On the inside of the Medici villa there is the Bianca Cappello's apartment, very cultured and refined Venetian noblewoman, Grand Duke Francesco I's lover and then wife. Their love was a scandal during Renaissance and the Medici family opposed it, since Francesco I was already married to Joan of Austria, and Bianca Cappello had an husband too. The two lovers spent some of the most important moments of their relationship in Poggio a Caiano. Initially Bianca was kept away from the Medici court, staying near the Medici Villa, at Villa Il Cerretino; this 'forced' removal gave rise to some popular fantasies, such as the existence of an underground passage between the two villas that would have allowed the two lovers to secretly meet. After the Bianca Cappello's husband and the Francesco I's wife, Joan of Austria, died, they were finally able to marry in 1579, and they spent the best and the worst moments of their lives in the Villa of Poggio a Caiano, where you can still visit the Bianca Cappello's apartment. In this Villa they both fatally died in October 1587, one day away from the other: a 2004-2006 study, following the analysis of the two spouses' remains inside the Church of Santa Maria in Bonistallo, talks about arsenic intoxication. The most accredited version attributes the death of the two spouses to 'tertian fever', or malaria.
where
43.816580°, 11.055352°
Directions
when
Closed every Monday
Visite accompagnate della durata di un'ora circa con ingresso ogni ora dalle 8.30 alle 15.30.
Non si effettua la visita delle ore 13.30.
Gli Appartamenti e il Museo sono visitabili separatamente.
Nel caso di visite consecutive si dovranno prenotare prima gli Appartamenti e a seguire il Museo.
Parco: 8.15 - 17.00 (ultimo ingresso ore 16.30)
Ingresso al parco senza prenotazione.
costs
Ingresso gratuito con prenotazione obbligatoria da effettuare entro il giorno precedente; massimo 10 persone a visita.
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