Uffizi Gallery
Built by Cosimo, the Medici patriarch, as his government's offices. Completed in 1581, it comprises three floors in a long U shape. When Cosimo married, his wife demanded a villa with gardens etc. so they bought the Pitti Palace across the Arno River. For convenience and security, Medici had a private, enclosed walkway built to his home via the Ponte Vecchio (the Vasari Corridor). His wife didn't like the market smells from the produce vendors on the bridge, so only jewellery was allowed to be sold. And so it remains to this day.
Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the city-states of the peninsula, along with Sardinia and Sicily, were united under King Victor EMMANUEL II. An era of parliamentary government came to a close in the early 1920s when Benito MUSSOLINI establis... ... read more 
