The Pitti Palace (Italian: Palazzo Pitti) is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence. It is situated on the south side of the Arno River, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio.
Wanted by Luca Pitti, an ambitious Florentine banker, to challenge the hated Medici family, Palazzo Pitti was, at the time of construction around 1440, the largest and most impressive private residence in the city of Florence.
Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) connects the city centre to the district of Oltrarno on the south bank of the river Arno. It is the first bridge ever built in Florence, surely one of the great icons of the city and one of the most famous bridges in the world.
It is best known today for the wooden-shuttered goldsmiths’ shops that line both sides of it, and for the Vasari Corridor that runs over it.
Historical sources indicate that Ponte Vecchio has been in place since at least the twelfth century, and we know that for a long time the Arno River was crossable only at this point.
The old bridge crosses the river at its narrowest point within the city, and a series of bridges—of which this the fifth version—have stood on or around this spot since the days of the ancient Romans.
The Medici Chapels consist of two structures that form part of the monumental complex of San Lorenzo, in Florence, and they house monuments that belonged to members of the Medici family.
The Church of San Lorenzo was the official church of the Medici when they lived as private residents in their palace in via Larga (now via Cavour), and later became their mausoleum until the extinction of their line.
For several generations, the Medici family, of which author Dan Brown mentions in his book Inferno, had an outstanding reputation for promoting the arts, culture, spiritual ideas, as well as the scientific advancements of their time in the city of Florence and throughout Tuscany.
In the Prologue of Inferno Dan Brown writes:
I pass behind the palazzo with its crenellated tower and one-handed clock… snaking through the early-morning vendors in Piazza di San Firenze with their hoarse voices smelling of lampredotto and roasted olives.
The Badìa Fiorentina is an abbey and church that is now home to the Monastic Communities of Jerusalem. It is situated on the Via del Proconsolo in the centre of Florence. It is also in front of the ancient prison of the Bargello, next to the street that houses the now-called Casa di Dante, which was rebuilt in 1910 as a museum to Dante.
Badia in ancient Italian meant abbey, and Fiorentina just means Florentine.
The Gucci Museum in Florence (now Gucci Garden) was inaugurated in 2011 on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the eponymous fashion house.
It tells the story of the Italian fashion and leather goods manufacturer, from its early start in the city of Florence to the global biggest-selling Italian brand that it is today.
The museum is located in the historic Palazzo della Mercanzia (Palace of the Merchandise) in Piazza della Signoria.
The Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana) is a historic library in Florence, built to the right of San Lorenzo Square, into a cloister of the Basilica of San Lorenzo.
If you and Robert have not visited there, you should.
(Dan Brown, Inferno)
The Florence Baptistery, also known as the Baptistery of Saint John, the patron saint of Florence, is a religious building that stands in Piazza del Duomo, across from the Florence Cathedral and the Campanile di Giotto. Its origins are in part mysterious. History It was long believed that the Baptistry was originally a Roman temple…
The Bargello, formerly used as a barracks and a prison, now serves as an art museum in Florence, Italy.
It is mentioned many times in Dan Brown’s novel Inferno and is also known as the Museo Nazionale del Bargello or the Palazzo del Popolo (Palace of the People).
The Boboli Gardens are one of the most important Italian gardens and a fantastic open-air museum that embraces another site of culture in Florence, the Pitti Palace.
More than a garden, more than just a “green lung” in Florence, this gorgeous park in the heart of Florence takes your breath away and brings to mind the splendor of the life of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany.
The Loggia dei Lanzi is a beautiful arched gallery that was built in the 14th century at the Piazza della Signoria right in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.
The first time Robert Langdon, the main character in Dan Brown’s Inferno, gazed at the Apennines was from a train going from Florence to Venice. Langdon saw the vineyards and farms gradually become less frequent and the landscape of plains be replaced by the Apennines.
