Palazzo Medici Riccardi

This is where the Medici dynasty actually lived during their rise to power. Cosimo de' Medici commissioned Michelozzo to build it in 1444, and it set the template for Renaissance palace architecture — the graduated rustication on the facade (rough stone at the bottom, smooth at the top) was widely copied across Italy. Lorenzo the Magnificent grew up here, and the building was the political nerve centre of Florence for decades before the family moved to Palazzo Vecchio and later Palazzo Pitti. The absolute highlight is the Chapel of the Magi, a tiny private chapel on the first floor where Benozzo Gozzoli painted an extraordinary cycle of frescoes in the late 1450s depicting the Procession of the Magi. The colours are impossibly vivid, the detail is extraordinary (the Medici family members appear as characters in the procession), and the intimacy of the space makes it feel like stepping inside an illuminated manuscript. Access is limited to 10 people every 5 minutes, so it never feels crowded. The palace also houses the Galleria degli Specchi (Mirror Gallery), a Baroque showpiece with ceiling frescoes by Luca Giordano, an archaeological itinerary, and rotating temporary exhibitions. Compared to the Uffizi or Pitti, this is a much smaller and more focused visit — you can see it well in an hour or so. But the Gozzoli chapel alone is worth the trip, and the palace gives you a tangible sense of domestic Medici life that the grander museums can't quite match.