posted by Lourdes Flores on News

Finally, the official news has come out: the Vasari Corridor is reopening in about a week, on December 21st!

The famous walkway that connects Palazzo Vecchio to Palazzo Pitti, passing over the Ponte Vecchio, has been closed since 2016 to adopt the necessary changes to bring the space up to the latest safety regulations, including adding fire/emergency exits.

Visitors from all over the world will once again be able to make the journey over the heads of the crowds below, enjoying the panoramic views of the Arno and Ponte Vecchio itself. It will be a journey back in time to when the corridor was first created over 500 years ago for the Medici family.

The 750 meter long “tunnel”, which once housed the world’s most extensive collection of self-portraits by famous artists throughout the centuries, will reopen “nude” with nothing on the walls. The previous museum director had proposed to line some of the walls with Greek and Roman marble epigraphs which have been in the Uffizi storage deposits since 1919 on re-opening but it seems that is no longer the plan.

The new Corridor will be accessible to all, with ramps, platforms and lifts to make it easy to go over any differences in levels; a public restroom; low-energy LED lighting and entirely video monitored. In addition to creating 5 emergency exits, structural consolidation operations were made as part of the earthquake prevention plan, and the plaster work, tiles and terracotta floor were all restored.

HOW TO VISIT THE VASARI CORRIDOR

Now the important part, how to visit the Vasari Corridor: you can only visit it as part of your visit to the Uffizi Gallery with an extra supplement for a total of €47 (includes booking fee of €4). Reservations are required, as the Corridor will be visited only as part of a group of a maximum of 25 people.

Visits to the Corridor can be booked starting on Tuesday, December 10 online, with the first group starting at 10.15am and every 20 minutes after that, with the last group leaving at 4.35pm, Tuesdays through Sundays. With the combo ticket, visitors can enter the Uffizi two hours before the scheduled Vasari Corridor tour, to visit the museum BEFORE as the tour of the Corridor is only one-way and ends at the Boboli Gardens and you won’t be able to return to the Uffizi to visit the rest of the museum. The ticket does not include the Boboli Gardens so you will be accompanied to the exit in the courtyard of the Pitti Palace. The ticket will include a link to the map that shows the route within the museum to get to room D19 on the first floor of the Uffizi, which has the access door to enter the Corridor and start the tour.

The visit along the Corridor lasts 45 minutes, you will be accompanied by two museum personnel but it won’t be a guided tour. Please show up at the access door 5 minutes before your booked tour so that you don’t forfeit your visit.