Few people know the huge building of the Uffizi was not created as a museum. It was ordered in 1560 by Cosimo I de’ Medici, known as Cosimo the Great and first Grand Duke of Tuscany, to house the administrative and judiciary offices of Florence, the “uffizi” (which in Italian means “offices”). At the time when the grandiose building was being built, the Medici hegemony was secure over Florence.Cosimo called upon his favorite artist, Giorgio Vasari, to design the U-shaped building we can still admire today. The great architect also built the secret Corridor that joins the Uffizi to the Pitti Palace running above the Ponte Vecchio, by the church of Santa Felicita (peeking into a balcony inside from which the family could attend mass without having to walk through the streets) and the many buildings and towers on the way to the palace before ending at the Boboli Gardens. The “Corridoio Vasariano” was built to celebrate the marriage of Cosimo’s son, Francesco, to Giovanna d’Austria in 1565 and was built in just 5 months