The Pitti Palace, just a block from our apartment in the Oltrarno district, was the order of business today. Since the sun was out, we went to the Boboli Gardens first, where we enjoyed some great views of the city and heard the bells ringing all over town at noon! This huge estate was started by the Pitti family, a rival of the Medici, but they ran out of money, so the Medicis bought it and finished it -more space to display their massive art collection. So thank goodness for our Rick Steve's guide, again getting through a massive museum and focusing on a few outstanding paintings you will never forget. Here we studied the Raphael's and Titian's and tried to imagine living in this massive, ornately decorated palace, with a huge manicured park for a backyard. My favorites were Raphel's Madonna with Child and St. John the Baptist, because Mary is really hugging Jesus, and Titian's Portrait of Pietro Aretino, the outrageous bad boy of Florence and Venice because it exudes his personality. As we left, beautiful light bathed the Duomo. We had to stop for a laugh at the Bacchus fountain, Cosimo I's fat dwarf jester atop a turtle!
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