Architectural, Cultural sights in Tuscany
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Palazzo Nonfinito
Bernardo Buontalenti started work on this residence for the Strozzi family in 1593. He and others completed the Palladian-style 1st floor and courtyard but the upper floors were never completely finished, hence the building's name. Buontalenti's window designs and other details constitute a mannerist touch that takes the building beyond the classicist rigour of the Renaissance. The obscure Museo dell'Antropologia e Etnologia is housed here.
It contains all sorts of oddments, ranging from ancient crania to arms, boats and other objects from various indigenous peoples around the world. The fusty displays are sorted roughly by regions (Africa, America, Asia, India and Oceani…
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Casa di Puccini
Just north of the Piazza Cittadella is Casa di Puccini, the modest house where one of the 20th century's greatest composers was born in 1858. He lived there until studies at Milan's music conservatory beckoned him aged 22.
Inside, everyday objects tell the tale of the composer's life. Specs and pen lay poised on the desk next to the Steinway piano on which Puccini, the last in a line of celebrated Lucca musicians, wrote much of Turandot (1926) while staying at his seaside villa in Viareggio in 1921. The opera, unfinished when he died, was the last before throat cancer got the better of him after last-ditch surgery in Brussels failed in 1924.
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Casa Rodolfo Siviero
This shady mansion on the Arno was until 1999 the house of the family of Rodolfo Siviero, an art collector of eclectic taste and, during and after WWII, a key figure in the recovery of art stolen from Florence by the Nazis. The collection is a hodgepodge, ranging from Renaissance church furniture to Roman busts, from Etruscan objects to paintings by Giorgio de Chirico, a personal friend who on the back of one work wrote that the painting was a gift but that Siviero had to pay for the frame!
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Palazzo Cervini
The Renaissance Palazzo Cervini was built for Cardinal Marcello Cervini, the future Pope Marcellus II. The unusual U-shape at the front - most palazzi have austere, straight fronts - also incorporates a courtyard into the façade design and appears to have been another Sangallo creation. A few blocks further along on the left, is the Chiesa del Gesù, bleak brick outside and elaborately Baroque within.
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Pinacoteca
From the internal courtyard of Palazzo Comunale, climb the stairs to the Pinacoteca, which features paintings from the Sienese and Florentine schools of the 12th to 15th centuries. In the main room, the great poet Dante addressed the San Gimignano’s council, urging it to support the Guelph cause. The room contains an early 14th-century fresco of the Maestà by Lippo Memmi.
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Poggio Imperiale
From Porta Romana a straight boulevard, Viale del Poggio Imperiale, leads directly to this once-grand Medici residence, the 'Imperial Hill'. The neoclassical appearance is due to changes wrought in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is now home to a high school and girls boarding school. If you turn up alone you will probably be able to wander around this somewhat neglected site.
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Palazzo Tolomei
North of Loggia dei Mercanti on Banchi di Sopra, the 13th-century Palazzo Tolomei dominates Piazza Tolomei. Further north, Piazza Salimbeni is bounded by Palazzo Tantucci, Gothic Palazzo Salimbeni (prestigious head office of Monte dei Paschi di Siena bank), and the Renaissance Palazzo Spannocchi, from where 29 finely carved busts stare down at you from beneath the eaves.
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Arte dei Giudici e dei Notai
Dating to the 14th century, with Roman foundations, this building was once home to the judges and lawyers' guild. One of the city's premier restaurants, Alle Murate, is lodged beneath wonderfully restored frescoes. By day you can visit the place as a monument, possibly combining with a light lunch. By night you can dine beneath the ceiling frescoes in romantic style.
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Casa Galleria
An unexpected sight in moody medieval Florence is this Art Nouveau townhouse, built by Giovanni Micheluzzi in 1911 in a rare moment of original 20th-century Florentine architecture. The striking and curvaceous façade is liberally laced with glass and iron - one of the few buildings of its genre in Florence that hasn't been pulled down.
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Casa Guidi
Welcome to chez Browning. Robert and Elizabeth Barrett rented rooms in 1847 and lived and scribbled here for many years. Elizabeth died here in 1861. The house, run by Eton College and the Landmark Trust, has been restored in 19th-century style and some of the furnishings belonged to the poetic couple. If you like it enough you can stay.
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Palazzo Antinori
One of Florence's most beautiful 'small' palazzi, this golden abode was built in 1465 for Giovanni Boni, a very rich member of the Money Changing Guild, but was taken over by the Antinori wine-making dynasty in the 16th century. Over 100 palazzi were built in the 15th century, when mercantile Florence was at its peak.
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Loggia del Bigallo
This graceful 14th-century marble loggia, opposite the Battistero, was built for the Misericordia charity and served as a lost-and-found office for children; the poor mites who weren't collected within three days were sent on to foster homes. The confraternity has a small museum across the road behind the ambulances.
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Villa di Poggia a Caiano
Another Medici getaway, the sumptuously decorated Villa di Poggia a Caiano, 10km south of Prato in Poggia a Caiano, showcases a fine collection of 16th- to 18th-century still lifes in its Museo della Natura Morta inside and magnificent sprawling gardens out.
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Casa di Vasari
To the west of Chiesa di San Domenico, the Casa di Vasari was built and sumptuously decorated (overwhelmingly so in the case of the Sala del Camino, the Fireplace Room) by the architect himself; ring the bell if the door’s closed.
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Casa di Santa Caterina
Here St Catherine of Siena was born and lived with her parents plus, says the legend, 24 siblings. The rooms, converted into small chapels in the 15th century, are decorated with frescoes and paintings by many Sienese artists, including Sodoma.
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Palazzo del Podestà
In the Piazza del Duomo the Collegiata (basilica) looks across to the late-13th-century Palazzo del Podestà and its tower, the Torre della Rognosa. The Palazzo Comunale, right of the basilica, is the town hall.
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Palazzo Pretorio
One day the impressive bulk of Palazzo Pretorio, under renovation for years, will house again the city's Museo Civico. Until then, the highlights of its collection can be found in Prato's other museums.
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Torre di Pulcinella
Opposite Chiesa di Sant'Agostino, Torre di Pulcinella, a medieval tower house, is topped by the town clock and the hunched figure of Pulcinella (Punch of Punch and Judy fame), which strikes the hours.
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Palazzo di Bucelli
Several mansions line Via di Gracciano nel Corso, including the Palazzo di Bucelli at No 73, the lower courses of whose façade are recycled Etruscan and Latin inscriptions and reliefs.
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Piazza della Cisterna
The triangular Piazza della Cisterna, is named after the 13th-century cistern at its centre. The square is lined with houses and towers from the 13th and 14th centuries.
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Museo Nazionale di Villa Guinigi
The Museo Nazionale di Villa Guinigi showcases the city’s art collection and archaeological remnants from Roman Lucca.
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Oratorio di San Bernardino
Beside Chiesa di San Francesco is the Oratorio di San Bernardino with its small museum of religious artworks.
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Palazzo Avignonesi
The late-Renaissance Palazzo Avignonesi by Giacomo da Vignola is at No 91.
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Palazzo Cocconi
Antonio da Sangallo il Vecchio designed Palazzo Cocconi at No 70.
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