Uffizi Small Group Tour + Optional Vasari Corridor Access

About This Experience

This is a small-group guided tour of the Uffizi capped at nine people; the Vasari Corridor is an add-on you choose at booking, not part of the base options. You meet your guide in the Uffizi courtyard, skip the ticket line, pass security and head up to the second floor. The guided route takes about an hour and a half and stays there: the Madonnas by Duccio, Cimabue and Giotto, Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera, Leonardo's Annunciation, Michelangelo's Doni Tondo and Raphael's Madonna of the Goldfinch. Titian and the Caravaggio rooms on the first floor are left for you to see on your own afterward, and you can stay as long as you like.

Reserved entry means you avoid the ticket queue only. Everyone passes the metal detector, bags go to the free cloakroom under the courtyard colonnade, and when the gallery is full staff may hold even reserved visitors at the door for a while. Tickets are nominal, so the names you give at booking are checked against ID. The route starts with 126 steps up the Grand Ducal Staircase, about four flights; there are lifts.

If you want the famous paintings explained in a group small enough to ask questions, with the corridor as an option, this one fits. If the corridor is the main reason you are booking, the Florence Uffizi Small-Group Tour (Max 9) with Vasari option covers similar ground, and if you only want reserved entry the Uffizi Gallery Reserved Entry Ticket with audioguide is the cheaper route.

The corridor option works differently from the tour. Your corridor entry is a fixed slot roughly two hours after the tour starts, so you fill the gap in the gallery on your own, then join a museum-escorted group of up to 25 for a one-way walk of about 45 minutes above Ponte Vecchio to the Boboli Gardens exit by Palazzo Pitti. Nobody guides inside. The corridor is a bare passage with Roman busts along the bridge section; the self-portraits moved out in 2016. Backpacks are banned, and once you leave you cannot come back into the Uffizi. Allow around four hours in total.

Highlights

• Guided route through the second-floor masterpieces in a group of no more than nine
• Licensed local guide, starting with a short introduction to the Medici and the building
• Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera, Leonardo's Annunciation, the Doni Tondo
• Reserved entry that skips the ticket line
• Optional self-guided Vasari Corridor slot after the tour, as a paid option
• Stay in the gallery as long as you like after the guide leaves

What's Included

• ✓ Guided tour of the Uffizi Gallery, group capped at nine
• ✓ Licensed professional guide, in English or Italian depending on the option
• ✓ Reserved Uffizi entry ticket with priority entrance
• ✓ Headsets when the group is above a certain size
• ✓ Vasari Corridor entry slot, only with the corridor option
• ✓ Free cancellation up to 24 hours before

Not Included

• Vasari Corridor access on the standard options
• Any guiding inside the corridor, which museum rules forbid
• Entry to Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens
• Food and drinks
• Hotel pickup and drop-off

What to Bring

• Passport or ID card for each guest, matching the name given at booking
• A small bag only: luggage and large bags are not allowed, and backpacks are banned in the corridor
• Water in a bottle of 50 cl or less if you want it

Good to Know & Caveats

• Cancel up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund.
• Tickets are personalized: each guest's full legal name must match their passport or ID, or entry may be refused.
• A reservation skips the ticket queue; everyone still passes the security check, and when the gallery is full staff may hold entry for a while.
• The corridor is not part of the guided tour. Your slot is about two hours after the tour starts (an 8:30 tour enters the corridor around 10:45), and the exact time is on your ticket.
• The corridor is one-way and ends across the river near Palazzo Pitti; after exiting you cannot re-enter the Uffizi. Allow 3.5 to 4 hours in total for the corridor option.
• Backpacks, rucksacks, suitcases and large umbrellas are banned in the corridor.
• The operator says tours may occasionally need rescheduling; you would be told as soon as possible.

Meeting Point

The listing gives the statue of Leonardo da Vinci as the starting point, in the Piazzale degli Uffizi courtyard between Piazza della Signoria and the river, and says the exact meeting point can vary by option, so check your voucher.