Uffizi Gallery Tickets: Book Ahead, Pick the Right Slot, and Avoid the Monday Mistake

This guide is for anyone planning to see Botticelli, Leonardo, and Caravaggio at the Uffizi in Florence—whether you are a first-time visitor, a family with children, or a return traveler trying a different ticket this time. It helps you decide which ticket to buy, when to book, how to handle the free-Sunday crowd, and which rules will actually change your entry. The single biggest constraint: advance tickets sell out weeks ahead during peak months. Walking up to the ticket office without a reservation often means a multi-hour queue or no ticket at all. The Uffizi is closed every Monday, and the free first Sunday draws enormous crowds without the usual priority-access lanes. What to know first The Uffizi is open Tuesday through Sunday, 8:15 to 18:30. Ticket office closes at 17:30. Closed every Monday, 1 January, and 25 December. Advance tickets cost €29. Same-day walk-up tickets cost €25, but only if slots remain. The afternoon discount from 16:00 onward is €16. Children under 18 of any nationality enter free. EU citizens aged 18–25 pay a reduced €2 ticket. Disabled visitors plus one companion enter free. The first Sunday of every month is free entry for everyone—but reservations are not available, priority lanes are suspended, and crowds are extreme. Groups of 11 or more pay an extra €70 fee. Groups of 6 or more must use whisper headsets (radio whisper rental €1.50 at the entrance). All tickets are nominative: your name is printed on the ticket and may be checked against ID at the entrance. The PassePartout 5-day combo at €40 covers Uffizi, Pitti Palace, and Boboli Gardens on consecutive days. The first booked entry must be the Uffizi. Interior corridor of the Uffizi Gallery lined with classical marble sculptures and arched windows overlooking Florence Source: Uffizi Gallery corridor with classical sculptures, Wikimedia Commons. Choose the right ticket for your visit Pick your ticket type before you book—each has different rules. Uffizi single ticket: €29 advance / €25 same-day / €16 after 16:00. Covers the permanent collection and any included temporary exhibitions on the day. Single entry only; you cannot leave and re-enter. Uffizi + Vasari Corridor: €47 advance / €43 same-day. Entry to the Uffizi comes two hours before your Vasari Corridor time slot. Friday evening special: €24 advance / €20 same-day (from 19:00). PassePartout 5 Days: €40. Covers Uffizi, Pitti Palace, and Boboli Gardens across five consecutive days. Add Vasari Corridor for €58 total. Valid for one entry per museum. The five-day clock starts with your Uffizi time slot. Annual Passepartout: €80 single / €120 family. Unlimited priority access to Uffizi, Pitti Palace, and Boboli Gardens for one year from your chosen start date. Vasari Corridor visits add €20 per access. Firenze Card: a separate city pass sold at firenzecard.it. Uffizi entry requires a separate time-slot reservation via the call center or tickets.uffizi.it, choosing the Firenze Card holder option. Free admission: who qualifies and what changes Free tickets still require a named reservation if you want a guaranteed time slot. Children under 18 of any nationality: free with passport or ID shown at pickup. Disabled visitors plus one companion: free with priority access. Acceptable proof includes a national disability certificate, European Disability Card, or a valid disabled parking permit with personal data plus ID. University students and teachers in specific academic fields, tour guides with valid license, ICOM members, journalists with current press card, and Italian Ministry of Culture employees all qualify for free entry with proper documentation. Reduced €2 ticket applies to EU citizens aged 18 to 25, plus citizens of Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein, and Uruguay. ID showing age is required. All free and reduced tickets are nominative. Bring the same ID you used when booking. First Sunday free entry—and why it may not be your best option Free entry sounds appealing, but the reality is a packed gallery with no time-slot control. On the first Sunday of every month, the Uffizi offers free admission to all visitors. No reservation is possible; entry is first-come, first-served. Priority-access lanes for card and pass holders are suspended on free Sundays, except for disabled visitors with a companion, pregnant women, and the daily quota of pre-booked school groups. Queues routinely stretch for hours before the 8:15 opening. Inside, the most famous rooms—Botticelli, Leonardo, the Tribune—become shoulder-to-shoulder. If you want to actually see the artworks rather than the backs of other visitors, pay for