Giorgio Vasari was an amazingly talented man - an artist, architect and author. His book about the lives of the artists made certain that Tuscany, and Florence in particular, would be given the credit for establishing the Renaissance, in fact he coined the term. It helped that he worked for one of the richest and most powerful families of Europe - the de'Medicis. This family of bankers ruled Florence for a number of centuries. The Uffizi building complex was originally their administrative offices. Wouldn't it be great to have your own private walkway from your home to your place of work? Well Cosoimo de'Medici thought so, and that is why he commissioned Vasari to design the 1 km corridor from the Pitti palace to the Uffizi. Here is the part of it that is above the Ponte Vecchio.
Having seen where the de'Medicis worked, we wanted to see where they lived. The Pitti Palace is a huge imposing ugly building absolutely packed with amazing and priceless works of art. The actual rooms of the palace are incredible, although the names of the Royal Apartment rooms don't quite live up to what you see. Here is the Red Room:
Talking about being overwhelmed, we also visited the Boboli Gardens on the same day as the Pitti Palace. Dan Brown describes the Boboli Gardens in some detail, and he is quite rude about this chap: