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-   -   Official Apps for Florence / Tuscany - hard time finding (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/official-apps-for-florence-tuscany-hard-time-finding-1660127/)

mdtravel Nov 8th, 2018 04:49 PM

Official Apps for Florence / Tuscany - hard time finding
 
I leave next week for Florence with visits to Siena, Pisa, San Gimignano, Volterra, Lucca and a few other towns in the surrounding area. We will also be in Milan for a day, though don't have a ton of plans as we leave out of Milan and are just stopping by.

I'm having heck of a hard time finding official apps for the major sites in these towns or, for the smaller towns, the towns themselves. Is there a trick to finding the official apps? I have to think that the Uffizi, Accademia, Field of Miracles, etc. have actual official apps. I must be in the dark on how to find them.

Any help?

joan Nov 9th, 2018 04:16 AM

Does it have to be an app? Because they all have websites. Can you make do with that or is it because you are using a small screen phone and wish to have their website translated to the small screen? (Enlarge the screen and scroll around..)

By the way, you should probably buy tickets for the 2 galleries in advance, from the website before you leave home...yes?

Christina Nov 9th, 2018 07:58 AM

What's with the "app" stuff? Why do you need an "app" to look at some museum's website?

mdtravel Nov 9th, 2018 08:03 AM


Originally Posted by Christina (Post 16822547)
What's with the "app" stuff? Why do you need an "app" to look at some museum's website?

So very polite...and helpful to boot.

mdtravel Nov 9th, 2018 08:06 AM


Originally Posted by joan (Post 16822436)
Does it have to be an app? Because they all have websites. Can you make do with that or is it because you are using a small screen phone and wish to have their website translated to the small screen? (Enlarge the screen and scroll around..)

By the way, you should probably buy tickets for the 2 galleries in advance, from the website before you leave home...yes?

No, it certainly doesn't have to be an app. My question stems from some of the apps in Paris, Amsterdam, etc. that serve as a guide to the museum more so than most of the websites for the museums. Being able to find the rooms and then the work inside each room on a map or a list is helpful. Usually, I've downloaded the apps when we get to the museum and they (the museum) is promoting the apps as the guide vs. a paper map or booklet.

Yes to the purchase of the tickets, though it looks like November is quite a bit less crowded than our usual April visits. I'll buy the tickets / reservations for those that we know we absolutely want to visit and the others can be purchased onsite once we know more about our time.

Thanks.

bilboburgler Nov 9th, 2018 09:54 AM

Much as love Italy you may have to accept that Italy has a problem, too many wonderful sites and only a limited budget to go around at the ministry (they are so in debt), plus of course, a fair few Italians earn their crust showing tourists around.

This is pretty good though https://www.discovertuscany.com/siena/tourist-info/

tuscanlifeedit Nov 9th, 2018 10:38 AM

bilboburgler has said it much better than I could.

joan Nov 9th, 2018 11:10 AM


Originally Posted by mdtravel (Post 16822558)
No, it certainly doesn't have to be an app. My question stems from some of the apps in Paris, Amsterdam, etc. that serve as a guide to the museum more so than most of the websites for the museums. Being able to find the rooms and then the work inside each room on a map or a list is helpful. Usually, I've downloaded the apps when we get to the museum and they (the museum) is promoting the apps as the guide vs. a paper map or booklet.
.

AHA! I see what you're getting at now. That said, when we were at the Alhambra in Spain in Sept, the audio guide, purchased at the entrance, was an iphone with gallery by gallery information and pictures. So maybe their audio guide will be helpful in the same way.
Also, Rick Steves has some audio tours you can download before you go. Check this page, the list has some of your destinations on it.:
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-rea...io/audio-tours

mdtravel Nov 9th, 2018 02:55 PM

Good points, and points well taken.

Traveler_Nick Nov 9th, 2018 07:31 PM

https://artsandculture.google.com/pa...uffizi-gallery

Not an app but if you click on explore it'll give you some of what you want.

The only official Tuscan app I know of is the airport one.

Traveler_Nick Nov 9th, 2018 07:34 PM

I probably should read the page first. Top of the above page you'll find a link to the Google Arts app that allows you access to an app based tour. I think. Try it out . For free it can't be too expensive.


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