FLORENCE, ITALY – The Vasari Corridor in Florence is to be partially reopen. The corridor (Corridoio vasariano in Italian) linking the Uffizi to the Pitti Palace was shut down last month after a Florence Fire Department inspection sparked by a petition from a trade unionist revealed it was not up to code.
The fire department has authorized limited access to the area with groups of a maximum 22 people, including guides and at least two people with fire-safety training, until late November.
Uffizi Gallery Director Eike Schmidt said he would like to get the Vasari Corridor opened to all the gallery’s visitors on the 25th anniversary of a Cosa Nostra bomb outrage near the iconic Florentine gallery, on May 27, 2018.
The Vasari Corridor is an elevated enclosed passageway which begins on the south side of the Palazzo Vecchio, joins the Uffizi Gallery and leaves on its south side, crosses the Lungarno dei Archibusieri and then follows the north bank of the River Arno until it crosses the Ponte Vecchio
The via dei Georgofili bombing was carried out by by the Sicilian Mafia very early in the morning of 27 May 1993, killing five people. It was part of a wider Mafia campaign of bombing against heritage sites which killed 10 another five people in Milan and damaged two historic Rome churches.