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.

The Uffizi Gallery has confirmed that it will be extraordinarily open on Monday, April 1, 2024, the day after Easter Sunday. The museum will be open on Easter Sunday as well, as it generally is open on Sundays, but Mondays are the day the museum is closed. So a special opening needs to be agreed upon, particularly where holidays are concerned.

In addition to April 1st, the museum also announced its other special openings for Mondays this year: it will be also be open on April 29th, on June 24th (feast day for St. John, Patron Saint for the city of Florence) and on December 30th.

Oltre ai martedì di speciali aperture serali, ce ne saranno anche altre straordinarie in programma il lunedì, ordinariamente giorno di chiusura settimanale delle Gallerie: l’iniziativa riguarderà Uffizi e Giardino di Boboli, che saranno aperti in orario ordinario nelle date del primo e del 29 aprile, del 24 giugno (Festa di San Giovanni, Santo Patrono di Firenze) e del 30 dicembre.

Starting today, March 26, and up until December 17, 2024, the Uffizi Gallery will have longer opening hours every Tuesday. The longer hours will give visitors the chance to see the masterpieces of the Renaissance in the sunset light, particularly the works of marble along the main corridors.

Normal closing hour is at 6.30pm but on Tuesdays, the museum will remain open until 10pm. The last entry will be at 8.30pm so that visitors have enough time to make their way through the museum.

Wonderful news as far as tickets are concerned! By the end of May 2024, the new director of the Uffizi Simone Verde, has announced that once you’ve pre-booked your ticket, you will no longer need actually show a paper ticket at the museum to enter. The new system will only require to show the QR code you will receive by email after you’ve booked online.

This applies whether you’ve booked online through the Bticket website or through the call center (+39-055-295883). If you’ve already booked your tickets, up until the new system goes online, you will continue to have to show paper tickets.

The new system should make entrance into the museum more fluid, considered the first step in clearing out some of the crowds that are created in the Piazzale degli Uffizi.

This October 2023, the Uffizi museum will have 5 extended evening hours on Tuesdays, remaining open until 9.30pm. The dates are October 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31.

On those days, the ticket office will close at 8.30pm, time at which the last entrance is allowed.

The Uffizi Gallery will be open following regular hours on Easter Sunday, and with a special opening on Monday, April 22nd. The museum will observe regular openings hours, from 8.15am to 6.50pm, with last entrance at 6.20pm.

The Uffizi Gallery has set specific days on which it will have FREE entrance for everyone in 2019 to commemorate and honor special historical and traditional occasions, each accompanied with entertainment and other special offerings. Also note that it no longer will always be doing the “free first Sundays” throughout the year, just from October 2019 through March 2020.

Mark your calendars and check against your time in Florence to know whether you can visit the museum on these days.

Most importantly, keep in mind that you CANNOT book a ticket on these days and the Firenze Card will not give you priority access.

Days in 2019 with FREE entrance for all

Museum Week: from March 5 – 10, 2019 – this is a week that is being “reinstated” this year after a hiatus of a few years. The week will change every year, so don’t necessarily expect it to occur in March each year.

March 24 – the eve of the Florentine New Year, as well as the birth of Francesco I de’ Medici in 1541, considered “founder” of the Uffizi Gallery as a museum and research space. The day being offered a day early, since the actual day of (03.25) is a normal closing day.

May 26 – Commemoration of the Georgofili Terrorist Bombing of the Uffizi also a day early since the day of the actual event (05.27) is a day of closure for the museum. The car bombing by the Mafia took place in 1993, the event seeks to underscore the Importance of Legality in our world.

June 2 – Day of the Republic for all of Italy

June 23 – Again, this is on the eve of St. John the Baptist’s Feast Day, patron saint for Florence, considering the 24th is a day the museum is usually closed.

August 11 – this is a particular one tied to the Uffizi: to remember that on the 12th of August 1762 there was a huge fire that destroyed part of the museum, including many works of art.

October 11 – the two dates in October are dedicated to women, the first is dedicated to Vittoria della Rovere, the last descendant of the Dukes of Urbino dynasty, wife to Francesco II and the 5th Grand Duchess of Tuscany on the day of her arrival to Florence.

