I am a history buff and I love places that show how people use to live hundreds of years ago and this is it for Northern Italy. I send everyone here and all come away amazed. Built in the mid 1300's and surviving bombs in WWII this shows you how a wealthy family lived and what they accumulated over the generations. This is set up as a museum but it is and was a family home for almost 700 years it is astonishing. Most people never heard of this place and so coming here you will have whole sections with few people to obstruct your views but this is one place not to miss. There are plenty of places in Florence you have to see but this is one not on any list that is worth the time and effort it takes to get here. Truly unique and if you want to see how rich people lived all those years ago this it.
But defiantly worth going in only about 45 min was a home to an art collector early on. Architecture very interesting
We go reservations for a specific time to allow us to visit all the floors of this old palazzo. We were in a group with a guide doing Italian and French but not English. You do not need a guide really. This building that is older than most allows you to get a glimpse of life in the 12-1300s. You can see the kitchen on the top floor and all the utensils needed. The living rooms, dining room, bed rooms are all also interesting but rather simple. It even had toilets in all the bedrooms, an innovation at the time. On the first floor is an amazing burial memorial in the shape of a small marble church. the video in the adjacent room explains how it came about and the details of its construction. All in a nice place I had not seen before.
Visit the Museo Della Casa Fiorentina Antica housed in the Palazzo. This is a great example of the splendor in which the very rich lived. The structure has had multiple changes and restorations, but remains much the way it would have originally been and dates back to the 14th century.
Whilst walking around the centre of Florence we came across this beautifully restored renaissance palace, worth a visit. There are a number of beautiful rooms with antique furnishings, all with clear descriptions (also in English), and not at all busy. It is a shame that it is let down by the lack of information supplied when buying a ticket: the kitchens (and the rest of floor 3 and 4) can only be visited as part of a group (which I assume you can form with other hapless visitors) at 10, 11 and 12am. We arrived at the stairs leading to the 3rd floor at 12.10 and were curtly dismissed by the lady manning the rope blocking the access to the staircase. We could have come back (for free) the next day, but alas, the day we visited was our last day in Florence.
