Palazzo Blu

This guide to Palazzo Blu in Pisa opens with the one man the city ever called doge, a wool merchant named Giovanni dell'Agnello who talked his way to power in 1364 with backing from mercenary captains and a rival Milanese lord. You'll hear how he declared himself governor of Lucca as well, rewrote the succession so the title would pass to his children forever, and how Pisans came to despise him for the taxes it took to hold onto it all. The guide follows him to a piazza in Lucca on the fifth of September, 1368, where he climbed onto a wooden platform to address a crowd. Stand facing the indigo facade and picture the palace he once called home.