PALAZZO VECCHIO, First Floor

In addition to being a great historical and artistic monument, Palazzo Vecchio is still home to Florence's Town Hall and numerous public offices. For this reason it has entrances on all its sides, even if you enter from the main façade between the replicas of the statues of Michelangelo's David and Donatello's Judith.

The square courtyard will surprise you for its stark difference with the sobriety of the façade. In the second half of the 16th century, when the Grand Duke Francesco de' Medici married Anna d'Austria, the courtyard was renovated by the great architect and painter Giorgio Vasari, whom you may have heard of because he wrote the biographies of so many great Italian artists. On that occasion Vasari lined the courtyard's columns and walls with graffiti, frescoes, reliefs, and gilding, transforming it almost into a theatrical stage.

On the left, a single entrance gives you access to the Camera dell'Arme, or Weapons Room, an old civic arsenal where weapons were kept that could be distributed to citizens if necessary. It is the only hall of the palace that has preserved its Gothic appearance of the early 1300s. From there you'll reach the Cortile della Dogana, or Customs, designed by Vasari, with a staircase that leads you to the monumental apartments....