The 250-metre-long underground passageway is made up of two parallel tunnels that are three metres wide and run at a depth of five metres beneath the Arno. 7.5 million euro has been set aside by the Tuscan regional government to restore one of the pedestrian subways by 2026. Originally used by soldiers to move between the sides of the river, the walkway was expanded in the 19th century, when Florence was the capital of Italy, to include water tubes for the city aqueduct. Over the years, the tunnel has sprung leaks and a floating robot is set to gauge the damage to the waterproofing.
“We need to understand the state of repair of the tunnel from the inside,”
explains Eugenio Giani, president of the Tuscany Region.
