Palazzo Auditore
The Palazzo Auditore was a prominent family home in central Florence during time of the Italian Renaissance; the home to the Auditore family of noble bankers and Assassins. The building served as the centre of the local market, with the family emblem emblazoned across it, and the adjacent streets.[1]
In 1476, the building was raided by Florentine city guards, who arrested Giovanni, Federico and Petruccio Auditore on trumped-up charges of treason. When Ezio Auditore returned home, he found the house ransacked and his mother and sister hiding away. After this event, the remaining Auditore left the Palazzo, moving into the Villa Auditore in Monteriggioni. During this time, the Palazzo was guarded by a contingent of city archers positioned on the roof.[1]
Ezio can return to the Palazzo at almost any time during Assassin's Creed 2, but cannot go inside. City archers still patrol its rooftops even years after Ezio and his family escaped.
Years later, during the Bonfire of the Vanities in 1498, Ezio returned to the Palazzo once again, and was greeted with a ghostly vision of his family before their execution.[2]
At some point between 1498 and 1500 the Palazzo was destroyed, although only rumors of this had reached the Auditore family in Monteriggioni. Upon his arrival in Rome, the Palazzo's destruction was confirmed to Ezio by Niccolò Machiavelli.[3]
Trivia
- Throughout the novelization of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the Palazzo is often refereed to as the "Villa Auditore", whilst the Villa itself is referred to as Mario's Citadel.[3]