Some 2026 changes important to tourists visiting Florence

Here, very briefly, are some 2026 changes in various rules which are important to tourists (and inhabitants) in Florence.

Personalised museum tickets in Florence

Tickets for the Uffizi galleries now have your name on them. In other words, they are personalised and cannot be used by anyone else. Since October 13, 2025, every Uffizi ticket is personalised. The name on the ticket has to match the photo ID you use as you enter the museum. If they do not match, you do not get in, and the ticket is not refunded.

The same rule applies to the Accademia, the Bargello, and most other Florence state museums. Name on the ticket equals name on the ID, or no entry.

It's also important to note that at the Uffizi and the Accademia, the time on your ticket is when you must be inside, not when you arrive at the door. If you're ten minutes late your slot can be and usually is gone. The best thing to do is to arrive 30 minutes before your time slot.

Each online account can buy a maximum of 10 Uffizi tickets per day, with a separate cap of 5 for the Vasari Corridor.

There is also a new afternoon discount. Since 1 January, 2026, tickets for entry into the Uffizi after 4 pm cost €20 online or €16 at the door, instead of the standard €25. You get the same access to all collections, just a shorter window before the 6:30 closing.

Big reduction in outdoor restaurant seating in the historical centre of Florence 

Florence has banned outdoor dining on 50 streets and banned e-scooter rentals across the historical centre of Florence. The areas around the Ponte Vecchio, the Piazzale degli Uffizi, Via Roma, Via Maggio, Via Romana, Borgo Santa Croce and the Piazza di Santa Maria Nuova are all on the list of locations where outdoor restaurant seating is prohibited. On another 73 streets, outdoor seating is allowed only under tighter rules, with no plastic sheeting, no canvas awnings, no semi-permanent structures, no bright signs.

From April 2026, Florence has banned e-scooter rentals across the city centre. The orange and yellow scooters that lined the Arno last summer are gone. Few can genuinely regret this.

The Baptistry mosaics are not visible until further notice.

One of the most spectacular art treasures of Florence are the ceiling mosaics of the Baptistry.  However, currently although the Baptistery of San Giovanni is open, the famous mosaics of the vault are not visible because of major restoration work. The official notice says the restoration and internal work will continue for the next few years. 

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A preliminary drawing and a final painting by Filippo Lippi in Florence

I want to present here an example of how a bit of enjoyable homework can help art-lovers gain some extra insight into how a masterpieces were created by Renaissance artists. Before a recent visit to the Palatine Gallery at Palazzo Pitti in Florence, I was idly looking through a book of Renaissance drawings held in the Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe at the Uffizi Gallery. Among them was a very delicate, three quarters sketch of a female head, surely intended to be a Madonna, depicting an absorbed and very sweet expression, and, among other features, a refined hairstyle embellished with veils. At the same time, I had a look at a catalogue of the holdings at the Palatine Gallery, and - lo and behold! - the Madonna in the wonderful Tondo Bartolini turned out to be the final version of the Uffizi sketch.

Both the preliminary drawing and the final painting are by Filippo Lippi. The Tondo has long been thought to have been commissioned from Filippo, who was Carmelite friar, by the ambitious and wealthy Florentine merchant, Leonardo di Bartolomeo Bartolini. More recent investigation by Jeffrey Ruda interprets the coat of arms on the reverse of the Tondo as that of a member of the Martelli family and re-dates the painting to between 1465 and 1470 based on similarities to Filippo's final frescoes in the Capella Maggiore at Prato Cathedral.

By looking at a good reproduction of the drawing, one can see that Filippo used first a silver point on paper prepared with a warm, yellow ochre ground, and then refined the silver point outline with thin and light lines of white lead applied with a brush, giving the physiognomy and hairstyle a lovely softness.

The preliminary sketch matches the painted figure down to the most minute folds of the cap and in the ribbon that holds and twists the hair at the top under the veil. One can also see that Filippo was experimenting on the ochre paper with the effects of the light coming from the left, by applying a white wash. 

