Uffizi..........Florence
 

Is it a good idea to get tickets in advance for our trip in Aug? Can anyone tell me where to get more info on the Uffizi? thank you

You MUST get tickets ahead or face lines of up to 2 hours in hot summer heat in Florence! Unfortunately, I don't know where you get the tickets. Do you have a hotel booked? You should by now and perhaps they can get the tickets for you. Otherwise, there must be a web site--search onYahoo. You'll see the "Venus on the clam shell" as my kids liked to call it---beautiful and a great experience albeit exhausting!

Rudy, we were at the Uffizi gallery a couple of weeks ago. We definitely recommend getting tickets
in advance. The lines were sooooo long when we got there. My friends got there before us so they were able to get tickets in advance. I don't think you get reserve by internet. Check out this site for help:
http://www.tiac.net/users/pendini/uffizitk.html
The Uffizi was beautiful-you'll enjoy it!
Have fun!

While you are in Florence, don't forget Michealangelo's David--incredible-- and be sure to get ice cream at Vivoli's, near the Duomo--good, just follow the cups in the trash bins-the more, the closer.

I've been to the Uffizzi gallery twice, once in May of 1995 and once in August in 1996. I never had a problem with getting in. The gallery is fairly central, so I just kept walking past and checking the line-up. When it was small, I got in it. The first time I didn't wait at all and the second time I waited twenty minutes. Try going on the evenings it's open late, around dinner time (tourist dinner time, that is, not the locals' dinner time). Or just get there really early, like before it opens, and wait. I took a night train into Florence on my first trip, got accomodations and then went to the Accademia to see David an hour before opening. Ate my breaky and talked to some really great fellow travellers who were also there early, and standing there for an hour was no big deal at all, it was even fun! I read a message on another travel forum from a couple who did get advance tickets to the Uffizi and said getting the tickets was a rip-off and was unnecessary. I think they got them through this Fodor's site, though, if you're set on it. Be sure to check out some basic art history books before you go to the Uffizi -- it was so much better the second time I went when I knew something about the art I was seeing (like Cimabue vs. Giotto, gothic art and byzantine influences, Botticelli, Raphael...etc, etc, etc!) Enjoy! It's a great gallery!)