PALAZZO PITTI, Grand Dukes' Treasure - First Halls

All around the fresh, cozy Cortile della Fama, you can visit the apartments that the Grand Duke of Tuscany stayed in when here over the summer. Here in the most beautiful of Palazzo Pitti's frescoed rooms, you'll see the fabulous Tesoro dei Granduchi, or Grand Dukes' Treasure, which was once called the Argenti Museum: it is a truly unique collection that conveys all the Medici's passion for unusual and extravagant objects and rare and precious materials.

Twenty-six halls await you with so many surprises and thrills: from jewelry masterpieces to sculpted cherry kernels, from carved ivory to central American ornaments made with hummingbird feathers, from pearls with bizarre shapes to coral branches, and so on. You can really get lost admiring display case after display case, amazed by the family's taste and curiosity. So I'll point out the pieces that you absolutely can't miss.

Start with Lorenzo the Magnificent's Collection of Vases, which includes a collection of containers of different shapes that are from different ages and origins: there are late antique goblets, Byzantine vases, Arabian urns, Venetian containers, and Oriental amphorae. The materials are all rare and precious and are further embellished by the elegant 15th-century silver frames....