Accademia and <i>David</i>: tour or just ticket?

Most travelers, here, do self-tours of the Accademia. Before you decide not to do it on your own, I suggest you go here http://www.ricksteves.com/news/travelnews/0602/italy_downloads.htm and download Rick's free audio tour of the Accademia, scroll down to Accademia. If you like his tour, you can download it to your iPod and have Rick whispering in your ear--it's a substitute for trying to read his book as you walk through the rooms.

Thanks, Kent. As always, your posts are very helpful.

I've seen some who prefer the self-tour and others who say they learned so much more by taking the tour. It's always helpful to hear the opinions from this forum.

I think the biggest advantage of taking a tour is that you might get more out of the other sights in the museum. I suspect most people dash in, see David (and perhaps the Prisoners), and leave, but there are some other interesting exhibits, particularly one of musical instruments.

That said, I used Rick's book and audioguide and did it myself and it was perfectly fine/fun.

I agree that when it comes to a subject like the art in a particular museum, a guide who is a specialist in art history can provide more information about the art, a specific piece and how the specific work fits into an overall period, than most of us can learn on our own. If a traveler has an in depth interest, a professional guide type tour, given by a specialist, can be money well spent.

I had a tour of the Academia by a guide who was part of the Rick Steves Venice tour. She described most of the major works there. If you don't know much about early Venetian Reniassance art, take some kind of tour. You will get more out of the experience.

Accademia is manageable with a book or audio guide.... I would save the money to get on a guided tour at Uffizi.