The Palazzo Pitti sits in Oltrarno, on the "other side" of the Arno from the main tourist circuit, and was the Medici family's principal residence from the 1550s onward. It's actually several museums under one roof — the Palatine Gallery's paintings (Raphael, Titian), the Royal Apartments, a costume gallery, and a modern art collection — plus, attached behind it, the Boboli Gardens.
The Palatine Gallery
The main draw for most visitors: rooms hung salon-style, floor to ceiling, in their original opulent arrangement rather than the clean white-wall museum style of the Uffizi — a genuinely different way of encountering Renaissance and Baroque painting, including a substantial run of Raphael portraits.
Boboli Gardens
One of Italy's earliest and most influential formal gardens, laid out behind the palace across a hillside — think sculpted hedges, fountains, grottoes, and genuinely good views back over the city. It's large enough (45,000 m²) to spend a full unhurried hour or two, and is one of the few places in central Florence where you can properly stretch your legs and get some quiet.
Is it worth adding to a short trip?
If you only have one or two days, the Uffizi and Accademia understandably come first. But for a third day, or for anyone travelling with children who need a break from museum interiors, the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens combination is an excellent, less-crowded alternative that pairs naturally with a wander through Oltrarno itself.