Is the Vasari Corridor worth it?
The version in the guidebooks no longer exists
From 1973 to 2016 the corridor was where the Uffizi hung its self-portrait collection, and that is the corridor in almost every blog post you will find: a cramped tunnel packed with canvases, seen on a rare and awkward private visit. The museum’s own account is that the space lacked air conditioning and adequate lighting, and that the paintings were shown only on restricted, occasional visits. It shut in 2016 for safety work and came back eight years later as architecture. The self-portraits now have twelve rooms on the gallery’s first floor, painted pink and hung chronologically, showing 255 works selected from a collection of more than two thousand. So the honest framing is that both things still exist. They are in different places, and one ticket takes you through both. The anatomy of the passage is on what you actually see inside.
Who it is for, and who it is not
What works
- You want the walk itself: a raised private road built in 1565, and the only way to cross the Ponte Vecchio without setting foot on it
- You read buildings as objects, so a long bright empty gallery lands as a pleasure rather than a disappointment
- You have done Florence before and have already given the paintings their morning
- The Roman marble portrait busts the Uffizi installed above the bridge in July 2025 interest you
- You want the view down into the church of Santa Felicita from the Medici’s private balcony
Worth knowing
- There are no paintings hanging in the corridor. None. If that is the trip in your head, this will land badly
- It is walked one way and you come out on the far side of the river, which reshapes the rest of the day
- Interpretation is thin without a guide, because a bare wall carries very little signage
- Entry is by timed slot with reservation mandatory, so it is not a spontaneous afternoon decision
- The Uffizi around it is a long walk on hard floors and does most of the tiring
The most useful review on the booking page
Waldemar, from Poland, booked the timed ticket with the audio app and wrote the one review we would put in front of anybody still deciding: the app points out more than there is time to stand and look at. That is the real constraint on this visit. You are on a slot, the gallery is large, and the corridor is a passage that keeps moving. Petra, from Germany, liked the apps and the Tuscan tasting her option included. Enrico, an Italian, wrote about the plain pleasure of walking somewhere in his own city he had never been allowed into. Craig, from the United Kingdom, made the point that the interior has been refurbished to a modern standard and the appeal is treading the Medici’s route rather than seeing an old room. That product is taken apart line by line in our timed ticket and audio app review.
Does a guide change the answer?
More than it used to. When the walls were covered in paintings a visitor had something to look at whether or not anyone was talking. Bare walls invert that. A guide now supplies the whole content of the walk: why a duke builds a private road above his own city, how the Mannelli family got away with refusing to move their tower, why the butchers were cleared off the bridge. On the small-group product the guide leads the Uffizi portion and the corridor is walked one way without them, which is a detail worth knowing before paying for it. Compare the formats on all tours.
Frequently asked questions
Are the self-portraits still in the Vasari Corridor?
No. They hung there from 1973 to 2016 and now occupy twelve permanent rooms on the Uffizi’s first floor, where 255 works selected from a collection of more than two thousand are hung chronologically. The corridor itself was restored to bare architecture. See what is inside it now.
Is the corridor worth paying more than a plain Uffizi ticket?
If the walk interests you as architecture and history, yes, because there is no other way to do it and it was shut for eight years. If you are counting rooms of paintings per euro, no. What drives the difference is set out on what it costs.
Will I feel rushed?
Possibly, and that is the most common complaint in the reviews. You are on a timed slot covering a large gallery and a long passage. Decide in advance what you actually want to stand in front of. A realistic shape for the visit is on how long it takes.
Is it better with a guide or on your own?
With a guide, if you want the corridor explained, because the restored passage carries almost no interpretation of its own. On your own, if you would rather look than listen, or if you have read the history beforehand and only want the walk.