What to book in Florence, in short
With two or three days in the city, this is the list you need:
- Accademia: book on the gallery's own site, €20 plus €4. The David has the longest queue in Florence.
- Uffizi: buy in advance on the official site (€29) if you are travelling in high season. If you are flexible, the same-day ticket costs €25, and from 16:00 it drops to €16.
- Duomo: choose the pass according to what you want to climb. If you want the dome you need the Brunelleschi Pass, and you should book it several days ahead because the time is fixed.
- Palazzo Vecchio and Pitti: you can usually buy these without any trouble on the day itself.
- Firenze Card: usually only worth it if you visit at least four paid museums in three days, and only after checking that they are on the list.
The rest of the page gives the details: first the prices, then transport and taxes, and finally the departures for the rest of the region.
Florence tickets: the five that matter
These are the prices published by the bodies that run the museums. Two things to bear in mind: at the Uffizi and Pitti the price depends on when you buy, and at the Accademia the booking is charged separately.
| Museum | Full price | Run by | Good to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uffizi | €25 on the day, €29 in advance | Gallerie degli Uffizi | afternoon ticket from 16:00 €16 / €20; closed on Mondays |
| Accademia | €20 + €4 booking fee | Galleria dell'Accademia | closed on Mondays; last entry 18:10 |
| Duomo complex | passes at €15, €20 or €30 | Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore | the Cathedral is free; the dome only with the €30 pass |
| Palazzo Vecchio | museum €18, tower €20 | City of Florence | free for under-18s |
| Pitti and Boboli | €22 on the day, €25 in advance | Gallerie degli Uffizi | separately: Pitti €16 / €19, Boboli €10 / €13 |
Uffizi
Uffizi tickets are sold by CoopCulture on tickets.uffizi.it. Some older guides still mention B-ticket, which is no longer the official seller. The advance ticket carries your name and a time slot. The afternoon ticket, with entry from 16:00, is the smart choice if you only want to see the main rooms. Entry is free for everyone under 18, and EU citizens aged 18 to 25 pay €2. The Vasari Corridor can be added with a combined ticket at €43 on the day or €47 in advance. As a rule the museum opens Tuesday to Sunday, 08:15 to 18:30.
Galleria dell'Accademia
The ticket costs €20, plus a €4 booking fee if you reserve. If you still see €16, even on some of the museum's own pages, that is the old price. For €26 you get a 48-hour combined ticket with the Bargello. For €38 you get 72 hours at every museum in the group: the Accademia, the Bargello, the Medici Chapels, Orsanmichele and Palazzo Davanzati. The €4 booking fee applies to the combined tickets too.
Duomo, dome and bell tower
The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore is free to visit, with no ticket, but it is closed to tourists on Sundays and during services. Everything else is paid for with one of three passes:
- Brunelleschi Pass, €30: the dome, Giotto's Bell Tower, the Baptistery, the Museo dell'Opera and Santa Reparata;
- Giotto Pass, €20: everything except the dome;
- Ghiberti Pass, €15: the museum, the Baptistery and Santa Reparata.
Reduced tickets apply from 7 to 14, and children up to 6 get in free. The passes are usually valid for three days; for the Brunelleschi Pass, the days are counted from the day of your dome climb. The dome has 463 steps and the bell tower 414, and there are no lifts. In the Baptistery, the mosaics on the ceiling are being restored.
Palazzo Vecchio
The museum now costs €18 (reduced €12) and the Arnolfo Tower €20 (reduced €13). The old €12.50 you still see around no longer applies. Under-18s get in free, and reduced tickets are for 18 to 25-year-olds and university students. It usually opens every day from 09:00 to 19:00, closing at 14:00 on Thursdays. The tower has shorter hours and may stay closed in bad weather. With the same update to the civic museum prices, the Brancacci Chapel went up to €15.
Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens
Pitti and Boboli belong to the Uffizi and follow the same logic: the price is lower if you buy on the day. The combined ticket costs €22 on the day or €25 in advance. If you are adding the Uffizi too, look at the PassePartout: €40 for five days at the Uffizi, Pitti and Boboli. Boboli is usually closed on the first and last Monday of the month.
Firenze Card: when it really pays off
The Firenze Card, the official pass for the city's museums, costs €85 and lasts 72 hours from the first entry. It covers more than 60 museums, with one entry per museum. Under-18s in your family get in free with you, and there are no other discounts. With the "Restart" option you can add 48 hours for €28, only in the app. There used to be a Firenze Card+ that included transport, but it is no longer sold: buses are paid for separately.
A rough sum at official prices, assuming the card covers all four: the Uffizi (€29), the Accademia (€24), Palazzo Vecchio (€18) and Pitti with Boboli (€25) come to €96 if you book everything in advance. Buying on the day wherever you can, the total drops to €85, exactly the price of the card. So with four big museums in three days you save little or nothing, with two or three you lose money, and the real gain only comes if you add other museums. Which museums are included, and with what booking rules, should be checked on the official list at firenzecard.it before you buy.
Official site or platforms?
In Florence the rule is simple: the official site is cheaper. Tiqets and GetYourGuide are useful when the official time slots are sold out or when you want an audio guide in your language, and you pay more for them. The David with a guaranteed time slot on GetYourGuide starts from €37.80, against €24 on the museum's site. The Uffizi with an audio guide starts from €38. The dome climb with entry to the Duomo starts from €64.90, more than twice the Brunelleschi Pass. Partner prices change often and we check them regularly.