However, my aim here is not to argue the fine details of art history and connoisseurship, but rather to encourage visitors to Florence who plan to tour the galleries, to spend some time with some art books as a preparation to seeing the works themselves. You never can tell what serendipitous insights will strike you!

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The newly renovated Vasari Corridor is opened to all

The newly renovated Vasari Corridor opened to all in May 2024. As my always intelligent and attentive readers will know, access to the Vasari Corridor, which runs from the Palazzo Vecchio, via the Uffici Galleries and over the Ponte Vecchio, to the Pitti Palace in Florence, has always been problematic. The renovated Vasari Corridor re-opened 450 years after the death of its creators: the Grand Duke Cosimo I dei Medici, who commissioned the Corridor on the occasion of the wedding of his son Francesco I and who passed away on 21 April 1574, and Giorgio Vasari, who designed and built it and who died on 27 June 1574, just two months after Cosimo I.

Entry to the renovated Vasari Corridor is available to everyone who has a ticket to enter the Uffizi Galleries and who has paid the Corridor visit supplement. Pre-booking a time slot and prepaying the supplement to access the Corridor is highly recommended. Visitors are grouped (groups of 25 persons) by time of entry and accompanied by two Uffizi staff members. You cannot leave the group nor linger long in the Corridor.

I am no longer enthusiastic about paying the extra to walk through the Vasari Corridor. The corridor is one-way. You enter from inside the Uffizi, walk over Ponte Vecchio through a 760 m hallway and exit at the Pitti Palace courtyard. You cannot walk back to the Uffizi through the corridor. You cannot retrieve anything from the Uffizi cloakroom. The museum is closed to you for the day. In addition, your Uffizi entry is locked to 2 hours before your corridor slot. Not earlier. The Uffizi needs 3 to 5 hours to explore thoroughly. This ticket caps you at 2 hours. You will rush the Botticelli rooms, skip the Caravaggios, and end the visit staring at your watch.
And what do you get for all this. A hallway. The famous self-portrait collection that made the corridor interesting is gone. 

The renovated Vasari Corridor

The ready accessibility of the corridor is very positive but I have to admit to feeling a bit sad about the relocation of the largest, oldest and most important collection of self-portraits in the world, which used to line the walls of the Corridor towards the Pitti Palace end. This collection, which was admirably displayed in the Corridor and directly linked to the creators of the Corridor, has been transferred to the Uffizi Galleries. The self-portraits have been replaced in the Corridor by a series of Roman epigraphs related to the Florence founded by Julius Caesar in 59 BC, and later becoming the capital of the VI Roman Legio that included Tuscany and Umbria. Obviously, these marble plaques are nowhere near as fragile as the paintings, so I suppose this is the price we must pay for free access to the Vasari Corridor.

 

The Vasari Corridor before renovation.

This, of course, is by no means the first time the Vasari Corridor has been renovated. Up until the late 19 C, there were artisanal workshops built into the arches supporting the Corridor between the Uffizi and the Ponte Vecchio. Those were removed during the 1880's.

View of the Vasari Corridor in the 1880's with workshops still in place.

For full official details for visits to the Vasari Corridor, click here.

More about the Vasari Corridor.

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"Il Magnifico 1492" - a fabulous exhibition promised for Autumn 2026 at the Uffizi Galleries in Florence

Start planning now! The Uffizi have announced that they are putting together an exhibition for Autumn 2026 that will reconstruct part of the unequalled art collection assembled by Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici (1449-1492), "il Magnifico", as it was in the year of his death in 1492.

