Vasari Corridor: Night Hours & Artworks

The Vasari Corridor will now be accessible to the public, without visiting the Uffizi Gallery, every Friday from 7 to 11 pm through December 26, 2025; ticket price: €20.

Touring the Vasari Corridor during the day requires purchasing a ticket to the Uffizi Gallery with a special supplement, at a total cost of €43.

The Vasari Corridor, closed for eight years, finally reopened on December 21, 2024. Visitors can now cross the Arno and reach the Pitti Palace and the Boboli Gardens while taking the same route the Grand Duke of Florence and his family used in the 16th century. The Vasari Corridor is partly located above Ponte Vecchio, and was named after its architect, Giorgio Vasari.  He completed it in 1565 after receiving a commission from the Grand Duke of Florence to create a passageway that allowed the Medici family to reach Palazzo Vecchio (the government headquarters) for work from Palazzo Pitti (their residence) undisturbed.

Before its closure in 2016, the collection of self-portraits by famous artists, containing approximately 2000 works, was exhibited there, but for now (until further notice), all the paintings are displayed in a special section of the Uffizi Gallery.   

A collection of 50 Roman busts, formerly in storage, now line the Vasari Corridor.  The exhibits, on pedestals, spanning the era from 200 B.C, to 200 A.D., comprise portraits in marble of intellectuals, military officers, aristocrats and even lovers.  While walking, a stylistic evolution is evident.  Realism was a style favored during the Roman republic, and many busts depict every facial detail, including wrinkles, receding hairlines and even large noses and oversize ears.  An elderly man, who seems to be a breath from being alive, known as the “Velato capite,” dated from the end of the first century B.C. and features outstanding sculpted drapery.  Portraying subjects as realistically as possible was due to the idea that age exemplifies wisdom in contrast to later idealized figures, when Rome was a full fledged empire.     

Domitia, the wife of Emperor Domitian (no, they were not related before marriage), who reigned as empress between 81 and 96 A.D. is represented by a flattering marble work.  Another Roman empress, Vibia Sabina–a distant cousin of husban Hadrian–is also in the line-up, distinguished by her noble demeanour and life-like braid wrapped around her head.  Vibia Sabina’s spouse is known for establishing the northern boundary of the Roman Empire in Britain, still called Hadrian’s wall.  Also related to a prior Roman Emperor, Trajan, Sabrina was remarkably powerful for a woman of her day–her profile appeared on Roman currency.  (Paulina Juzak & Rosanna Cirigliano)