Florence: Michelangelo's David Official Timed Entry ticket
(15,388 reviews) from €37.80
Book on GetYourGuide
Florence: Uffizi Gallery Reserved Entry Ticket & Audioguide
(1,976 reviews) from €38
Book on GetYourGuide
Florence: Brunelleschi's Dome Climb Entry Ticket & Duomo
(6,047 reviews) from €64.90
Book on GetYourGuideThe same goes for passes. The Firenze Card resold on GetYourGuide costs €94, which is €9 more than on the official site. Tiqets' "The Florence Pass", from €92.50, is a different product from the Firenze Card and has a low average rating: read carefully what it includes before you buy it.
Florence tickets and activities on Tiqets
Getting around Florence: buses, trams and the ZTL
The centre is best explored on foot. Buses and trams are useful for getting in from the airport, going up to Piazzale Michelangelo or reaching the coach stops.
- City ticket: €2 for 90 minutes on buses and trams, €3 bought on board and only with coins. A 10-ride pack costs €18.20. With contactless you pay directly with your card, one card per passenger.
- From Peretola airport: the T2 tram reaches Santa Maria Novella station, at the Alamanni stop, in about 20 minutes, on the same €2 ticket.
- Between Florence's stations (Santa Maria Novella, Campo di Marte, Rifredi) the city ticket is also valid on regional trains.
Don't drive. The centre is a ZTL (limited traffic zone) watched by cameras: sectors A, B and O are active Monday to Friday from 07:30 to 20:00 and on Saturdays from 07:30 to 16:00. From April to early October there is also a night ZTL on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 23:00 to 03:00. Each unauthorised entry can cost from €83 to €332, and with a hire car the fine reaches your home months later, with the rental company's admin charges on top. If your hotel is inside the ZTL, give it your number plate before you arrive and ask by when it needs to register it: the permit covers driving to the hotel, not driving around the centre.
Tourist tax in Florence
You pay it at your accommodation, per person and per night. The rates set by the city council:
| Accommodation | Per night |
|---|---|
| 1-star hotels, campsites | €3.50 |
| 2-star hotels | €4.50 |
| 3-star hotels, B&Bs, guesthouses, short lets | €6 |
| 4-star hotels, historic residences | €7 |
| 5-star hotels | €8 |
| Hostels | €4 |
As a rule you pay for the first seven consecutive nights, and children under 12 do not pay. For a couple in a three-star hotel that is €12 a night, so put it in the budget. Other Tuscan towns also have a tourist tax, usually a few euros.
Santa Maria Novella: Florence as a base for Tuscany
The real advantage of staying in Florence is Santa Maria Novella station. Regional trains leave from here for every provincial capital in Tuscany, at fixed fares that do not go up if you buy at the last minute. Paper tickets must be validated; digital tickets validate themselves at the train's departure time.
| Destination | Regional train from SMN | Typical journey |
|---|---|---|
| Pisa Centrale | €9.80 | 51–60 min on the fast service |
| Lucca | €8.90 | from 1 h 20, direct |
| Siena | €10.80 | 1 h 27–1 h 35 direct, up to about 1 h 50 with a change at Empoli |
| Arezzo | €9.80 | 46–62 min on the fast service |
| La Spezia, for the Cinque Terre | €15.90 | 2 h 20–2 h 35 |
The buses are next to the station too. From the Autolinee Toscane bus station you can take the fast 131R to Siena and the 50G to Grosseto. The 131R terminus has been temporarily moved to Via Orti Oricellari: check the stop before you set off. From the Piazzale Montelungo hub, also next to the station, the 365 runs to Greve and Chianti, and several of the organised day-trip coaches leave from there as well. For a comparison between tours and doing it yourself, see day trips from Florence.
When to go
The best months are May, the first half of June, September and the first half of October. In July and August the average high is above 32 °C, and Florence, sitting in a basin, is hotter than the coast and the hills. November is the wettest month; winter is quiet and the queues are shorter.
On Mondays the Uffizi, Pitti and the Accademia are closed: spend the day at the Duomo, at Palazzo Vecchio or on a trip out of town. On the first Sunday of the month the Uffizi and the Accademia are free, but without booking, so the queues are long. A few dates change the feel of the city: the Scoppio del Carro on Easter Sunday, the Calcio Storico in Piazza Santa Croce in June with the final on the 24th, the feast of St John, and the Rificolona on the evening of 7 September.
Mistakes to avoid
- Relying on a same-day ticket for the Accademia in high season. A €4 booking fee saves you hours in line.
- Buying a "dome ticket" on a reseller's site. It is the Brunelleschi Pass with a mark-up.
- Planning the big museums on a Monday. It is the closing day for the Uffizi, Pitti and the Accademia.
- Buying the Firenze Card "just in case". With fewer than four big museums it usually does not pay for itself.
- Driving into the centre because the satnav says so. The ZTL cameras issue a fine for every entry.
- Getting on the bus without a ticket, hoping to pay on board. On board it costs €3 and you need coins: contactless is better.
Where to go from Florence
The easiest trips without a car are Pisa and Lucca, an hour or a little more by train, and Siena, with the fast bus that drops you in the centre. For San Gimignano you change at Poggibonsi. Chianti begins just south of the city, while for the Val d'Orcia you need a car or a tour. In the city you can also take a cooking class or see one of the current exhibitions. To decide where to buy, read our appraisals of Tiqets and GetYourGuide.