Remarks
The passage starts on the second floor of the Palazzo Vecchio, runs along the full length of the east wing of the Uffici, follows the Arno, perched on a superb loggia, crosses the Ponte Vecchio, through the shops on the left-hand side, around the Torre des Manelli on the far side of the Bridge, into the Oltrarno, passes above the portico of the façade of St Felicity's church (a private pew was installed to attend services without being seen) and comes out in the Palazzo Pitti Boboli Gardens. It only took the architect 6 months in 1565 to build the passageway, which was rapidly turned into a private art gallery. A coda to the Ufficizi Galleries, it contains canvases by Lippi (Lot and his Daughters), Manfredi, Batoni and Reni (David and Goliath). As it crosses the Arno it becomes a museum of self-portraits with paintings from the 16 to the 20C. Rembrandt as an old man is next to the young Allori, a severe Ingres a smiling Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Velazquez as austere as his clothes, Chagall and his blue pastel, not forgetting, among many others, Gaddi, Corot, Titian, Veronese, Correggio, etc.