Portrait of Lorenzo il Magnifico by Vasari

More than a hundred works borrowed from around the world will form a reconstruction of some of Lorenzo's collection - the collection that helped earn him the description "Il Magnifico" - once housed in the Medici family palazzo in Via Larga, Florence - now the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi. The exhibition is based on the description and inventory prepared in 1492, shortly after Lorenzo's death. The Uffizi promises us a selection of paintings and sculptures, including several famous masterpieces, as well as vases, gems, cameos, coins, codices, and maps, reflecting the interests and curiosity that were among the characteristic traits of the Medici family that ruled Florence and Tuscany between the 15 C and the 17 C.

Bronze medal of depicting Lorenzo il Magnifico

Lorenzo was a shrewd and capable politician and diplomat, and a fervent promoter of the arts, literature and philosophy, himself a poet and prolific letter writer, defining the very concept of patronage. He surrounded himself with some of the most brilliant intellectuals of his time, including Angelo Poliziano, Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, as well as supporting artists such as Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Verrocchio and Michelangelo, transforming Florence into the undisputed capital of the Renaissance.

Don't miss this exhibition if you will be anywhere near Florence during Autumn 2026!

More about the Medici family.

  

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How to visit the Vasari Corridor in Florence

Update May 2024: Visiting of the Vasari Corridor.

In May 2024, the Vasari Corridor re-opened to the public in completely renovated form. It is necessary to reserve a time slot and to hold an Uffizi entry ticket and Vasari Corridor supplmentary tciket to enter and enjoy the Corridor.

The latest information on the renovated Vasari Corridor.

 

Update 14 October 2021: Visiting of the Vasari Corridor.

In an interview published by Corriere della Sera on 21 October 2021, the director of the Uffizi, Eike Schmidt, expounded on his vision of the "contemporary" Uffizi. One question that interests me and probably a lot of my readers was:"There's been a long wait for the reopening (of the Vasari Corridor) but isn't 45 euros for a ticket to visit the Corridor too much?", Schmidt explained that the price is much lower than the one demanded by the private agencies (essentially ticket scalpers) who routinely snatched up the few tickets available before the corridor closed in 2016. In essence, his reply continued to the effect that the price is determined by the market. 

I'm not all that convinced by the Director's neo-con economics response.The Vasari Corridor, with 125 admissions at a time, will obviously have more demand than supply during high season, and therefore can impose high prices (even much more than 45 euros). In low season, the price will drop to 20 euros to be competitive. And it is clear that these prices make both the museum's accountants and the ticket scalpers, who will ask for a large share of tickets, happy. It is a pity, however, that the Uffizi, as a public service, does not work more for the benefit of the tax payers who have invested 10 million euros into renovation of the Corridor, rather than for the bank balances of the museum and the scalpers. The taxpayers have invested rightly, given that citizens must be able to benefit from the heritage that belongs to them, but wouldn't it be reasonable that they don't have to pay a lot of money all over again to enjoy this heritage?

Update 18 March 2021: Tours of the Vasari Corridor.

IMPORTANT: there are no legitimate tours of the Vasari Corridor being offered currently but it looks like that the Vasari Corridor will re-open on 27 May, 2022, and will be accessible by ticket. Apparently it will not be necessary to be part of a tour group.

Eike Schmidt, the director of the Uffizi Gallery, has announced that the Vasari Corridor will officially become a part of the Uffizi after reopening in 2022. Visitors will then be able to enter the Uffizi, stroll through the Vasari Corridor and then explore the Boboli Gardens or the Pitti Palace. Tickets will cost €45 in high season, €20 in low season and will be free for students.

Route of the Vasari Corridor in Florence

One disappointing aspect is that the many excellent self-portraits currently hanging in the Vasari Corridor will be removed because it won't be possible to climate control the corridor suitable for paintings on canvas and wood.

