My husband and I will be in Florence in May and friends have told us that the Uffizi Gallery is a must-see. I'd like to buy tickets online. Who is the best online agent to buy the tickets from? I've seen a couple services who charge 3-4 Euro per ticket. I would much rather buy the tickets direct from Uffizi but was unable to find their site. Any help would be great. Thanks.

I always get my Florence museum tickets here - they are great and reliable to work with (you may also get you Accademmia tix here too)

http://www.weekendafirenze.com/

The uffizi does not sell tickets on the web. They have a couple of phone numbers you can call to reserve tickets:
055294883 is one of them (from the US dial: 011 39 055294883).

Here is the uffizi's official website:

http://www.uffizi.firenze.it/english/benvenuto.asp

The site contains useful info on all of the other State Museums of Florence (Accademia, Bargello, Medici Chapels, Pitti Palace, etc.) as well.

You don't really need to buy tickets in advance. I went in September and it was SO easy. I had my hotel make reservations for me at the Uffizi before I arrived. They sent me an e-mail confirming my reservation and telling me which entrance to go to when I got there. I presented my confirmation at the Uffizzi entrance and purchased my tickets on the spot. This was the best way to go as there was no line at all (unlike the main entrance with tons of people waiting). Do this, no need to buy your tix in advance and pay an extra fee....

We will also be in Florence in May and I went to a website recommended by slowtrav.com (they had a few) and reserved a time and printed my voucher(paid on line)-it was very easy and one less thing to do.

As I recommended for Rome, and as Tiggy has already recommended for Florence, www.weekendafirenze.com will allow you to make reservations for all the museums in Florence you want to visit, INCLUDING the Uffizi, where you will pick up your tickets at the museum.

I have friends who have used this booking service before for Florence, and are now using it for Rome. No waiting, just pick up your tickets and go in. There is a service fee involved.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I will either buy the tickets online since the services you have used are reputable or have our hotel make the reservations for my husband and I. This sounds so much better than standing in a long line - that's for sure. Suehoff, hope you have a wonderful time in May. I'm hoping for nice weather and not too much rain.

I just visited Uffizi last week. I called the reservation line directly from USA, no need to pay until you actually pick up the ticket and none of the additional handling fees. Very simple. All you need is a confirmation number. Evenryone was holding a piece of paper with the number on it.

If you need to pick up the ticket first thing in the morning, the ticket office does not look OBVIOUS until about 8:05. There is NO SIGN whatsoever indicating the location of the ticket office. Then around 8:05, a door suddenly opened and the staffs brought out the waiting posts and the ticket booth sign.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to get tickets in advance. I was there last week and the wait without tickets, beginning at 8 a.m., was more than three hours long. Our hotel receptionist, at the Antica Dimora, was not receptive to making reservations for us. We were advised to be there when the gallery opened, and were told that the line shouldn't be too bad at that time. I suppose everything is relative, but I think it's totally unacceptable to waste three and a half hours of irreplaceable vacation time standing in a line that can be so easily avoided.

If I understand correctly, the long lines are people who have not made a reservation. If you have a reservation, you can go right up to a designated window and buy your ticket without waiting in line. (And avoid extra online purchase fees)

Is that right?

Not exactly, With a booking service, you can actually pay for all your tickets on-line, for those that charge admission, all at once, and for those that don't charge admission, you can make your reservations to pick up the tickets at the counter.

You do have a booking fee, yes, but then, for those individual museums that you call from the US to make a reservation, you're going to have to pay for the telephone calls, so the two might cancel each other out, except that you won't have to make individual phone calls for each museum or sight you wish to visit if you use a booking service.

Considering you can make these reservation calls to Italy for the price of a quarter, more or less, I don't think it's worth it to go through those special agencies which add a considerable markup.

I'm not sure it's the price of a quarter, WT, to make a phone call to Italy, but as far as the fees, it's something like 2.50E, which isn't all that much,when you think of the time and aggravation it saves.