Vasari Corridor is the Most Exclusive Tour in Florence

The Vasari Corridor is one of the most exclusive tours that you can choose in Florence. This elevated walkway seen up the historic Ponte Vecchio, starts from Palazzo Vecchio, then passes also through the Uffizi museum and reaches the majestic Pitti Palace.

During this unique tour crossing, Vasari Corridor, visitors can admire more than 1000 paintings from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, also a very important collection of self-portraits of some of the greatest artists: Filippo Lippi, Rembrandt, Velazquez and many other famous painters.

Seeing the property located above the ground of the city gives strong emotions that go beyond the beauty of the paintings that are kept there.

Through the small windows, which follow one another along the way, you can see glimpses and corners of the Old Bridge area, this part of Florence is one of the most characteristic and historic of the city.

In the past, the most powerful and important people in Europe frequented this place. They came to visit Florence as guests of the important Medici family who ruled the city for centuries.

Cosimo I de Medici created The Vasari Corridor. He wanted to ensure a safe passage between Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of government and Palazzo Pitti, home and the residence of this important family in Florence.

This area of Florence became the most important and prestigious of the city because of the constant presence of the most important Florentines, rulers of these times. Once the Vasari Corridor built, the authorities decided to move the old slaughterhouses from the Ponte Vecchio away. More appropriate and prestigious commercial activities where transferred here, so it was then, when the Ponte Vecchio became the historic seat of the Florentine goldsmith workshops and beautiful jewelry shops.

The Vasari Corridor also offers the possibility of a much broader panoramic view of Florence. Besides small windows following one another along the passage, above the central loggia of the Ponte Vecchio on the side, facing the direction where the Arno river flows, the Vasari corridor also has three large windows. These provide a unique view of the central area of the city that extends on both sides of the river.

Those three large windows are not part of the original structure of the Vasari corridor, built with the sole intention of providing a secure transition to the rulers of the time. According to historical research, this change made in 1860 during the visit of the King of Italy in Florence in the period when Florence was temporarily the capital of Italy.