The Uffizi Gallery is the museum that everyone comes to see in Florence. It is one of the largest…read moreand most famous museums in the world. Make your reservations to visit before you come here. You probably should plan to spend the day here as the museum has so much to see. You will be treated to masterpieces by Raphael, Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Simone Martini, Lippo Memmi, Gentille da fabriano, plus so many more artists. You should do some research of exactly what you want to see if you are time limited.
At the request of Cosimo I de'Medici, the Gallery was built by Giorgio Vasari, the famous Renaissance architect, and completed in 1581. You will be awestruck when you learn that this is all one family's collection - the Medicis. There are 101 rooms to visit. In addition to the paintings, there are many Roman sculptures in the corridors.
We had not visited the museum since 2003 when we brought our children and grandchildren to Italy. Our main reason for coming now was to see the Vasari Corridor that we had been waiting for years to open. (It has been closed for over 10 years.) We arrived at 9:00 AM, and the lines were already long for those without tickets. I was impressed with the ease of getting in and getting the wheelchair for me, but it kind of ended there. We get all the way to where the elevator is, only to be told it is not working. We had to leave the building, go outside, and go into another building to access the museum. You would think a museum like the Uffizi could keep their elevators in working order.
We took the time before our scheduled tour of the Vasari Corridor to visit the museum. It is truly a lovely museum! So, then we went to go to see the Vasari Corridor. What a mess that was. There is a very long staircase that one has to go down to get to the corridor. At the top, there was a chair lift of sorts that the museum people did not know how to work. Actually, I was too scared to use it. I had to walk down the stairs. They carried the wheelchair down. The tour guide only did the tour in Italian and there was a guide behind the group who tried to hustle us along. I told her I was going to take my time and not to rush us thru - I wanted to look out each and every window that the Medicis did on their walk to the Pitti Palace.
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. The walkway was built in just five months. The total route is less than a half mile long, beginning from the Uffizi Gallery up to the exit next to the Buontalenti Grotto in the Boboli Gardens. The Medici did not want to have to walk on the Ponte Vecchio as then it was full of butcher shops. You can just imagine what it must have smelled like.
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 unusual panoramic views. 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.
We thoroughly enjoyed each and every window we looked out of and the views they gave us of Florence and everyday life. When we got to the end - there was another long staircase to go up - thankfully they had an elevator, but they made us walk the longest distance to get out of the Pitti Palace when there was an exit much closer to get outside. I really wish I could have seen the corridor when it still had the paintings and sculptures in it. All it is now is an empty corridor with white walls, but the views from the windows are stunning. Just pick your time of day to visit carefully to get the best daylight hours.
