The Uffizi Gallery

Whenever I escort tour groups-or friends-through the Uffizi, I always focus on just a handful of paintings. If you try to see it all, which you definitely can do, your eyes will glaze over and you probably won't remember much of anything. So, the approach I've taken here is deliberately selective rather than inclusive. And I've chosen paintings that first caught my interest more than twenty years ago-and never lost it.

The Uffizi Gallery will take you on a deep dive into a couple dozen paintings. The goal is to help you understand and appreciate the individual paintings and, at the same time, to give you a sense of what the Renaissance in Florence was all about. My recommendation: Read this guidebook before your visit, take it with you when you go, and read it again whenever you want to relive your Renaissance art adventures.

This new edition of The Uffizi Guide replaces the earlier edition of 2012, and it faithfully reflects the new locations of the paintings discussed here after the Uffizi's major renovations in the following decade were completed.