Teatro Niccolini, originally the Teatro del Cocomero, is the oldest theatre with boxes in Florence, and one of the first 'modern' theatres in Europe. Its beginnings date back to the mid-seventeenth century, when a group of nobles drew up a rental contract for premises located in the palace of the Ughi family in Via del Cocomero, in which they constructed the theatre. The author traces the history of the theatre from its origins up to the present, paying particular attention to structural and architectural details. She describes the rebuilding carried out in the eighteenth century to a design by the architect Giulio Mannaioni and the various alterations made in the nineteenth. The story continues up to the 1980s, when famous actors including Vittorio Gassman, Carmelo Bene and Paolo Poli performed in the theatre, and is rounded off by the account of the major renovation completed in 2016 that brought the Teatro Niccolini vibrantly back to life.