October 31 – in commemoration of the “Family Pact” signed by Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, last descendant of the Medici family, who left the family’s vast collections of art to Florence and Tuscany.

November 6 – to celebrate the birthday of Leopold de’ Medici (born in 1617), Cardinal and a man of culture and science, passionate collector who contributed greatly during his lifetime to increasing the Medici collections, which today are part of the museum.

First Sundays of the Month

The First Sundays of the month will only be offered between October 2019 and March 2020, therefore, on these dates:

October 6, 2019

November 3, 2019

December 1, 2019

January 5, 2020

February 2, 2020

March 1, 2020

If you’re in Florence this long holiday weekend, enjoy the special opening of the Uffizi on Monday, August 14th and the Boboli Gardens.

Then on Tuesday, the day of Ferragosto (a national holiday across all of Italy), all museums will be open, including the Uffizi and Pitti and Boboli. Remember that on Tuesdays this summer the Uffizi also has longer opening hours, up until 9:50pm for the #UffiziLive cultural program.

This weekend before the holiday all museums are open with normal opening hours. On Monday, the Uffizi will haev a special opening and be open from 8.15-18.50 while the Boboli Gardens will be open 8.15-19.30.

On Tuesday at the Uffizi for #UffiziLive visitors can enjoy Vincanto & Patrizia Breschi. If you’re here in Florence, these openings ensure you have loads of opportunities to spend the long holiday weekend surrounded by art!

Just a reminder: tickets are sold up to an hour before closing time, then closing procedures start about 20 minutes before closing time.

Here’s a recap of the museums and opening times for Monday and Tuesday:

* riposo settimanale del lunedì

The Uffizi Gallery has just offered the first details on this year’s summer #UffiziLive cultural program. For now, the basics are just that the summer’s prolonged hours start on June 6 and run through September 26 every Tuesday. On these Tuesdays, concerts and other exhibitons are offered as brief “intermissions” while visitors navigate the museum’s halls.

On these Tuesdays, the museum will remain open until 9:50pm, with concerts starting at 7pm. Take the time between 5pm and 7pm to enjoy the museum’s permanent collections and the view from the terrace before enjoying the shows.

Here’s the program for the summer:

JUNE

June 6: The first show for the summer will open with the musical duo group Mazzoni–Riganelli with a sax and harmonica concert with conteporary songs from Le Marche, the region highly damaged by last year’s earthquakes. In fact, the Uffizi will be donating 1 euro from every ticket sold during this evening to the fund that is working on restoring works damaged during the earthquake.

June 13: The Collettivo ARTEDA from Rimini will present Innesti plurali, an itinerant performance that includes dance, live painting, digital painting and performing arts to express visual and body languages that adapt to nearby works of art.

June 20: The program continues with a concert of baroque music with guitar and vihuela by the all-female Spanish ensemble Dolce Rima, coming from Seville for the occasion. Recreating the atmosphere of the times in the Caravaggio rooms, the visitors will travel back to Italian and Spanish courts from the late Renaissance and Baroque.

June 27: The program for the month of June ends with a dance performed by the group Sosta Palmizi from Arezzo, whose project Venere e il vento is born from the stidy of the model of the female figure, Venus, and the element of wind, that come together in Botticelli’s famous work but who then influence successive works in other schools, by other authors and in other works within the museum.

JULY

July 4: The contemporary dance performance ZA-Critic Point (Viva Arte Viva) proposed by Company Blu is a variation on the theme of a “guided visit to the museum” centered around the gallery’s classic and neoclassic statue collections. The performance will offer a different approach to your visit of the works of art.

July 11: Portraits of a Woman is a musical itinerary composed around female portraits by great Italian painters of the 1400s and 1500s. The performance will create a dialogue between the voice, cello and guitar of young Irish artist Naomi Berrill, offering an intense and rare form of expression around these works.

July 18: The young dancer Fabiola Zecovin brings the life the figure of Magdalene found between the Portinari Triptych by Hugo van der Goes and the Deposition by Rogier van der Weyden, with two very different moments of her life. Between the birth and death of Christ, Mary Magdalene lives in throbbing expectation… first of a hope, then of a promise, of eternal and sublime love. Both in the admiration of the Messiah, then in wait for His return. In this period of waiting, she lives caught in an excruciating feud between earth and heaven, consumed in spirit and body.

