When you walk in Florence you are always fascinated by this city, because it was the cradle of famous people, Italian literature and art. Florence is full of museums, galleries and places that will leave you breathless for their history and their beauty.
When you walk in Florence you are always fascinated by this city, because it was the cradle of famous people, Italian literature and art. Florence is full of museums, galleries and places that will leave you breathless for their history and their beauty.
Towards the middle of the 16th century, there was a need to display the works of art in a private space. A similar idea was developed by Leonardo Da Vinci who thought of building a place that connected several parts of a building. This is how the galleries were born, including the Uffizi Gallery.
The Uffizi Gallery
The Uffizi Gallery: between Piazza della Signoria and the Arno Cosimo I de' Medici identifies an area in which an architectural complex dedicated to the offices would arise and entrusts the project to Giorgio Vasari. It was accessed only through the ducal apartments of Palazzo Vecchio through a short passage suspended at great height. Francesco I de' Medici will use the top floor as a personal gallery in which to collect his collection. The gallery is open on both sides with windows that Francesco I orders in Venice and decorated with works of art. To date, the gallery houses a huge number of priceless works of art that derive mainly from the collection of the Medici family. The gallery is divided into rooms according to styles, historical period and houses the best collection of the Italian Renaissance. A perfect place for a walk, where the works are exhibited with an exhibition criterion that aims at magnificence.
The Uffizi Tribune
In the Uffizi Museum isn't to be messed the Tribuna degli Uffizi, designed by created by the architect Bernardo Buontalenti for the most precious works of Francesco I de' Medici. The octagonal room is like a chamber of wonders (a Wunderkammer), the floor was the symbol of the earth and the walls covered with red velvet evoke fire, The eight windows have decorations with shells representing the water and the wind tower represents the air.
The colours of the Tribune (red, blue and gold) correspond to the Medici coat of arms.
The Vasari Corridor: a link between Palazzo Vecchio and Palazzo Pitti
Vasari builds the Corridoio vasariano, that is a suspended passage that should have connected Palazzo Vecchio, from which one could access, to Palazzo Pitti, another residence of the Medici, up to the fortress of the Belvedere (even if it will never reach us) for an undisclosed but protected escape rout. The corridoio vasariano, closed for visits in 2016 for security reasons, will reopen to the general public starting from 2022, once completed the work that will make it an accessible path and open for everyone. The visit will be possible with a special ticket and will start from an entrance on the ground floor of the Uffizi to arrive on the other side of the Arno to Palazzo Pitti.
The Vasari Corridor: a link between Palazzo Vecchio and Palazzo Pitti
In Florence, in Palazzo Vecchio, in the silence and darkness of the night Francesco I immersed himself in reading and alchemical experiments in his study, a small room communicating with the hall of sala dei Cinquecento. The studio of Francesco I de' Medici is a rectangular room is covered by a barrel vault, and all the images represent art and nature that come together in a magical way. Francesco I, in fact, wanted to understand nature and its secrets, through his experiments begins to work crystals, glass and porcelain. In his wake, will be born the "Cabinet of Curiosities" in Wien.
Florence has a charm you can not resist, a history too precious to ignore, and when you see the sunset walking through Ponte Vecchio, you will notice that you are already madly in love with the city and its magnificence.
