Today we had a very expensive and very rare treat, known during the Renaissance to only the Medici’s (ruling family of Florence and Tuscany—patron of all the arts) and their very close associates.  We found a tour that takes you through their secret corridor which is 1 km long.  It runs from the map room in the City Hall (Palazzo Vecchio)where the Medici dukes made all their political decisions to the Uffizi (formerly offices and later the home of the Medici private art collection—see post of a few days ago) down to the Arno, over the shops on the Ponte Vecchio (see earlier post), through several apartment buildings, around the house of an intransigent man who refused to have his house torn down, through a church (they could walk through the corridor to a private box/balcony that looked down on the chapel to attend Mass without anyone seeing them) and finally to the Pitti Palace where the Medici duke and his family and several hundred friends lived. 

Formerly, the head of the Medici’s and his family had an apartment in the Palazzo Vecchio, but that wasn’t fancy enough for the wife of Cosimo I (de’ Medici).  She bought the Pitti Palace, located on the other side of the Arno from the Palazzo Vecchio, and started expanding it.  This meant that Cosimo I had to walk to work, including crossing the crowded Ponte Vecchio bridge each day.  Given that he had accumulated more than a few enemies, walking or even riding in a carriage through the very narrow streets was very dangerous.  While his wife was fixing up the palace, Cosimo ordered his favorite architect, Giorgio Vasari, to build the one kilometer long corridor.  (The photo below, not taken by David, shows the corridor coming out of the Uffizi, running along the top of the series of arches, built especially to support it, then cutting over the Ponte Vecchio as a very exclusive second story to the bridge.)

Of course this secret corridor got my imagination running and I’m plotting some dastardly deeds for my first Crazy Ladies book (the whole reason we are here is to research that book).

It was a real thrill and an insight into the lives of those powerful patrons of the Renaissance.  It is probably safe to say that that the Renaissance couldn’t have occurred without them, as they were patrons of Donatello, Michelangelo, and friends—all the first artists of that time when the dark ages ended and science, music, and art began to flower.

It is a real mystery to me that I don’t have any Italian blood!  I don’t want to go home!!!

Photos below are views of the Arno River from the Ponte Vecchio.  The first one was taken from Cosimo’s secret corridor.  The others were taken later in day, after we had a bracing round of Italian ice cream.