I am going to Florence for 2 days in October, and would like to go to the Uffizi and Academia. I have heard that it's best to buy tickets to both before going. Does anyone know the best place to buy these tickets? Thanks.

you should try to search on this forum since that question and its answer have been posted here many, many times. I see that you are not new to the board, so this should bot be news to you.

I would contact my hotel and ask someone there to make the reservation for me in advance. With that, you shouldn't have any trouble getting in.

Hi CFP,

I have copied and pasted this for you from a very heplful Info on Italy thread here:

"How do I make reservations for the Accademia and the Uffizi in Florence?"

The easiest and cheapest way is to call Florence 011 (U.S. international access code) 39 (Italy's country code) then 055-294-883 8:30-18:30 M-F and 8:30-12:00 Sat. Florence time. You will get an English speaking operator and in 2-3 minutes YOU CAN RESERVE FOR BOTH. This is through the reservation service at the Uffizi and costs beyond the normal entry fee only about 1.60 euro for the service.

There is alot of helpful Italy info here, just type Italy, or something more specific in search and you will find so many helpful hints!

Best wishes, T.

Here is that link for you CFP:

Helpful Information: Italy http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34443340

Also they have started a "Helpful Information: Italy 2" You will see it if you enter 'helpful information italy' in search.

Have fun! T.

DH and I reserved our tix the morning before using the phone number above.

The operators are VERY conversant in English, so you should have no problems.

And having tix in hand was a big help.

Thank you everyone for the advice. And, sandi_travelnut, you're right. I am not especially new to the boards, but I don't use it to it's full potential, I'm sure. I'm still learning. Sorry to have inconvenienced you and wasted time when apparently there are many more pressing issues...like wearing PJs on the plane.

CFP, lol.

The reservation fee mentioned above is a bit outdated (2003). It is now 3 euro per their website (http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/english/default.asp).

You do not pay until you claim the tickets at the museum.

CFP,

Sandi seems to have the time to see how much you post, but not to polietly respond to your question.... you were not the one who was out of line here.

Folks if you don't like a post, don't respond, but quit being so high and mighty. It's not like you are paying for the bandwith costs!

I was polite enough. I wasn't mean in sugesting how to utlize the board, lots of poeple do it AND I didn't have the link handy.

book for the accademie as well

You can also have your hotel make the advance museum reservations for you. I corresponded by e-mail with our hotel, Hotel Silla in florence. They offered to get the advance museum reservations for us, and they made the calls for us, and got us the reservation times we wanted. They e-mailed us our reservation numbers, which we took with us to the museums. The Hotel Silla didn't charge us anything for this service. But the museums, as mentioned, can charge you an extra 3 euros or so per ticket for the reservations. However, sometimes, if the regular lines aren't super long, the museum may "waive" the fee, as they did for us. With your reservation number, you of course don't get in the regular line. You find the short line for people with reservations.

I don't know if this will be an issue in October but I'd recommend booking your tickets weeks in advance. I was in Florence the end of April and waited til the week before to book tickets to the Uffizi and the reserved tickets were all sold out.

I used weekendafirenze.com and booked both Uffizi and Accademia for 30 euro total about 1 1/2 weeks prior to the date (4/1/05). I went right in but the line waiting to purchase tickets was very long.