About Chiara Benvenuti
I am Chiara Benvenuti, an art history writer in Florence. I grew up in the Oltrarno, a few streets from Santa Felicita, the church the corridor passes on its way to Boboli, and I studied art history at the University of Florence. This site is where I write down what I tell people who ask me whether they need a tour for the Vasari Corridor.
The short answer I give everyone
Usually not. The museum’s own ticket covers the Uffizi and the corridor together, and once you are inside the corridor nobody explains it to you, on a tour or off one. Museum staff walk every group through and do not guide. So I tell people to pay a tour for the paintings, or for a slot they could not get, and never for commentary in the corridor. How to book the official ticket.
How I know the walk
I have walked the corridor on a day ticket and on a Friday evening slot since it reopened in December 2024. It is a bare passage, restored on purpose to look that way, and the walk takes about three quarters of an hour without stopping. The windows are what you remember. I think it is worth doing once, and I would rather tell you it is bare than let you expect the self-portraits that hung there until 2016. They have not come back. Whether it is worth it, honestly.
Why I still send some people on tours
Two reasons hold up. The first is the Uffizi itself: two hours with a good guide in front of the paintings is worth paying for, and that is where a guide earns the money. The second is availability. The museum releases tickets gradually and they sell out, and a tour or a resold ticket can still have a slot on a date the official shop does not. When either applies, I say so on the page. All six options, with the official ticket as row zero.
How I check what is on this site
Prices, hours and rules come from the Uffizi’s own pages: the corridor page, the access rules and the ticket prices, read on 5 October 2026. Tour prices, ratings and review counts were read from GetYourGuide on the same day, and they move. Where two sources disagree I give both: the Uffizi says the corridor was built in 1565 and other sources say it was commissioned in 1564; the museum gives about a kilometre for the walk on one page and 760 metres on another, because they measure different stretches. Where I could not confirm something, I leave it out. The history, with the disagreements left in.
What I am not
I am not the Uffizi, not a ticket office and not a tour operator. I cannot sell you a ticket or get you a slot. I do not recommend one tour company over another, and in the reviews I write “the operator” and mean it. When you are ready to book a tour I send you to GetYourGuide, and often enough I send you to the museum’s own shop instead. If something here is wrong or has changed since I checked, write to me.