The district called ‘Oltrarno’ in Florence means ‘across the Arno’, and living on the south bank of the river was once considered inferior. Here lived people who did not have sufficient wealth to build a palace within the centre of Florence. That stigma did not change until the house-hold of the Medici Grand Dukes moved to Oltrarno in 1550. The Palazzo Pitti became the base from which Tuscany was ruled for the next 300 years. Eleonora di Toledo, the Spanish wife of Cosimo I, purchased the Palazzo Pitti in 1549. Suffering from a wasting disease, perhaps malaria or tuberculosis, Eleonora persuaded Cosimo that her health might well improve if they lived in the relatively rural setting of Oltrarno.