Palazzo Medici Riccardi Museum

Before visiting the palace, I did not realize how many residences the Medici family had in Florence. I soon learned that they had quite a few palaces and they are spread throughout the city. From the outside, the palace looked similar to every other building in Florence with its brown stone and no elaborate decorations. However, that view completely changes upon entering. The ground floor had decorations of gold and wonderful artwork adorning the ceiling. The colors in the art seemed faded but they were soft paintings of angels. In the vast courtyard there were many stone statues around the edges and a large stone fountain. My favorite part of the palace however, was the Chapel of the Magi which was located on the first floor. I enjoyed the frescos on the walls which depicted different stories. To me, they were the most interesting part of the chapel because they seemed to be the most elaborate pieces. This surprised me because usually the altar is what stands out to me the most, but here is was the walls. The altar, although not huge in size, featured a painting of what appeared to be Jesus' birth or shortly thereafter. This past week I also visited Palazzo Vecchio so it was interesting to see the similarities and differences between the two palaces. I found that they were actually very different especially in the fact that Palazzo Vecchio does not have a chapel and that was my favorite part of Palazzo Medici Riccardi.