PORTFOLIO > OUR TRIP TO ITALY WITH RICK STEVES

The morning of Day 6 was spent at the Uffizi Gallery and viewing the Renaissance art, works by Leonardo, Botticelli, Michelangelo, and more.

I learned that the Uffizi building used to be an office building (uffizi is an archaic Italian word for offices). I had always thought that the Uffizi was named after some nobleman or monarch.

Built in 1560 by Giorgio Vasari for Cosimo I de' Medici, the U-shaped structure was designed to house administrative and judiciary offices, not an art gallery.