Before becoming Grand Duchess of Tuscany, companion to Grand Duke Francesco I, Bianca Cappello lived in a palace located in Via Maggio, not far from the Grand Ducal Palace in Piazza Pitti.
The palace, with its façade decorated with magnificent grisaille graffiti by Bernardino Poccetti, was enlarged and modernised based on a design by Bernardo Buontalenti on behalf of Francesco himself, who had commissioned the work for his favourite.
Bianca Cappello was originally from Venice and was married to Pietro Bonaventuri, a Florentine man of limited financial means. Very beautiful and very ambitious, Bianca charmed Francis I and became his mistress. In 1578, Grand Duchess Joanna of Austria died in an accident, and shortly afterwards Francis secretly married Bianca, only making their union public on 10 June 1579. Francis's brother, Ferdinand, always opposed this union.