a weekday slot instead. The €29 advance ticket is a fraction of what you already spent getting to Florence. Check the official notices page before a free Sunday visit: staff assemblies or maintenance may cause delayed or reduced hours that day. Plan your entry time and route Your time slot determines how much you see. Book the earliest available slot (8:15–8:30) to walk through the Botticelli and Leonardo rooms before the late-morning peak. Allow at least 3 hours for a first visit. The gallery occupies two full floors of a 16th-century building with a one-way visitor flow. The audioguide costs €6 and covers the permanent collection in Italian, English, French, Spanish, German, Polish, Russian, and Japanese. Pick it up at the entrance before 17:00. The cafeteria on the second floor has a panoramic terrace overlooking Palazzo Vecchio and the Duomo. It is the only place inside where you can eat or drink. The bookshop at the exit and the ground-floor shop carry multilingual guidebooks and art-history titles. The exit route passes through the ground-floor post office. If you hold a PassePartout, visit Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens on separate days. Boboli is a steep hillside garden—wear comfortable shoes and budget two hours minimum. Rules that change your visit Several rules are enforced at the entrance and can deny you entry if ignored. Bags, backpacks, umbrellas, and large objects must be checked into the free cloakroom. You will pass through a metal detector. No flash photography, selfie sticks, tripods, or any kind of professional equipment. Pencil sketching is allowed; pens and colours are not. No food or drink in the exhibition halls. Canned drinks, alcohol, and corrosive drinks such as cola are explicitly prohibited. Water bottles must stay sealed or in your bag. A dress code applies: no bathing suits, skimpy clothing, bare feet, bare chests, wedding dresses, or period costumes. Mobile phones must be on silent mode. No phone calls inside the galleries. Weapons, knives, sharp objects—including ritual items such as kirpan—are forbidden. Visitors carrying firearms, even with a license, will be denied entry. No animals except certified guide dogs, service dogs on a leash, and pet-therapy animals with a medical certificate emailed in advance to uffiziaccessibili@cultura.gov.it. Groups are capped at 16 people including the guide. Larger groups must split and book separate slots. Common mistakes Showing up on Monday. The Uffizi is closed every Monday without exception. Many travelers lose a full day to this error. Booking a late-afternoon slot thinking they will see everything. The ticket office closes at 17:30 and staff begin clearing rooms at 18:30. A 16:00 entry gives you roughly 2.5 hours. Assuming the first Sunday free entry means a quiet visit. It is the busiest day of the month, with queues starting before sunrise in summer. Buying a Firenze Card and not booking a Uffizi time slot separately. The card does not grant walk-up entry; you must reserve a slot through the call center or tickets.uffizi.it. Leaving ID at the hotel. Nominative tickets mean the name on your ticket must match your passport or ID card at the entrance. Bringing a large backpack and losing time at the cloakroom queue. Travel light and keep valuables in a small cross-body bag that fits under your jacket. What to check before you go Visit uffizi.it/en/notices on the morning of your visit. Staff assemblies, room closures, and artwork loans can change your plan. Confirm your time slot and the name on the ticket match your ID. Check the date: 1 July 2026 has a staff assembly with possible delayed opening. Any future strike or assembly date will be posted on the notices page. If you booked a Vasari Corridor ticket, note that your Uffizi entry starts two hours before your corridor time. Download or screenshot your e-ticket. Mobile reception inside the ground-floor courtyard can be unreliable. Wear comfortable walking shoes. The gallery route covers roughly two kilometers of corridor and stairway. Sources Uffizi Galleries official ticket page: https://www.uffizi.it/en/tickets The Uffizi hours and visitor information: https://www.uffizi.it/en/the-uffizi Free and reduced admission eligibility: https://www.uffizi.it/en/pages/free-and-reduced-tickets Visitor rules and regulations: https://www.uffizi.it/en/pages/rules-to-visit-the-uffizi-galleries Official ticketing portal: https://tickets.uffizi.it/ Uffizi notices (closures, assemblies, artwork loans): https://www.uffizi.it/en/notices Afternoon discount notice: https://www.uffizi.it/en/notices/afternoon-discount-at-the-uffizi-gallery Group extra fee notice: https://www.uffizi.it/en/notices/extra-fee-groups