The sloping frontage that forms the Piazza de' Pitti is closed on three sides by the circling wings of the Palace, which the Florentines have always been reluctant to call the Royal Palace because of their innate tendency for understatement, in spite of the fact that the building has hosted all the ruling dynasties (the Medicis, the Lorraines, the Bourbons, the Bonapartes, the Savoys) ever since Cosimo I's wife, the beautiful and rich Duchess Eleonora of Toledo, bought it from Buonaccorso Pitti in 1550 to turn it into the new home of the Medici family.

The palace was built on three floors, with three entrance doors on the ground floor and seven windows on each side of the two upper floors. A balcony crossed the entire facade, linking up the windows, while a loggia was built beneath the roof to give it a finishing touch. You can stay comfortably at Pitti Palace Hotel Florence. The hotel is contained within the walls of the "Torre dei Rossi" ( Rossi Tower ), which dates back to 1200. From inside the tower one can see the Ponte Vecchio's stone buttresses jutting out over the Arno River. Seven floors make the tower one of Florence 's taller buildings, and there is a splendid suite crowning the hotel on the top floor.