The Uffizi Gallery, Florence - visitor information

Reserve Uffizi Gallery tickets and tours

The Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy - visitor information

A visit to the Uffizi Gallery is pretty much obligatory for visitors to Florence; you may be staying in Florence proper, in which case you'll have several bites at the cherry, or you may well have set aside just one or two days. In either case you can, under the best of circumstances, figure on an hour or two standing in the queue, and it's not unheard of for people to be queuing for three or four hours!

Why risk any of this? Several hours will enable you to do some serious wandering around the city, so why waste any of that time by standing in a queue?

The Galleria degli Uffizi is the most visited (over 1.5 million 2 million (2017) people a year, closely followed by Michelangelo's David) tourist attraction in Florence, and is home to the finest collection of paintings and pictures in Italy - it is undoubtedly one of the finest museums in the world.

The building is a Renaissance palace by Vasari (1560) and was once home to the offices (hence 'Uffizi') of the Medicis' administration. The building is 'U' shaped, the closed end looking out over the river Arno and the other end opening onto Palazzo della Signoria. Once Vasari had died, building and extension work continued, with each successive member of the Medici clan adding to the increasingly rich treasure trove of the family's art collection. With the death and will of Anna Maria Lodovica, the enormous collection was bequeathed to the people of Florence, with the condition that it never be allowed to leave the city.

During the nineteenth century the vast bulk of the statuary was moved from the Uffizi to the Bargello museum (still in Florence), whilst many other antiquities went to the Museo Archeologico. What remained is a breathtaking collection of paintings and as smaller selection of sculpture.

Most people leave the Uffizi vowing to return - there simply isn't enough time to do it justice in one visit. Be warned that you'll often find rooms, sometimes large sections, of the gallery closed, but you're unlikely to leave feeling short-changed.
We have a page here about progress on Uffizi Gallery expansion - 'Progetto dei Nuovo Uffizi'.

Below is a rough floorplan of the Uffizi Gallery; underneath it you'll find a key showing you what to expect to see in each of the rooms.

Upon request we are able to organise guided tours of the Accademia (as well as other Florence art museums) - please click here for details.

One post on our blog that may be of interest is the list of Uffizi rules and regulations, handily answering your 'may I take photographs in the Uffizi Gallery?' type of question. And the answer to that is that yes, you may, but not using flash photography!