Vasari Corridor and Royal Apartments at Palazzo Pitti reopen

Returned to its original bareness, the Vasari Corridor is no longer lined with portraits, but can be experienced in line with its initial purpose: to provide undisturbed passage to Florence’s ruling Medici family. The “new” Vasari Corridor now has improved accessibility, emergency exits, low-energy lighting and video surveillance.

Designed by Giorgio Vasari to allow the Grand Dukes to move safely from their private residence in Palazzo Pitti to the seat of government in Palazzo Vecchio, this overhead walkway remains unique and was built according to the wishes of Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici in 1565 on the occasion of his son Francesco’s marriage to Joanna of Austria. Built in just five months, the corridor runs above the city streets, along and over the Arno, enters buildings, goes around the Torre de’ Mannelli and tops the Church of Santa Felicita, in a succession of unique panoramic views. Both the Uffizi and the Vasari Corridor were part of a wider project aimed at redeveloping the impoverished area between the Palazzo Vecchio and the Arno. It was inspired by the passageway between the Vatican and Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome, which saved the life of Pope Clement VII, born Giulio de’ Medici, who managed to escape from the army of Charles V during the sack of Rome in 1527, as well as the Bramante passageway, built in 1505, to connect the Vatican Apostolic Palaces with the Casino del Belvedere of Innocent VIII.

The restoration plan was presented in February 2019 after 18 months of research. Costing in the region of 10 million euro, including a one-million-dollar donation made by U.S. entrepreneur Skip Avansino in 2023, the actual work began in 2022 and ended in recent weeks.

PONTE VECCHIO TO BE RESTORED

The first restoration of this type carried out on the bridge, extensive technical works are set to bring one of the most symbolic monuments of the city back to its former splendour. A bridge that has resisted floods, fires, and war, it will now receive a complex restoration to enhance its features. While it has no stability issues, it is suffering the usual phenomena related to the weather and river. Built in the early-mid 14th century and subject to various renovations and consolidations over the centuries, the works involve the restoration of the original materials and features present, such as the elevations, arches, abutments, wing walls, flooring and parapets, in order to guarantee their conservation over time.

Necessary works to improve the management of rainwater will also be carried out, while surfaces will be cleared of algae, moss, lichen and weeds. The pietra serena copings on the parapets will be restored, as will the stone flooring, and deteriorated, disintegrated or missing joints will be repaired.

Work on the flooring was carried out in October/November 2024, with the intervention relating to the piers and abutments of the bridge scheduled for summer 2025, and the elevations for summer 2026. The total cost is set to be 2 million euro, with support from the Antinori family.

THE ROYAL APARTMENTS REOPEN AT PALAZZO PITTI

The 14 palatial rooms were once home to the Medici, Lorraine and Savoy ruling families. On January 21, the Royal Apartments at Palazzo Pitti reopened following a five-year closure. The 14 palatial rooms on the first floor of the palace in the heart of the Oltrarno were home to the Medici, Lorraine and Savoy ruling families for three generations. One of the first residents of this wing was Grand Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici, son of Grand Duke Cosimo III, in the second half of the 17th century, while the last resident, Vittorio Emanuele III of Savoy, left it to the State, along with the adjacent Boboli Gardens, in 1919.

Inaccessible since 2020 and after nine months of restoration, the Royal Apartments have undergone a complex conservation process by a multidisciplinary team of specialists. Meticulous attention has been paid to every detail, from the ceilings to the floors, where carpets were removed to reveal a perfectly preserved parquet. In addition, the frescoes, stuccoes, carvings, silk wallpapers, draperies, paintings, furniture and ornaments were restored in depth. The decorative style of the apartments is “mixed”, reflecting the tastes and periods of the personalities and dynasties that inhabited them over the centuries. The apartments are open to the public again every day, with guided tours every hour from 10am to 6pm.

Alessandra Griffo, curator of the Royal Apartments at Palazzo Pitti remarks: “Reopening the apartments allows us to recover the vision of Palazzo Pitti in its entirety, not as a collection of independent museums but as a single palace. The work carried out respects the new layout in the 1990s, which used the 1911 inventory as a reference—the last to document the arrangement of these spaces, which were occasionally inhabited by the Savoy. Few changes have been made: some pieces have been rearranged and some paintings, otherwise kept in storage, have been introduced to better highlight the Medici era, when the apartment was inhabited by Grand Prince Ferdinando (1663-1713).”