Uffizi gets its queuing system down to a fine art

FOR visitors to Florence, it is an unpleasant test of endurance – queuing for up to four hours, in baking heat or pouring rain, for the privilege of entering the Uffizi Gallery, the repository of the world’s finest collection of Italian Renaissance art.

But now, the museum plans to roll out a new system that will cut waiting times down to just a few minutes.

The initiative comes as the gallery attracts ever larger crowds, with numbers rising from two million visitors in 2016 to 2.2 million last year.

The museum is testing out a sophisticated algorithm which takes into account the weather, the time of day, whether it is low season or high season and the number of tour groups, in order to calculate the best time for individuals to visit.

Tourists who turn up at the Uffizi will take a ticket from one of seven machines, which will then assign them a visiting time during the day. It could be an hour or two later, depending on the density of tourist traffic.

In the meantime, tourists can wander off and grab a cappuccino or visit other attractions, rather than being stuck in an interminable queue.

The system was tested last Sunday and drastically reduced the time that visitors had to wait.

Eike Schmidt, the director of the Uffizi, said: “It was a fabulous result. In high season, people queue for up to four hours, and never less than two.

“It means that tourists will no longer be tired and grumpy by the time they’ve entered the first gallery.”