The Vasari Corridor from above

According to the official Uffizi website, no tours of the Vasari Corridor are now available, and anybody who offers such a tour is committing a fraud:

"False information concerning nocturnal visits of the Uffizi and Vasari Corridor
The Administration of the Uffizi Galleries confirms that these promotional contents are totally unfounded. From 1 December 2016 until further notice the Corridor remains closed for works of safety regulatory compliance. Consequently no bookings will be accepted.
False information is spreading on Facebook about nocturnal openings of the Uffizi and Vasari Corridor on various dates with visits organized by associations/groups which are unknown to us, such as Firenze Vista di Notte. The Administration of the Uffizi Galleries has already filed a lawsuit against the fraudsters and confirms that these promotional contents are totally unfounded."

The official website for the Uffizi tickets is https://www.uffizi.it/en/tickets - once again note that many other official-looking web sites offer Uffizi tickets at enormous markups.

Interior of the Vasari Corridor in Florence as it was until closed in 2016.

The corridor was lined with paintings, the more interesting ones being an amazing series of self-portraits by famous and not so famous artists, including a surprising number of the Pre-Raphaelites - for example, a very fine self-portrait of William Holman Hunt. These pictures will now be displayed elsewhere in the Uffizi and will be replaced by thirty ancient sculptures along with a space dedicated to 16th century frescoes. 

Empty interior of the Vasari Corridor

The corridor had a doorway and still has a window opening into a balcony high up in the church of Santa Felicita so that the Medici family could attend mass privately, without being seen or subject to attack. The especially large windows overlooking the Ponte Vecchio were specially created for a visit by Mussolini in the late 30's. Part of the corridor snakes around the Torre Mannelli which belonged to the only family that Cosimo I was unable to buy out. Instead of building through the tower, Vasari built around it using a system of supporting brackets. Cosimo was quite sanguine about this - every man is king in his own house, he reportedly observed. The meat market on Ponte Vecchio was moved to avoid its smell permeating the passage, its place being taken by the goldsmith shops that still occupy the bridge.

More about the Vasari Corridor in the 19th and 20th centuries.

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17th century fresco uncovered in the Uffizi during covid-19 closure.

It seems that work continued in the Uffizi Galleries in Florence while they were closed as part of the battle against Covid-19. During renovation work, lost frescoes were discovered. The director of the Uffizi, Eike Schmidt, said that the six months of closure were put to good use, renovating 14 new rooms that will open to the public next month, and discovering frescoes that would otherwise have remained hidden. The previously hidden frescoes include a life-size figure of a young Cosimo II de Medici dating from the 1600s, as well as decorative plant motifs from the 1700s on the walls and ceiling of nearby rooms.

Newly uncovered fresco in the Uffizi depicting Cosimo II de Medici

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Are the museums open in Florence?

As the traditional tourism season approaches and we all hope for Italy to be able to re-open to visitors, the question is "Are the museums open in Florence?" The answer is YES some sights opened today since Tuscany, along with most but not all of Italy, is now in Covid status "orange", and others will open during the course of May 2021. The Regions are opening up and relaxing their anti-covid precautions as the number of new infections continues to drop.

The Duomo (Cathedral) of Florence is open for visitors from Monday to Saturday, 10:15 am - 5:00 pm and access to the dome itself is possible daily 12:45 - 7:00 pm; Saturday and Sunday 12:45 - 5:30 pm. 

 On 16 May, Giotto’s Campanile will reopen daily 12:45 - 7:00 pm, and the Opera del Duomo Museum will be open on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays 10:15 am - 5 pm. The Baptistery remains closed for restoration. 

On Tuesday, April 27, the Boboli Gardens reopen daily (apart from the first Monday of the month) 8:15 am - 6:30 pm.

The Uffizi and Palazzo Pitti will reopen on 4 May. Opening hours (Uffizi): 8:15 am - 6:30 pm. Opening hours (Palazzo Pitti): 1:30 - 6:30 pm. Booking is now required at weekends to limit numbers, but bookings are not required for other days.

 

The Palazzo Vecchio is open daily 9:00 am - 7:00 pm and 9:00 am - 2:00 pm on Thursdays. 

