Florence Guides Guided Tours
The Corridoio Vasariano Tour
On
the occasion of the magnificent
wedding of grandduke Cosimo I's eldest son Francesco
with Johanna of
Austria in
1565,
the architect Giorgio Vasari received the extraordinary
commission to
build an aerial pathway that
would connect the Signoria
Palace to the Pitti Palace. As he would very proudly
later say of
himself,
he managed to accomplish this feat in spite of all the
difficulties: a structure suspended between the water
(the Arno
river) and the air.
The Medici family would use this private walkway to safely move from one residence to the other without been seen, with no need for an armed escort. They could even attend religious services without leaving home from their private indoor balcony, so as to say, with their slippers on, as the Corridoio runs through a famous Florentine church, the church of Santa Felìcita.
The CorridoioVasariano houses the largest collection of self-portraits in the world, ranging from the XVI century down to present time, both Italian and foreign. This collection was set up originally by the Medici family, then enhanced by their followers in power, the Hapsburg-Lorraine family, and it has been increased ever since.
Today it is possible to visit the Corridoio Vasariano again and we warmly invite not just art connoisseurs, but also those interested in making an authentic cultural and emotional experience to contact us.
