Florence, Italy has a lot of history.
Enough history to fill over 72 museums. And quite frankly, that’s too much history to possibly see and enjoy while you’re on vacation.
If you have at least three days in Florence and you’re a mega museum-junkie, then you need a Firenzecard. It’s a museum pass for all the state museums in Florence.
It’s valid for 72 hours after you use it to get into your first museum, it lets you skip all the lines and the card is only 72 euro. Another option is the Firenzecard+, which costs 5 more euro.
The added bonus is that you get access to city transportation, which lets you take a rest between every museum stop.
That’s a lot of money to drop at once, but once you glimpse the line at the Uffizi Gallery, the line-skipping privilege is all it’ll take to convince you of the Firenzecard’s usefulness.
Of course, you can only enter each museum once, but after wandering around a single museum for two hours you’ll wonder how you’ll manage to fit every museum on your list in.
The first stop on anyone’s list should be the Uffizi Gallery. It’s the most famous museum in Florence, and holds an extraordinary large collection of pre-Renaissance and Renaissance paintings.
The gallery will satisfy your Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio and Botticelli fixes in one fell swoop. It’s impossibly easy to spend over two hours strolling through the exhibits and taking your time to enjoy the art.
The Uffizi’s map is surprisingly awful, so perhaps take the time to look up what specific pieces of art you don’t want to miss and write them down. Be sure to actually ask for a map at one of the information desks, too. There are about a million rooms in the Uffizi and if you ask where a piece of art it, the guards will only tell you the room number.
Next, it’s time to see the David. Michelangelo’s “David,” completed in 1504, towers over its admirers in the Academia Gallery. Located north of Florence’s Duomo, the gallery is quite far from the rest of the museums.
Unlike the Uffizi, the Academia Gallery should be a quick stop. The main event, the “David,” is the most notable piece of art in the museum. While there are several in-progress Michelangelo statues littered around, and other Renaissance paintings, the “David” is a light and breezy stop.
The Academia Gallery is also one of those stops that will make you understand why being able to skip the lines is well worth the 72 euro. People with reservations (made months in advance) and Firenzecard holders are the only people who can get in the museum in a timely manner. If you just show up and wait outside the museum, your priority takes a backseat to those who have already bought their admission.
“That other line isn’t moving at all,” Tim, from Georgia, USA, said. “Even if it’s a bit confusing to know where to wait, [the museum pass] is worth it.”
Overall, I recommend about 45 minutes for the Academia Gallery. While I would not want to rush yor through the Uffizi (I, too, really enjoy walking through museums at my own pace), the Academia should not require very much time to complete.
You only have 72 hours, remember?
Next, the Bargello National Museum. If you read anything online about this museum, it’ll say that it’s where the Renaissance statues are. And that’s not wrong, but it certainly ignores the second floor of the museum.
I recommend getting to the Bargello at 8:15 a.m. in the morning on your second day of museum-ing. It’s one of the earliest-opening museums, and not a single other tourist will be awake or out of bed that early. It’s perfect for lining up your photos of the pieces.
As for the Bargello’s second floor, it appeared to mostly be made up of Medieval artifacts, so if that’s your thing: Go for it. If it’s not, then you can just move right along to your next museum. Don’t forget about that time crunch!
Now that you’ve completed the essential museums, you have some freedom to pick what you want to see.
The Pitti Palace is beautiful, but large and winding. Firenzecard holders get to skip the ticket line completely and get their cards validated in the bookshop inside the grounds.
Yes, you have to get your card validated at every museum, but it’s a nice little souvenir, since you won’t be getting normal museum tickets.
The Palazzo Vecchio (not to be confused with the Ponte Vecchio, which is a bridge and free) is surprisingly gorgeous. It’ a symbol of civil power within Florence, and hosted the Medici family while they ruled Florence.
The Boboli Gardens are enchanting and enormous. It’d easily take a few hours to stumble upon every nook and cranny in this open-air museum.
The Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology boasts a massive collection of artifacts from around the world. Ranging from east Asia to the Arctic Circle, if you have an interest in different cultures, this museum is for you.
The Galileo Museum is an excellent journey though the history of science. It's a more intellectual, yet pretty version of how humankind got to where it is today.
Now you’re convinced that you absolutely need this museum pass, let’s go over how to get one.
It’s a confusing process if you don’t speak Italian or really know what you’re doing, so here’s an easy three-step process to get your Firenzecard.
1. Go to the Palazzo Vecchio right when it opens. (If you’re there a little too early, buy a cappuccino and a pastry at the café located right next to the ticket office.)
2. Enter the line to buy tickets, but be sure that you go to the window that sells the Firenzecards. The other window just sells museum tickets to the Palazzo Vecchio.
3. Tell the attendant you want a Firenzecard, pay for the Firenzecard and head off to your first of many museums.
You’ll get a plastic Firenzecard; a lanyard with a map and list of all the museums the card will work at; and a great addition to your scrapbook.
And there you go: a comprehensive guide to the museums most worth visiting in Florence, and a great deal on how to handle all your museums in a 72-hour period
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