Pitti square were frescoed by Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669) with an imposing decorative cycle wich make use of teh classical myth to allude to life and education of the one of the most important examples of the Baroque style in Florence and provide a splendid framework for the 16th to 18th century.

From the Palatine Gallery, the visit continues through the Royal Appartments, fourteen magnificent rooms, which were the home of the MEdici and Lorraine families and, from 1865, of the king of Italy during the brief period that Florence was capital city of Italy. Three historical moments and styles are seen side by side in these series of rooms, giving a sense of the growth of the palace over a long period of time.

Suggestions: Seeing all the Palatine Gallery, the Museum of Modern Arts and the Boboli Gardens is imposible, and choosing where to spend your time can be confusing. In my opinion, i reccomend sticking to the Palatine Gallery, which has the paintings collection, plus the sumptuous room of the Royal Apartments. The painting pick up where the Uffizi leaves off, at the High Renaissance. Lovers of Raphael's Madonnas and Titian's portraits will find some of the world'sbest at the Pitti Palace.

Below some of the painting and pictires and directions to Pitti Palace....