The Museo Novecento is open daily 11:00 am - 7:00 pm and 1100 am - 2:00 pm on Thursdays. 

The Brancacci Chapel is open on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays 10:00 am - 5:00 pm.

 

The Bardini Gardens are open 10:00 am - 6:00 pm until at least the end of May. Booking is required on the weekend and on holidays.

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Another two newly-renovated rooms open at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy

The Uffizi gallery has opened a further two renovated rooms, "Green" Rooms numbers 33 and 34, located next to Room 35, the Michelangelo Room (Sala di Michelangelo), on the second floor. The two new rooms, which, before restoration, used to house works by 16 C Tuscan and Lombard painters, display Roman copies of Greek sculptures, as well as paintings, related to the famous Giardino di San Marco which was created as a kind of art school or academy by Lorenzo de' Medici, il Magnifico, and where Michelangelo did some of his early training.

Roman copy of a Greek original, in a new room at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence

The Giardino di San Marco was dotted with classical marble statues, portraits and sarcophagi to instruct the sculptors of the early Renaissance about what the ancient Greeks were capable of doing, with the aim of replicating those skills in Florence.

The restoration of these rooms forms a part of the commemoration of the 450th anniversary of death of Michelangelo last week on 18 February.

Among the 39 works displayed in the Green Rooms, there are 35 works that have come out of storage, providing yet another reasons to visit or revisit this fabulous art museum.

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Evening drinks at Florence Museums - "Aperitivo ad Arte"

Last year a number of the top museums in Florence stayed open late on certain summer evenings and offered a glass of wine and a snack buffet along with a close-up view of some of their famous works of art. I reviewed the Palazzo Davanzati cocktail evenings with enthusiasm. Evening drinks at Florence Museums "Aperitivo ad Arte" has been announced again for summer 2013, starting with three museums, the Uffizi, the Bargello and, new this year, the Accademia, including the tribuna where the statue of David is displayed. If you'll be in Florence this year, try not to miss these wonderful occasions! They're a chance to see some great art in a very enjoyable ambiance. What better way to pass a summer evening in Florence?

The Palazzo Vecchio seen from the Uffizi aperitivo
on the terrace above the Loggia dei Lanzi.

The Galleria dell’Accademia Aperitivo ad Arte takes place every Wednesday from 7-10 pm, from 5 June until 25 September. The exhibition areas that will be open are the Gallery of Prisons with the Tribuna of David. The aperitivo will be offered in the flowered courtyard of the Galleria.

The Uffizi Gallery Aperitivo ad Arte takes place every Thursday from 7-10 pm, from 6 June until 26 September. The Sale del Cinquecento, including works by Raphael, Bronzino, Allori, Vasari, Andrea del Sarto, Rosso Fiorentino and Pontormo will be open. The aperitivo will be offered on the terrace above the Loggia dei Lanzi.

The Bargello Aperitivo ad Arte takes place every Tuesday from 7-10 pm, from 6 August to 24 September. The Sala di Michelangelo, Rinascimento, and the Sala di Donatello will be open. The aperitivo will be offered in the courtyard of Museum. There will also be performances by the Compagnia delle Seggiole about the secrets of the Bargello and its role during the course of seven centuries of Florentine history.

Aperitivo ad Arte Firenze

Tickets cost €15 and should be reserved (no reservation fee), by calling 055 29 48 83.
 
If you are an ATAF card holder, you are entitled to a 30% discount!

STOP PRESS! The Florence Baptistry will also be open during the evening for three nights a week during summer 2013.

"NON-COCKTAIL" LATE OPENINGS: The Uffizi and the Accademia are open until 10 pm (last entry probably 9.35 pm) on Tuesdays.

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Author: Anna Maria Baldini

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Vasari Corridor in Florence

For current details on how to visit the Vasari Corridor of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, please see my post here.

Interior of the Vasari Corridor in Florence

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