Strolling along via dei Servi, you might not glance twice at a walled-in window on the corner of via del Pucci. Behind it, however, lies a Renaissance tale of conspiracy and revenge. The window is part of Palazzo Pucci, former home of the Pucci family. When Pandolfo Pucci was dismissed from the court of Cosimo I de’ Medici for immoral conduct, the nobleman planned his revenge: he posted two assassins behind the window, ready to kill Cosimo as he passed along the street on his way to piazza della Santissima Annunziata for mass. The plot was foiled, however, and Pandolfo and the assassins executed. Cosimo ordered the window to be filled in as a warning never to threaten Medici supremacy, and it has remained so ever since.
