Florence’s Pitti palace with its imposing rusticated facade and courtyard built by the same architect who designed Lucca’s granducal palace in piazza Napoleone, Ammanati, is famous for its wonderful collection of art work in the Galleria Palatina which include several Raphaels, Titians, a lovely example of a rare Rubens landscape and so much else; that is, if one can get used to the once prevalent fashion of hanging paintings in top of each other rather than spacing them out side by side.

(It doesn’t just require architects to build palaces. At least that poor donkey has been remembered for his part in the project).

The Pitti is also famous for its other museums, the Medici collection of silverware and amber vases among them and the Royal apartments. What is not so well visited is the palace’s modern art gallery. Actually it is not so much modern as largely nineteenth century painting with some fine examples of Italian impressionists like Giovanni Fattori.

One can have almost too much of Madonne with bambino and horrific martyrdoms. So the Galleria Di Arte Moderna can make a pleasing contrast. I especially loved the landscapes and rural scenes describing a way of life which has vanished from so much of Italy since the last war (apart, of course, from such villages where I live).

I was amazed to find an excellent rendition of our Monte Forato, the natural arch of which I have crossed…but only once!

Lake Massaciuccoli was also atmospherically painted.

There was so much else to fascinate.

I loved this girl in bed painted by one of Italy’s most characterful impressionists: Zandomeneghi.

The aristocratic feminine portraits showed the elegance of La Belle Epoque to perfection.

I realise that energy has to be preserved not only for the main Pitti gallery but for the lovely Boboli gardens which surround it but my excursion into post eighteenth century Italian art was supremely worth it.