twoflower

I've read about the need to book in advance for the Uffizi and the Accademie in Florence. How far in advance? Is it realistic to arrive and go to the Florence Tourist Information Office with a view to booking to visit these places next day? Or do people recommend booking before we even leave home? Thanks,

caroline_edinburgh

For our recent trip we bought Gli Amici degli Uffizi membership cards and they worked very well for us - €60 for 1 or €100 for family membership, giving unlimited entry to many sites of interest including these 2 with entry through a priority door at the Uffizi & Accademia (these are also the doors used for pre-booked visits). I booked them online the week before and on our first afternoon we called in to the Amici office to pick them up, so we were ready for the off first thing the next day. New this year is the alternative Florence Card scheme - €50pp, gives 1 visit to each of even more places of interest *but* only lasts 72 hours, which wasn't much use to us (or anybody, I'd imagine).

We got to both the Uffizi & the Accademia about 10 minutes before opening time. At the Uffizi we were the only people waiting at the Amici / Florence Card / pre booked door when it opened at 8.15. At the Accademia we found about 20 people in front of us but still got in very quickly once the door opened - I think they let in everyone from that queue before opening the door to the general queue.

So in summary, if you don't think an Amici card is worth it for you, I'd certainly recommend booking in advance. You could probably do it there the day before (certainly at one of the galleries themselves, not sure about the Tourist office), but I probably wouldn't want to risk it and would phone up to book before leaving home. (One of the things I learned while researching the options is that phoning gives you a much greater choice of entry times than online booking.)

kybourbon

It depends on time of year (and time of day) you are visiting. The ticket prices for each are 6.50€ unless there is an exhibition and then they are about 10€. The official museum website charges a booking fee of 4€.
http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/english/

phillyboy

We were in Florence about 3 weeks ago. We walked up and bought tickets for the Uffizi at the entrance, and were inside within 20 minutes.

caroline_edinburgh

ky, when we were there all the main museums & galleries had special exhibitions on and single ticket prices were about 13 euros each.

(Eek - just discovered I don't know how to do a euro sign on this laptop since it doesn't have number keys on the rigt - anyone ? On my previous PC it was alt & 0128 using those keys.)

hikrchick

We were in Florence the first week of September and had the concierge at our B&B make reservations 2 days in advance. But that was only because everything was closed on Mondays, otherwise it would have been just the day before.