Lamp post reflected in a window
Piazza de' Pitti
Florence, January 2018
“The square was conceived in 1440, when the bankier Luca Pitti decided to build a very big palace in order to show to the whole city how rich and powerful his family was. The ambitious project included a square in front of the palace: for its building Luca Pitti bought and demolished all the houses flanking a part of the street Borgo di Piazza (today: Via Guicciardini). This open place was soon called «Via del Palagio dei Pitti» (Street of the Pitti's palace), but the building of the palace and of the whole square remained uncompleted due to its frightening cost - even for the so rich Luca Pitti such an adventure proved soon to be too expensive. In 1549 Elonora di Toledo, wife of Cosimo I de' Medici, bought the palace, which was then enlarged and widened in several times; in 18th Century a part of the square was filled by the two side-wings of the palace, built after a design of Giuseppe Ruggeri and Pasquale Poccianti, and a portion of the ancient Palazzo Guicciardini was demolished, in order to give to the square a more regular shape.” (Pitti Square, Firenze-Oltrarno.net)
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