Context : Transitional disks are thought to be a late evolutionary stage of protoplanetary disks whose inner regions have been depleted of dust .
The mechanism responsible for this depletion is still under debate .
To constrain the various models it is mandatory to have a good understanding of the properties of the gas content in the inner part of the disk .

Aims : Using X-Shooter broad band - UV to NIR - medium resolution spectroscopy we derive the stellar , accretion , and wind properties of a sample of 22 transitional disks .
The analysis of these properties allows us to put strong constraints on the gas content in a region very close to the star ( \lesssim 0.2 AU ) which is not accessible with any other observational technique .

Methods : We fit the spectra with a self-consistent procedure to derive simultaneously spectral type , extinction , and accretion properties of the targets .
From the continuum excess at near-infrared wavelength we distinguish whether our targets have dust free inner holes .
Analyzing forbidden emission lines we derive the wind properties of the targets .
We then compare our findings to results for classical TTauri stars .

Results : The accretion rates and wind properties of 80 % of the transitional disks in our sample , which is strongly biased towards stongly accreting objects , are comparable to those of classical TTauri stars .
Thus , there are ( at least ) some transitional disks with accretion properties compatible with those of classical TTauri stars , irrespective of the size of the dust inner hole .
Only in 2 cases the mass accretion rates are much lower , while the wind properties remain similar .
We do not see any strong trend of the mass accretion rates with the size of the dust depleted cavity , nor with the presence of a dusty optically thick disk very close to the star .
These results suggest that , close to the central star , there is a gas rich inner disk with density similar to that of classical TTauri stars disks .

Conclusions : The sample analyzed here suggests that , at least for some objects , the process responsible of the inner disk clearing should allow for a transfer of gas from the outer disk to the inner region .
This should proceed at a rate that does not depend on the physical mechanism producing the gap seen in the dust emission and results in a gas density in the inner disk similar to that of unperturbed disks around stars of similar mass .