If you are new to Firenze or Renaissance history, you will get up to date rather quickly whilst you walk Florentine streets. This incredible city was the birthplace and seat of power of the Medici family, and their palaces were some of the most elegant homes in all the Renaissance world, inspiring architectural styles across the entire Western world for centuries. If you find yourself in Tuscany, I highly recommend you take a moment to explore a few, though the lines can be a bit extreme if you do not plan ahead. If you want to skip the lines and avoid the massive crowds in Palazzo Vecchio, I would suggest visiting Palazzo Medici Riccardi.
Around 1444, Cosimo the Eldest, patriarch of the Medici, commissioned Michelozzo to build a palace on Via Larga near the San Lorenzo church. The palace is considered by many the first Renaissance building erected in Florence. Known for its delineated, rusticated floors and the massive cornices crowning the roof line, the palace stands out for its arched windows arranged along the front and the closed loggia on the corner of the building. After the Medici moved to Palazzo Vecchio in 1540, the palace became the home for lesser family members until 1659. Ferdinando II sold the home to the Riccardi family. The Riccardi took it upon themselves to take the palace and enhance its appearance on the inside. The most important works consisted in the large hall decorated with the frescoes of Luca Giordano who gave one of the most extraordinary examples of Baroque architecture in Florence. They also added a new staircase in the entryway designed and built by the architect Foggini.
Now, Palazzo Medici Riccardi is a major museum of Florence. Since 1972, the exhibition area of Palazzo Medici Riccardi has offered visitors a chance to see not just the historical pieces of Foggini and Giordano, but holds pieces of modern and contemporary art as well. The accompanying chapel was frescoed in 1459 by Benozzo Gozzoli showing the Procession of the Magi, and, additionally, this fresco showed the train of the Concilium that was occurring in Florence in 1439.
For a house for the lesser family, this place is still rather extravagant. Waking down the halls of this majestic palace showed me the true power and wealth of both the Medici and the Riccardi families. With the elegant Baroque and Renaissance feel along with a beautiful courtyard to match, one can only dream of being a second cousin to the Medici.
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