Cosimo I de' Medici commissioned the corridor in 1564 from Giorgio Vasari, with a five-month target tied to the 1565 wedding of his son Francesco. It is an elevated, enclosed passage about 0.6 miles (1 km) long, adapted from the Passetto di Borgo in Rome. The article does not give a style or materials.
It runs from the Palazzo Vecchio through the Uffizi, along the north bank of the Arno and across the Ponte Vecchio. It bends around the Torre dei Mannelli, whose owners opposed demolition, and ends at the Palazzo Pitti. In the 17th century it became a gallery of self-portraits.
It was damaged in 1943, in the 1966 flood and in the 1993 bombing, and it closed in 2016. It reopened in December 2024 for an extra charge on top of a Uffizi ticket.
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