Vasari Corridor has been closed since 2016.

The works include the addition of new lighting and air conditioning systems, as well as emergency exits and video surveillance cameras, as part of measures to make the structure safer and more accessible to visitors.

The elevated kilometre-long passageway, which runs across Ponte Vecchio to connect the Uffizi Galleries with Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens, was closed for safety reasons in November 2016.

Named after its designer, the Italian Renaissance painter and architect Giorgio Vasari, the walkway was built in 1565 for Cosimo I de' Medici, founder of the Florentine Medici dynasty.

Schmidt says the planned reopening of the 16th-century structure would coincide with the anniversary of the Via dei Georgofili bombing by the Sicilian Mafia on the night of 26-27 May 1993.

The car bombing killed five people, including a nine-year-old girl and her newborn baby sister, injuring another 48 people and causing extensive structural damage to the Uffizi.

The Vasari Corridor made the news over the summer after vandals defaced the landmark with football-related graffiti which was subsequently removed.