Vasari Corridor

Why go

Follow this elevated route to understand how Medici power reshaped Florence without building a separate palace-to-palace bridge. Its bends, river windows and passage above Ponte Vecchio’s shops show Vasari threading a private ducal passage through towers, houses and churches already packed into the city.

What to look for

• Watch the corridor bend around Torre dei Mannelli, whose owners resisted its alteration.
• From the Arno windows, look toward Ponte Santa Trinita.
• Notice where the passage crosses Santa Felicita and continues through the Oltrarno.

The full story

Cosimo I de’ Medici commissioned Giorgio Vasari to build the corridor in 1565, connecting Palazzo Vecchio with the family’s residence at Palazzo Pitti. The project was completed in months for the marriage of Cosimo’s son Francesco to Johanna of Austria. Its purpose was practical and political: the ruling family could cross the city without mixing with the street below. The line joined the Uffizi, followed the Arno, crossed above Ponte Vecchio and continued through the Oltrarno. Existing Florence forced adjustments. The corridor bends around Torre dei Mannelli because the family refused to let the tower be altered, and it passes Santa Felicita with a protected opening that allowed the court to attend worship apart from the congregation. Larger river windows were inserted in 1939. Near Via dei Georgofili, the passage and its artworks were damaged by the 1993 mafia bombing. These interruptions make the corridor more revealing: it is not a clean bridge between palaces, but a route negotiated through the city’s built fabric and later history.

Useful to know

• Walk Ponte Vecchio at street level as a separate step to understand what the corridor bypasses overhead.

Your next visit

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