I spent a glorious 5 days in Florence last week. It’s my favorite time of year to go there, and I try to spend a chunk of time every winter, rather than just make do with day trips from Rome. One of the reasons I love it is because the weather is crisp and cool, which means walking around the city made of stone is a completely different experience than during the heat of summer.
Also? No tourists.
Of course that’s an exaggeration. There are always tourists in Florence, but during January and February, they are far less of them, and mostly concentrated where you’d expect: The Uffizi, The Accademia and the San Lorenzo Market area.
So enamored am I of this empty side of Florence, that I decided last week would be dedicated to heading as far off the beaten track as possible. I was in town to update my app, Eat Florence. While in the past it’s been pretty easy to keep the app up to date, with new restaurant openings few and far between, during the past year there’s been an explosion of new places that I wanted to check out. And most of them, as it turns out, are in neighborhoods you might not normally get to. At the same time I wanted to visit places I know and love, but had somehow not made it into the app yet.
With this sense of discovery in mind, my first stop was at a secret kitchen. Actually, I’m not even making that name up, in the 17th century this historic kitchen located in the Pitti Palace was called ‘la cucina segreta.’
The kitchen I”m talking about is the Ducal Kitchen of the Pitti Palace. The kitchen was first built at the end of the 16th century, when Grand Duke Ferdinand I de’ Medici moved the Grand Ducal residence from the Palazzo Signoria to the Pitti Palace. The kitchen was known then as the Court Kitchen, since it provided food directly to the Grand Duke and his court, while other smaller kitchens fed rest of the large staff. The kitchen was amplified over the course of the following centuries during the Habsburg-Lorraine period, and two more massive ovens and hoods were added
The kitchen had actually been in use up through the National Unification of Italy, when the Palace became the Royal residence of the Savoia. Unfortunately, over the last century, the space had been abandoned, and used for storage. But its location, hidden off to the side of the Palace, helped insure that at least the architecture – including the three massive chimneys – and some of the original furniture remained in place.
After a recent complete historical restoration the kitchen is now open to the public. And it is fabulous. It is a HUGE soaring space, lit by a skylight above, and the grand scale is difficult to capture in these photographs. The cooking counters along the walls have been carefully restored, as have the two long original tables that are in the center of the room. One of them is actually a cabinet meant to keep food warm (coals were kept in metal grates inside).
The kitchen is full of original pots and pans, all of which came directly from the inventory of the palace, which is still in tact. Copper pots, pans, lids and molds are hung on original hooks still identified by the original numbers which kept them in their correct place.
I was particularly charmed by the measuring cups: tin pans which hung on the wall and were used to measure specific quantities of dry goods like sugar, flour and salt.
Domenico and I were completely blown away by this space. The space itself is gorgeous, and the restoration was meticulous. Also? We were the only people there! You have to go on a guided visit, and we were the only ones that showed up. Our guide was excellent, very informed, and completely accommodating. She let us stay as long as we wanted and ask as many questions (and take as many photos) as we desired.
Palazzo Pitti
Piazza Pitti 1, Florence
To Visit :
A guided visit to the Ducal Kitchen (Cucina Ducale) is included in the price of ticket for The Palatine Gallery (one of the greatest and least visited museums not only in Florence but in Italy). The museum is open Tues-Sun 8:15-6:50. To visit the Kitchen buy your ticket then head to the entrance to the Palatine Gallery on the 2nd floor. The guards will tell you where to wait for the guided tours (a small table near the entrance) which take place every day at 10:30, 11:30, 3:30 and 4:30.
Tickets: The ticketing at Palazzo Pitti is stupidly complicated. There are different tickets for different parts of the museum:
Galleria Palatina and Modern Art Museum (which includes the Kitchen) € 8,50
Museo degli Argenti, Museo delle Porcellane, Costume Gallery, Boboli Garden and Bardini Garden € 7,00
BUT: the best deal is if you buy the all-in-one ticket, which costs only €11,50 and is good for three days. This means you can come back and not only visit the other decorative arts departments (which you are probably interested in seeing) but also take your time and visit the gardens during your stay, which are gorgeous.
If you want to know more about Italian architecture and restoration techniques you might be interested in my two books:
Italian Rustic: How to Bring Italian Charm into Your Home
Restoring a Home in Italy: 22 Homeowners Realize Their Dream
For more information on dining in Florence and Italy download my app, EAT ITALY. EAT ITALY is a free app, and contains guides to Venice, Milan, Rome, Florence and Umbria (and an ever expanding list of regions and cities) available as in-app purchases for both iPhone and iPad.
Thanks for this post. This is something I will go see the next time I a in Florence. Can’t wait.
Can I ask an unrelated question: How did you learn photography? Just love your photography and my own efforts are so pitiful.
Thanks so much! I never really studied photography formally. But I did grow up in a family where looking at art was a big part of our daily life. I think that had a huge impact. Then, for the first part of my career, I worked closely with professional photographers to produce image driven books. I was mostly on the styling end of things, but had to learn how to frame a shot so that it looked good and communicated well on the page.
