The Pitti Palace Costume and Silver Museums

I am way behind on blog posts but plan to catch up today. So, here is the first of four or five posts.

On Tuesday, June 16 we drove into Florence for the day to visit the Pitti Palace. Our approach was from the south and totally due to my misdirection we ended up taking quite the long, scenic way. Eventually we found a parking place on the street just outside Porta Romana. This put us in easy walking distance of the Pitti Palace which is located in the Oltrarno (the south side of the Arno) a bit of a walk from the Duomo, Piazza della Signoria, and the Ponte Vecchio.

The Oltrarno, once you get away from the Ponte Vecchio, is less touristy. We passed a number of workshops and stores that obviously catered to people other than foreigners.

There are at least five museums in the Pitti Palace. We visited two of them--the costume and silver museums. Apparently the collection is quite large. What was on display featured avant garde designers or patrons of designers who were fond of eclectic clothing. The period ranged from the early 20th Century to the present.

Italian - early 20th Century Court Cape - the green panels are velvet and the rest is ornate embroidery.

These were designed by Mariano Fortuny--an Italian avant-garde designer from the first half of the 20th Century.

If I recall correctly, these are from the late 20th Century.

This is from the 1950's but looks more like the 19th Century.

Sometimes the architecture upstages the displays!

It's difficult to see but this dress has a chiffon over skirt with heavy gold embroidery.

I quite like this dress and coat combination--heavy beading and embroidery on the dress with fur trim.

This picture was on one of the walls in the costume museum. I took a picture of it because it shows Florence's Piazza della Signoria in the 19th Century. The Signoria is being used by the Queen as a reception space.

This necklace and bracelet are African and made of reeds. There were about 20 pieces displayed using this technique and the  pieces were all quite ornate yet delicate.

After we finished in the costume museum we went to the silver museum. The name is synonymous with a treasure museum. There was a special display of lapis lazuli, a gemstone much prized during the Renaissance. It's also my favorite semi-precious stone.

There were lots of containers of different sorts.

I loved this shell with a handle fashioned from gold and enamel.

Again, the room upstaged the displays!

Backgammon on one side and...

Chess or checkers on the other!

This is a lovely prie dieu with a lot of inlay work.

The center picture (St. John baptizing Christ) is micro mosaic work.

This is a table top and is the a picture of the port of Viareggio.

After finishing at the museum we walked to Piazza Santo Spirito for lunch. We sat outside but this was the view inside.

This group of American students was eating pizza on the steps of the Santo Spirito church. 

It was a great day out. One of the nicest things was this was just after the really hot weather broke and the temperature was very pleasant.

On the way back I again gave bad directions so we took another scenic (and roundabout) route back to the autostrada. If it's not one adventure it's another!