Frequently asked questions

The Vasari Corridor (Corridoio Vasariano) is an elevated, enclosed passage that runs from the Uffizi Galleries, along the Arno, over the top of the Ponte Vecchio and through to the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens — described by the Uffizi as about 750 metres long, and often cited as up to around a kilometre. It was designed by Giorgio Vasari and built in 1565 for Duke Cosimo I de' Medici, so the Medici family could move privately between the government palace and their residence without entering the public street. It reopened on 21 December 2024 after eight years closed for restoration.

The Corridor is visited only in tiny timed groups — a maximum of 25 people at a time, one group at a time — and the official calendar releases dates on a short horizon. Those slots sell out quickly because demand far outstrips the small daily capacity, especially since the long-awaited 2024 reopening. Rather than send you to a sold-out calendar, we hold your place: you join the waitlist with no payment, we watch the official calendar 24/7, and the moment a slot opens for your date we email you a secure payment link and book it in your name.

No — and we won't pretend it is. The Vasari Corridor is a reserved, timed-entry experience with a hard cap of 25 people per group, so there is no general queue to skip. What we do is secure you a confirmed timed slot on a calendar that sells out fast, and hold your place in line for it. You arrive for your booked group time and walk straight into your reserved visit.

The Vasari Corridor is sold only as a combined Uffizi + Vasari Corridor ticket — there is no Corridor-only ticket. The good news is the same ticket admits you to the Uffizi Galleries, so you can explore the Uffizi before heading to the Corridor entrance inside the gallery for your timed group.

The official ticket is nominative — issued in a named visitor's name, personal and non-transferable, and checked against a physical ID at the entrance. To book a slot the instant it opens, we already need each traveller's name on file, so we don't lose the slot chasing you for details. Each name must exactly match the passport or government ID that person will travel on. We use the names only to book your ticket and delete them after your visit.

The reopened route is a walk through the structure itself. Along the way you pass almost three hundred ancient Greek and Latin marble inscriptions, around fifty Greco-Roman portrait busts of emperors and empresses (Augustus, Antoninus Pius, Commodus, the empresses Sabina and Faustina among them), and 16th-century frescoes created under Vasari's direction. There are memorial spaces for the 1944 destruction of Florence's bridges and the 1993 Via dei Georgofili bombing. The famous self-portrait collection that once hung here has been moved into dedicated rooms inside the main gallery.

Not any more. For decades the Corridor was lined with hundreds of artists' self-portraits begun by Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici in the 17th century. During the restoration those works were relocated to dedicated rooms inside the Uffizi's main galleries. The reopened Corridor instead displays ancient inscriptions, Greco-Roman busts and Vasari-era frescoes, with the bare structure and the views over the Arno as the experience.

The Corridor walk is one-directional, from the Uffizi over the Ponte Vecchio towards the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens side. Allow roughly 45–60 minutes for the Corridor itself once your group enters, plus however long you spend in the Uffizi beforehand on the same ticket. Groups run Tuesday to Sunday, with the first at 10:15 and the last at 16:35.

Yes. The reopened Corridor was rebuilt to be fully accessible, with an integrated system of ramps, platforms and lifts, and toilets at the far end. If anyone in your party has specific access needs, tell us when you join the waitlist and we will pass them to the Uffizi Galleries when we book.

Timed groups run Tuesday to Sunday — the first group enters at 10:15 and the last at 16:35 — and the Corridor is closed on Mondays, like the Uffizi. The exact slots available shift seasonally and on public holidays; we confirm your precise group time when we secure the booking.

It sits within one. The Corridor and the Ponte Vecchio it crosses are celebrated features of the Historic Centre of Florence, which UNESCO inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1982. The Corridor is a landmark within that listing rather than a separately inscribed monument.

Nothing is charged when you join. We watch the official Uffizi calendar 24/7 for your date. The moment a slot opens, we email you a secure payment link; once you pay, we book the timed entry in your name and your confirmation arrives by email. If no slot opens before your travel date, we close the reservation and let you know — you are never charged.

Because the ticket is a nominative, timed reservation, all sales are final once a ticket has been issued in your name. You are only ever charged after we have a confirmed slot to book. We refund in full only in the event the operator fails to honour a confirmed, paid booking. We do not promise a refund 'if we can't secure a slot' because we never take payment until a slot is confirmed — if none opens, you simply are not charged.

The Uffizi is beside Piazza della Signoria in the heart of Florence's pedestrian centre, about a 15-minute walk from Firenze Santa Maria Novella station. Enter the Uffizi with your combined ticket; the Vasari Corridor begins inside the gallery, from room D19 on the first floor. Arrive in good time so you reach the Corridor entrance before your group's start time.