July 25: The cast of Dummies Project from Milan will perform in Perseus Room, a “full mask” show in contemporary, poetic masks in a reinterpretation of the myth of Perseus. The Greek hero will come alive, along with the women that were central to his destiny: Andromeda, Medusa and Dana around their figures found within the Gallery.

AUGUST

August 1: The program for the month of August will open with the Miniatour concert by first cello of the ORT, Luca Provenzani from A.Gi.Mus. This will be a musical journey rich in contrassts and counterpoints with 4 short titles, four short miniatures that bring your attention to contemporary music in Italy in dialogue with the works by Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

August 8: The Anglo-Italian duo Etrusca arrives from England to present a sophisticated musical program composed of Renaissance and Baroque songs for the soprano and lute Chiari fonti around works by Botticelli and Titian in the museum.

August 15: The musical ensemble Vincanto and Francesca Breschi offer visitors a rich program of not as well known music from Tuscany, both traditional and modern, as well as popular and more “cultured” songs. Visitors will be able to immerse themselves in the historical-cultural setting that provided the background in Botticelli’s world as he created the “Primavera”, where the ensemble Ben venga maggio will perform.

August 22: The program continues with a special “chamber concert for dance and trumpet” by the young Giselda Ranieri from the Milan group ALDES together with musician Mario Mariotti. Blind Date is a performance capable of interrogating and relate itself with irony and studied mastery to the ancient sculptures in the three hallways on the second floor of the museum.

August 29: Le Scat Noir is a Jazz Vocal Trio from Ferrara composed of female musicians who will perform Colors and forms of femininity in music. The performance, revolving around works from the 1400s to 1600s which allude to femininity standards of the time, will include not only standard jazz and swing but songs from ethnic traditions, classical music and popular Italian classics.

SEPTEMBER

September 5: The Compagnia Simona Bucci will put on a show of contemporary dance, Sussurri, rich in references to famous female figures immortalized in the museum’s paiNtings. Visitors will have the opportunity to enjoy the figure of the body recreating the works, enjoying both the visual and emotional counterpoints in the performance.

September 12:The Cultural Association AD-AR-TE proposes Tre noccioli del Duecento, a theater and dance piece performance that evokes a hypothetical infancy of 3 painters. The storytelling will be in various languages, written specifically for Uffizi Live by Maria Pagnini. Seeing Duccio da Buoninsegna, Giotto and Cimabue as kids will hopefully bring children and adults alike into the suggestive, fantastical atmosphere of the 13th century in which they grew up in.

September 19: The protagonist of this evening will be the hiphop dance company Mystes with a choreography titled Lucida follia inspired by the painting “Judith who decapitates Holofernes” by Artemisia Gentileschi. Various styles of urban dance will be accompanied with electronic music.

September 26: The Uffizi Live season will end with the collective Gli Impresari & Giacomo Mercuriali hailing from Venice with a high-tech, unexpected show. The project will seek to bring Botticelli’s “Primavera” to life through an instrument they have created, called “insectophone”, which will give sound to the concert of insects and natural elements that form the background and setting of the painting.

That’s it! Hope you make it to Florence and to the Uffizi on one of these Tuesdays as the evenings seem to bring life to the halls of the museum and bring life to the works of art housed within!

On occasion of the 2017 European Museum Night on the evening of May 20th, the Uffizi Gallery will remain open until 9:50pm. The museum will charge a symbolic 1 euro entrance fee during these extra hours, from 6:50pm to 9:50pm. The museum will start closing procedure at 9:30pm. No prebooking will be open for these extra hours.

Take advantage of the longer opening hours to also see the temporary exhibits dedicated to Plautilla Nelli, Giuliano San Gallo’s special drawings and the Adoration of the Magi by Leonardo da Vinci, recently returned to the museum after years of restoration.

The event is part of the larger Celebration of Museums event taking place this weekend, with several guided visits to the temporary exhibitions on Saturday and Sunday.