I love this post! Not only because it directly correlates with your awesomeness as a food blogger going ‘back in time’ to see kitchens of the past but also because it highlights a museum that many miss. When people ask me for advice for Florence, I always push Palazzo Pitti and the multiple museums it has to offer. It paints a real picture of centuries past in Florence and the gardens are pretty damn pretty too. Great post!
Thank you! And yes, I just can’t believe how people just don’t make it to the Pitti. It’s got SO much incredible things to see.
Elizabeth,
Thank you for sharing the kitchen in such detail. What a stunning space, a lovely example of the union of form and function. I have been to Pitti Palace but long before this space was restored. What a wonderful thing to look forward to. Love reading about your travels – you’re living the dream!
Leah
Maybe my favorite of all of your excellent posts. Florence is our favorite place in the world. We had been visiting two to three times a year from 1999 – 2008 but hadn’t been back until we spent the last two weeks of November 2015. Now we’re headed back for a quick trip in February. We realized how much we missed this place!
We will absolutely make a return visit to The Palatine Gallery at the Pitti Palace. I want to see that kitchen! Just fascinating.
Just wondering if you can recommend any of the newer places in the Oltrarno for a nice dinner? Just my wife, our 16 year old daughter and myself. When there last November we returned to many of our old favorites but we’re up for a try at a newer place or two this time as well.
I second the comments about your photography. Very, very good and it adds so much to your excellent blog.
Thanks so much for the kind words about the post and my photography. And stay tuned….I’ll be posting lots of reports in the next few weeks about my discoveries in Florence. So many new and great places in the Oltrano! Most will make it to the blog, but all will be making it to my app, Eat Italy. So make sure you download that, and then purchase Eat Florence to keep up to date. If you buy it now, the new entries will automatically update.
Thank you, Elizabeth. I already have the Eat Florence app so I will be looking for the updates!
Just make sure you have the new version, that is part of Eat Italy. The older version, which I first published several years ago, is no longer supported and will not be updated.
The wall of pans and measuring cups makes me think of Julia Child’s kitchen. Thanks for sharing the things about Florence we’d never discover. Brenda
Yes, me too. I guess she got the idea from a traditional way of organizing kitchens.
Excellent post, Elizabeth. Something hardly known, fascinating, accompanied by super photographs, brava. I shall recommend it and your books an blog when I have the chance, now that I am based in the US.
In your FAQs you mention people emailing you, but it seems there is only the public comment option. Any chance for comments to you not to the public at large? We used to say hello to each other at the AAR, but I think you do not recognize my name…
Hi Wendy, thanks so much for the kind words. And yes, you can certainly email me directly. There are links to my email all over the place on the blog (to the right in the side bar and at the very bottom of the site, as well as on the contact page). But here you go: [email protected]
Just in Firenze in November 2015 and wish I had known about this. We had skipped the Pitti because went there years before. Now I have something to add to my list for the next visit.
In fact, they have not publicized it at all. A pity. (haha pun intended!). It’s not even on their official web site.
I love the way they repeatedly re-numbered the pots as they added to or subtracted from their collections.
I think those numbers refer to the amounts used as measurements for quantities. Those round vessels, not the copper ones, were used to measure dry ingredients.
Really nice post Elizabeth! It is kind of funny how not that many people actually visit this amazing Palace! Just walking up those stairs into the Palace is fantastic, thinking about all the Medici who must have done the same! Love the shots of the kitchen…talk about appealing to a cooks heart! So thank you so much for letting us visit it with you. I think I can sort of imagine how you felt being in the kitchen because when we visited Hampton Court I just being there.
Thank you so much for giving us a tour of Pitti Palace Ducal kitchen and bringing Florence alive again to me after not visiting for several years. I did not make it to the Palace as I ran out of time. I believe it was Marie Medici that paterned the Luxembourg Palace in Paris after the Pitti Palace. Pitt Palace must be beautiful then. Florence was so easy to navigate and the food was the best… I could not figure out what the circled plates were on the wall and why they were numbered like that. Great post!
In fact, one of the reasons for building this big, modern kitchen at the end of the 16th century was to be able to prepare food for the wedding of Maria de’ Medici for her wedding to the King of France.
I can’t wait to get there! Best blog and news I have read all year.
So interesting that the kitchen has all the tile, wall color and absence of clutter that Italian design is so famous for, loved this blog!
As an art historian working on the Medici grand dukes, I loved reading this! The kitchen was not open the last time that I was at the Pitti, but I will definitely go see it in the future. Thank you for sharing!
This was a great tip and had a chance to tour the Cucina Ducale in mid-May (2016).
Tour times have changed. Tours only offered at 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. now. No afternoon tours. (Of course this may be subject to change based on demand.)
Thanks too for such an informative and helpful blog. You are one of my main go-to web sites to use when traveling in Italy. I look forward to you postings.
Thanks so much for the update! These things seem to change on complete and utter whim!