Vasari Corridor/Ponte Vecchio
 

Does anyone know if the Vasari Corridor is currently open to the public?

If it is open, I would like to know the hours it is open, the cost of the tour, and if there is an English-speaking tour guide. This must be a short tour - the bridge isn't that big.

Also, if anyone has been there, would you recommended taking the tour?

It is open but more I cannot tell you.

Thank you,

That's a start.

topping for me

My post dropped to number 177, so I am topping again hoping for some help.

Did you try googling this to get an answer? I did, and the site with the most info relevant to your inquiry (or at least easiest for me to access) was selectitaly.com - the specific address is: http://www.selectitaly.com/museums.p...amp;city_id=16

KC

It is under the administration of the Uffizi so you can check their site or maybe call their phone number, the one for reservations. There was an article in Conde Nast Traveler a few months ago that detailed a private tour of the corridor; it was very expensive, however. Check their web site.

There's no reason that I can see to go through expensive booking agencies.

This is the Corridoio Vasari page on the Uffizi Web site:

http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/en...o/Default.asp?

You can join the small group tours called "Percorso del Principe" (telephone number given). It doesn't seem to be a short tour, though, since it starts at the Palazzo Vecchio.

Why pay US$88 to SelectItaly when you can pay 28.50 Euro by making a short phone call?

Thanks to everyone for the helpful information.

I was in Florence two years ago and the corridor was not open during my stay.

As luck would have it, I am going back this May. I am LONGING to see the Vasari corridor, so I phoned the Uffizi to see about booking tickets. The woman I spoke with told me point blank that the corridor was closed. She didn't even wait for me to let her know the dates I was considering.

Has anybody else had better luck?

Guidebooks tell me blithely what days the VC is open, what hours tours are given, how much it costs, what number to call ... is it just me?!?

I got the same response when I was there - just a very curt "chiuso". I get the impression it's always closed.

After reading the two posts above me, things aren't looking too good for a tour of the corridor, unless someone has different information.

I know a friend who went to the Vasari Corridor, but I'm not sure when exactly. I went back to look at my e-mails, as he had sent me an e-mail about his visit. At the end of Dec. 2004, he wrote that he had been to Florence "recently." So I'd imagine that the Vasari Corridor was open sometime in 2003 or 2004.

Unfortunately I don't know if it's open right now. I get the feeling that it was seasonal. And I seem to recall that he was either there in the Fall of 2003 or 2004 -- I recall the fall season, and based on his choice "recently," I've made an educated guess.

I also remember his telling me that the reservation system is antiquated, that he had to sign up on the day of the tour (maybe that was because he didn't have a reservation), and that there was a limit to the number of people who could visit.

I've never been, but my understanding is that the Corridor is rather overrated from an art point of view. Most of the best Renaissance collections are in the main part of the Uffizi.

But from an architecture point of view, and from a what-a-view point of view, and from a "how cool to walk from the Palazzo Vecchio to the Pitti Palace just like a Medici" point of view, I'm still longing to see it. Plus, they have one of my favorite painter's only self portraits hanging in a hallway of artists' self portraits.... so you see, I have to go.

Someday.

The Vasari Corridor was open when I was there in early January 2005. Once you got into the Uffizi, there was a sign-up sheet for the Corridor tour. Unfortunately, I got there too late, and all spaces had been taken for the day.

phyllis_stein,

You put it so well. WillTravel thanks for the (very) current information.

i_am_kane, thanks, but now it's one year old :).

Oops, what was I thinking? Or not thinking?

Sorry, I was in a hurry to watch a DVD tonight.

Probably too obvious an idea, but why don't you ask your hotel what the story is. Barring that, read the article I mentioned and call the agency that does the private tours and ask them if it is open.

ekscrunchy,

We will be staying at the Hotel Casci, and from what I've heard about the Lombardi family who own/run this hotel, they probably would be most helpful.

I don't read Conde Nast, so I will have to tap my local library for a copy.