The Medici in the sixteenth century, officially legitimized the power, will give a new face to the city. Between Piazza della Signoria and the Ponte Vecchio they commissioned Giorgio Vasari, Cosimo I's trusted architect, to build the Renaissance palazzo of the Uffizi (Offices), and Vasari was also the builder of the private passageway (Vasarian corridor) for the Medici family who bought the Pitti Palace and moved to Oltrarno, to live in a healthier area of the city with the much desired garden transformed into the splendid Italian garden of Boboli. Built in just five months on the occasion of the marriage of Francis I (son of Cosimo I) to Joan of Austria, the corridor offers, with its 73 windows, a unique view of the city of Florence.
Starting from Palazzo Vecchio, with almost one kilometre of length, it crosses the Uffizi, passes over Ponte Vecchio, overlooks the church of Santa Felicita and continues until it enters the Boboli Gardens. A path to not be seen and be safe, once only for Grand Dukes, but that will reopen to the public in 2022 and will be visited by entering the Uffizi. The collection of paintings and self-portraits once in the Corridor are now admired in the new rooms of the Uffizi.
