I'm planning on getting us Firenze cards for our visit to Florence soon. I see that the Accademia now requires FC holders to call ahead to reserve a time (instead of walking in with the FC, which I guess is how it used to work), so I looked at the B-ticket site to see how the schedule looked for the days that we'll be there, and for every day that we're there, the site says "Sold Out" all day. Even if we have the Firenze Cards, I imagine that when I call the Accademia to reserve a time, that there won't be one...unless the 'sold out' status only applies to the tickets that they sell directly...maybe there's another status for FC holders that isn't published online? Just wondering if anyone had experience with using the FC and then calling the Accademia to reserve a time...thanks!
Posted by
Minnesota 🎒
16409 posts
Dren, if you know what date you want to visit, call them at the soonest opportunity and ask for a reservation. Some recent posters have also reported success just making their reservations when they arrived in Florence, although I'd call ahead if you already know what day you want to go This thread will probably be helpful?
Posted by
OP
5 posts
that's incredibly helpful, thank you so much!
Posted by
Minnesota 🎒
16409 posts
You're welcome! Thank Adrienne, Lorna and Aaron for those valuable firsthand reports! :O)
Let us know if you were successful getting your reservations?
Posted by
59 posts
Dren -
My wife and I are going in September and also have Firenze cards. I did call the number to get our reservation and code that we will need with the cards and the woman on the phone was extremely helpful (once we got passed that I didn't speak Italian). Just an FYI the menu is in Italian and you may want to have Google Translator or something equivalent to get through it.
Posted by
OP
5 posts
That's great info about the phone messages! thanks so much, and glad to hear that it was a pretty easy phone call. much appreciated! I'll be calling late tonight (they were closed on monday)
Posted by
OP
5 posts
Okeedoke, I made the call and did it for both museums with the same operator. She was very nice and helpful. Looks like we're all set, thanks all!
Posted by
613 posts
Consider skipping it. Its a second rate art museum at best, its very expensive, and if you want to see Michelangelo at his best, go to the much, much less crowded Medici Chapels.
Posted by
Minnesota 🎒
16409 posts
kb1942, we'll have to agree to disagree on that. While maybe not my favorite of art museums, the Accademia certainly has its merits; I enjoyed the Florentine Gothic painting collection very much.
Posted by
OP
5 posts
Hi all, just a note that we have returned from our vacation and calling ahead and using the firenze card worked really well! once we finally found the window to go to to confirm our reservation with the confirmation they gave me on the phone, we walked right in to both museums. At Uffizi, we had a rather strange set of questions before we were allowed to get to the window to confirm our reservation "where are you from? are you here on vacation?" which I thought was very odd...I assume it's due to many locals picking up reserved tickets and selling them to tourists, but it was strange. I would recommend the Firenze Card, as we went to a few other museums that we might not have visited otherwise, and since it allowed free entry for our kids it was well worth it, and we were only in Firenze for a couple of days. I will say, that some of the museum workers aren't entirely clear on how the card works...at Pallaz Vicchio I showed my mobile pass for FC, and the first person I showed it to told us to wait in line, and didn't understand when I tried to explain, so I found another worker there and she understood and let us walk right up to the FC window, in case that helps anyone...
Posted by
Minnesota 🎒
16409 posts
Dren, thanks so much for getting back to us with a firsthand report! Glad to hear that the card ended up working well for you! :O)