Who knows what might have happened at night. Cosimo, on horseback, lingers in Piazza della Signoria before returning home after one of the numerous duties that the life of a Grand Duke entails. He savors the quiet of the sleeping city at this hour of the night. The palace stands stern against the blue sky, illuminated only by the moonlight. Its silent and loyal guardians are the statues of pure marble at the entrance.
Cosimo looks up at the moon. In its absorbed brightness, he seems to glimpse the face of his wife Eleonora, who made his life graceful and beautiful, and who now, besides being in the moon, resides in his memories. Tuberculosis took her away, along with the laughter and games of many of their children, barely more than children.
But Cosimo knows that a Grand Duke cannot afford the pain, except at night, in the quiet of his sleeping Florence. One must look forward: a grand marriage to celebrate, that of his son Francesco with Giovanna d’Austria, the Emperor’s daughter.
Cosimo already knows that Francesco and Giovanna’s marriage will not be as happy as his with Eleonora… but so be it… it often happens that a Grand Duke cannot afford even love.
So, who knows if it is precisely at this moment that the idea of a grand work flashed in Cosimo’s mind: an aerial corridor from Palazzo Vecchio to Palazzo Pitti, weaving its way between houses, hovering over the citizens. An invisible but looming presence. Public and private inseparably connected, one with the other…
Today, the Corridor cannot be traversed from the inside, but its path can be followed from the outside, and, in the Church of Santa Felicita, one can peer from the balcony where the Medicis attended Mass. If one pays attention, echoes of their voices can still be heard: Cosimo’s proud and proud for the accomplished work, and Francesco’s, submissive to a destiny not his own, and then all the others who walked it, Ferdinando, Cristina, Leopoldo, up to Anna Maria Luisa, the last heir of the Medici dynasty.
To learn more…
The itinerary begins in Piazza della Signoria, where the Vasari Corridor starts, exiting from Eleonora’s Green Room in Palazzo della Signoria, overlooking via della Ninna to enter the Uffizi Galleries. But if the “U” of the Uffizi begins from Piazza della Signoria, traverses the entire Piazzale degli Uffizi to the river, where it draws its short side, then returns, the corridor exits and takes its own path, first along the river, then on the river, then through the houses, on Via dei Bardi, sneaks into the Church of Santa Felicita, and reaches the Palazzo Pitti, the Medici residence from the second half of the 16th century until 1743, the year of the last Medici’s death.
We will follow the winding path of the Corridor through the city, and I will tell you its past and recent history: the reasons that led Cosimo I to such an ambitious work, his choices in this regard, the use that the Lorraine and then the Savoy made of the Corridor, to arrive at wars, partisans, Hitler’s visit, and the bombings of 1944, up to the Georgofili massacre, of which the Corridor is a witness.
The route takes place externally, but if desired, it will be possible to enter the Church of Santa Felicita, which is crossed by the Corridor. Right where the Corridor passes through the Church, the Medicis had a balcony built, from which they could attend religious functions. It will be possible not only to see the balcony from inside the Church but also to climb onto it and look out over the Basilica and enjoy the same view that the Medicis enjoyed many years ago.
