Heather Smith, age 15, of Kalispell, Mont., for her question:

WHERE IS THE PITTI PALACE?

The largest palace in Florence, Italy, is the Pitti Palace. It was once the home of Italian kings. Now the beautiful building houses one of the finest collections of paintings in the world.

The art collection in the Pitti Palace includes work by such famous artists as Rembrandt, Raphael, Titian, Andrea del Sarto, Durer and Rubens.

Work on the palace was started in 1458 for Louis Pitti. Fillippo Brunelleschi probably designed the center section.

Cosimo de' Medici, who was Cosimo I and the Duke of Tuscany, bought the palace in 1549 when only the first floor had been built. His architect, Bartolommeo Ammannati, carried the work to its first complete stage between 1559 and 1570. Other additions to the Pitti Palace were made later.

One of the striking features of the palace is its impressive and enormous front and its powerful masonry of great stones. The Boboli Gardens, behind the palace, are considered to be among the most beautiful gardens in the world.