Secret passage that Florence's Medici used to move safely reopens to public after 8-year renovation

FLORENCE, Italy (AP) - For centuries, Florence's 16th-century Vasari Corridor was only accessible to dukes and lords. Now, the raised passageway that connects the city's Uffizi Galleries to the former residence of the powerful Medici family, has reopened to the public after an eight-year restoration project.

The corridor, named after the Renaissance architect and biographer Giorgio Vasari, who designed it, is some 750 meters (820 yards) long. It stretches from the Uffizi Museums to the imposing Palazzo Pitti, passing over Ponte Vecchio above the tiny historic jewelry boutiques that cross the Arno river.

The corridor was built by Florence's powerful Medici family to allow them to move secretly and safely from one part of the historic Italian city to another.

"It's a reopening that allows us to connect the two fundamental poles of the (art) collections from one side of the Arno river to the other, the Uffizi Palace with the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens, and to make it accessible to all visitors," said Simone Verde, director of the Uffizi Gallery, famous for its collections of ancient sculptures and paintings.

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The corridor was closed in 2016 to allow restoration work to bring it up to safety standards.

Starting Dec. 21, visitors are able to enter the Uffizi Museum's Gallery of Statues and Paintings and walk through the bowels of Ponte Vecchio before exiting through the Tuscan city's lush Boboli gardens.

Through the corridor, they will be allowed to go around the Torre dé Mannelli and peer from above into the Church of Santa Felicita, enjoying unprecedented views of the city.

The renovation, which cost about 10 million euros, ensures complete accessibility for disabled people through ramps, footbridges and lifts, a new energy-efficient LED lighting system, and is fully video-monitored.

The aim is to make the corridor a valid alternative route for tourists.

"The corridor allows us to turn overtourism from a problem into an opportunity, a way for visitors to see the connection between these two poles of the Medici and then Lorena collections," Verde said.

Every year, millions of tourists flock to the Tuscan city to admire its stunning Renaissance art and architecture, an ever-increasing flow of people that is becoming unsustainable, as it is in other popular Italian cities.