Unbelievable Riches

Today for history class we toured the Medici Palace (Palazzo Vecchio), where the famous Medici family lived during their reign in Florence. The Medicis were extremely wealthy, probably more wealthy than anyone ever has ever been in America. They made their fortune by trading wool and being the first pharmacists. At one point the family employed 700 servants! By the sheer power of their money they were able to secure leadership in Florence, and during their reign they funded much of the famous art that still exists in the city today. The palace really was a sight to see. Every room's walls and ceilings were completely covered with paintings, ornate carving, and gold. It is honestly unlike anything I've ever seen before in my life. The architecture itself is also amazing, as there are many arches and high ceilings. There is one room about the size of a soccer field that has an extremely high ceiling that is flat and entirely covered in framed paintings. Thanks to our teacher, Luciana, we were able to go on a tour of the "secret rooms" of the palace. We had an Italian tour guide, so it was a bit difficult to understand some things, but it was a really interesting tour. During this tour we were able to go up above the ceiling of the room I was just describing, and we found out that it is a self supported ceiling (no columns), and the paintings are all hung on beams. It is sort of hard to describe, but it was really pretty neat to see. The paintings that form the ceiling can be raised and lowered for cleaning purposes. The most interesting part of the secret room tour was when we were able to see a couple rooms that could only be reached by narrow secret passageways in between the walls. One such room was made to be like the interior of a jewelry box--the ceiling was arched, and it was the shape of a narrow rectangle. The walls were completely covered with paintings, and the ceiling was too. Some of the wall paintings opened up into secret storage areas where "treasure" was kept. Other paintings opened up to more secret passageways. There was one painting that looked like it had a completely black background, but then when a light was shined on it things appeared in the background. This painting opened up to a passageway that led to a tiny little library, only you could not tell that it was a library when you first walked in because all the books were hid behind pictures that opened up into bookshelves. It is just unbelievable that one family could be so rich that they could afford all of this. I don't even know what I would do if I had a house as big as theirs, but I guess that would probably be the least of my worries.