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This has to be the highlight of our stay in Florence. Bev and I found the entrance to Palazzo Corsini on via Parione. The large wooden doors lead into a courtyard where Contessa Lucrezia parked her tiny little white car.
She was very welcoming to us and the four other people who joined us, a couple from Belgium and a mother and daughter from France. Ian couldn’t join us as his class had a tour of the city by an art historian. Contessa Lucrezia knew I had been a guide when the collection was in Auckland so we had an interesting point of contact. She knew exactly what had gone and where it was formerly situated in the Palazzo. The collection is still touring, currently in the Gallery of Western Australia.
The building has three parts joined together all acquired at different times. The Baroque part used to be owned by the Medicis until Filippo (lover of horses) Corsini bought it from Piero Medici when he got into debt. A reference to them is still part of the relief sculptures. The Contessa said that Florentines didn’t like the baroque decorations as they were too modern with frescoed ceilings and
ornate moldings. She said that these rooms were more suited for receiving, i.e. entertaining or receiving guests rather than living in. All rooms lead back to the large presentation room which I’m sure you will be impressed with. We were. Thirteen huge door hangings like the one that came to Auckland, each with family crest on.
We started the tour downstairs where you could still see the line where the great flood of 1966 inundated the palazzo. The grotto was rather extravagant. Apparently all different types of seashells and corals were collected to include in it. It has been restored and is quite impressive.
A statue of the Pope Clement XII, a Corsini had been brought back from Rome. She said they had great difficulty deciding where to put it and finally fixed on the landing of the grand staircase. It does look good there. She said the head is interchangeable. They have the bodies/busts of Popes all ready and just put the head of the current Pope on it.
Looking at the building from the river the left hand part is much earlier, more Medieval with carved wooden ceilings. Her grandmother used to live in there.
Marble pattern in the centre of the floor
Has a central metal disk which rises to let in air from floor below. During the 1966 flood it rose and let in more water The central part of the Palazzo is the Cardinal’s rooms. The coat of arms with a cardinal’s hat is even on the bronze fire guard. The Gallery used to be an open loggia but was glassed in.
The tour was very relaxed as she talked all about her family members going back centuries, referred to them in a number of paintings. And how they were having to find ways to earn money to conserve and restore various parts of the building. She lives about 15 minutes out of town in the hills.
We said we had been to the artisan fair at the gardens last week. That is where she was born and spent her childhood.
An incredible connection to NZ is that the 28th Maori Battalion liberated their country estate Villa Le Corti from the Nazis in 1944. Hope you enjoy the photos.
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Bronwyn
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Tripping around
Wonderful reading Jackie. So much to take in and digest. Keep going!