Few Florence questions

We were in Florence a week ago. i bought Uffizi tickets on their site, showed up 15 mins prior, and was in at the allotted time. I think the only way to hear the guide is through the headphones. It was noisy and crowded inside. Pitti palace tickets were bought in person, the line was 15 mins.

For November, I can’t imagine the crowds will be anything. Just buy the normal concession.

I spent some time in Florence at the beginning of May. In the case of the Accademia, I simply bought a timed ticket on their website. There was still a bit of a wait in the line for people with reserved tickets because they were running behind in allowing the timed groups in. Once inside, the timed tickets did the trick of making the crowds manageable - I really didn’t feel crowded at all. I used the Rick Steves audio guide on my phone to get a bit of guidance.

In the case of the Uffizi, I wasn’t concerned about skipping the line. I would have been fine using a timed ticket from their website.. But I wanted a tour guide because it’s so large and I wanted to learn more about what I was seeing. I used Context Travel https://www.contexttravel.com/ which uses local experts. They are rather expensive, but I felt it was worth every penny. The guide was excellent and it turned out that our “small group” was only two people! So very personal. By the way, this tour was scheduled in the late afternoon once the big tour groups were gone.

I did not visit the Pitti Palace. I did take a walking tour (“Walk and Talk”) with Florencetown Tours https://www.florencetown.com which was a good orientation to Florence. I believe they offer tours of the museums as well.

Rick Steves audio Europ has great guided tours in Florence. Download the app and you will see the list of audio tours.

As to what you get by a guided tour of the Uffizi or Academia, it really depends on what you are as an art person. If you are comfortable getting the cellphone guide program (offered today in many museums), that's what we do. We don't need a guide. Some do. We have been to hundreds of museums, and are knowledgable about art history and artists.

We were in Firenze in 2022 Sept 30-Oct 4. We walked into museums with only normal short waits. It was not a problem. We did not go into the Duomo, where the line was long.

Thank you everyone for your insight. Much appreciated!