Day in Florence
 

I will be leaving for Rome in 2 weeks with 4 other women. We plan to spend one day in Florence and have arranged a walking tour in the morning (thru artviva.com) We also have reservations for the Accedemia in the afternoon. My question is can we also fit in a visit to the Uffizi. And if so should we make reservations ahead of time? We plan to catch the ES back to Rome in the late evening. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I am sure you will hear that 1 day is too little but I will save my breath and assume you have very good reasons for this approach. <BR><BR>While you will see very little of either you can &quot;do&quot; the Uffizi in the afernoon and, yes, you should arrange tickets in advance: the line-ups are long from April to October.<BR><BR> But do yourselves a favour and cosider this a &quot;first bite&quot; and promise you will come back later for the meal. I take groups of students through Florence every year, spending 3-4 days and never have seen enough.

Seems like Florence is busy no matter what time of the year; consequently it's always a good idea to reserve tickets for the Uffizi. And especially as you'll be there for one extremely full day. Yes, it's do-able to work in a trip to Uffizi. Museum can be viewed in 3 to 3 1/2 hrs; no dawdling. It'll make for a long busy day.<BR>

Thanks for the advice. How do I go about purchasing tickets in advance for the Uffizi. I checked the website and you can not do it online. Will it be too late to purchase them when we arrive in Rome (4 days prior to our day in Florence)?

Den,<BR>I've used Weekend in Firenze &gt; &gt; &gt; website is http://www.weekendafirenze.com<BR>I've also seen mention of another site to book tix thru called http://www.florenceart.it <BR>Still others have reported they've called the Uffizi directly (sorry, don't have that phone no.) or had their hotel concierge make reservations for them. There will be a service fee in addition to the tix cost; well worth a few extra $$$ to avoid lines.<BR>

I would suggest studying the Uffizi exhibits beforehand and visiting only<BR>the ones that really interest you. Some<BR>might call this heresy, but it could<BR>save you precious time in Florence. Another museum to consider rather than the Uffizi is the Bargello. <BR><BR>A fun place for lunch in Florence after<BR>a morning of sightseeing is the Cantinetta di Verazzano. <BR><BR>

We had a similar situation a few years ago. <BR><BR>We did the reservations at Accadameia and not Uffizi. <BR><BR>We waited until about 1 hour before Uffizi closing and were able to walk right in, no wait. They gave us a list of the &quot;big&quot; things to see in a short visit plus my wife had a few she wanted to see. We headed straight there and enjoyed our time. <BR><BR>Still need to go back, but it worked for us. This was also in the busy time of late September. You may want to take the chance and try this as not too many people pay for tickets in advance and wait till one hour before close.

Here is another strategy that might work for you, if you are willing to chance it. <BR><BR>On a day trip to Florence, we went to the Uffizi as soon as we arrived (about 11am) and were able to get tickets for 3:45pm the same day. This was in July, so one of the busiest days. Should be even easier in April.<BR><BR>There is a special door for same-day advance tickets, a bit further from the river than the regular door for entrance (that's the one with the HUGE line).<BR><BR>Good luck. Plan something easy for the next day -- you'll be pooped.

My suggestion is to drop either Accademia or Uffizi. Sure, you can fly through both in one afternoon, but IMHO it is not a good idea. I would rathr stick with one FAST (because one afternoon is stilla fast visit in either of these museums, which require at least a couple of days to be visited throughly) to only one of the two museums, and a few hours walking the city. I would also drop the guided walking tour, much better to do all by yourself. The city is rather small, compact: with a map you should work it out fine on your own (I usually do not even use a map!)