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Firenze Card Update

So, we arrived in Florence and went immediately to the TI to purchase our Firenze cards for 3 of the four of us (my youngest son is only 16 and so did not need one). The woman at the counter was very friendly , and when said something along the lines of, "For you, the price has just gone up", I thought she way just joshing around with me. But no - as of June 1, the price has increased from 72 Euros to 84 Euros. The date of our purchase - June 1st!!!

Since I had planned on purchasing the card and therefore not made any reservations in advance , UI really had no choice but to go ahead and purchase it. Making matters even worse, we were in Florence over the first weekend of the month, so one of the days in which I might have used the card, it was not used because the museums were free.

We ended up going to the Accademia, Medici Chapel, Ufizzi, Pitti Palace/Boboli Gardens (this was the free one), and Brancacci Chapel. I have no idea as to whether they have raised regular admission prices for the museums at the same time, but based on the prices in Rick's 2018 book, we would have only spent 62 euros to visit those sights (factoring in the free day). Obviously, there is the reduced hassle factor of using the card, but still with three cards, we ended up paying a total of 66 euros more by getting the card - a not insignificant amount. If we had needed to pay for both the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens, it would have cost us 85 euros, but if I had to pay, I might not have chosen to pay the extra 10 euros to visit the Boboli Gardens.

So that is something to be aware of.

As a aside, I have to say that all four of us really liked the Pitti Palace and frankly, overall we preferred the paintings that we saw there to the Ufuzzi (though I must confess the thrill of seeing the Botticelli Birth of Venus right in front of me when at the Ufizzi).

Posted by
16698 posts

Yes the price for the card went up, probably in tandem with price increases for the Uffizi and some other attractions this year. See this previous thread:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/new-fee-for-firenze-pass-up-to-85

Making matters even worse, we were in Florence over the first weekend
of the month, so one of the days in which I might have used the card,
it was not used because the museums were free.

Yes BUT the most-visited national museums - like the Uffizi - are especially swamped on free Sundays so it's not a good day to try and do them. Free first-Sundays only apply to national museums so you could have used your card at, say, some of the Duomo complex attractions, Santa Maria Novella or others not under the national-museum umbrella.

Posted by
19 posts

While Euro for Euro, we "lost" money on our Firenze cards during our visit, the flexibility it afforded us was absolutely worth it - priority lines, no reservations and spontaneity worked for us! I'm sure your sticker shock was significant at the time, but you seemed to have gracefully rallied - good for you!

Posted by
16698 posts

While Euro for Euro, we "lost" money on our Firenze cards during our
visit, the flexibility it afforded us was absolutely worth it

The rise in pass price reflects the rise in price for individual tickets to the Uffizi, Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens. If you visit those places+ enough others, then the cost averages out to be similar, using the pass, to individual entry prices.

We had used a different pass which unfortunately no longer exists in its prior form for our 5 days in the city, and it was a good deal for us. The Firenze Pass can be a good purchase as well as long as you do the math and have the time and desire to see enough of what it covers to come close to breaking even. The flexibility is certainly a plus but if one isn't into museums at all, then individual pre-purchased tickets to a select few might be in order.

Posted by
8680 posts

I morn the loss of the great 'Friends of the Uffizi' card which once in addition to being an annual membership in the Uffizi admitted one with priority to all those other attractions. We walked past two long lines at the Academia and walked right in with that pass back in the day. And of course it was perfect for the Uffizi. We also had an apartment just outside Porta Romana and so walked through the Boboli gardens into Florence each day through the back gate. It was beautiful. Once people caught onto how much better this pass was than the Firenze Card, they clamped down on its use and it lost priority access advantages except at the Uffizi.

Posted by
16698 posts

I mourn the loss of the great 'Friends of the Uffizi' card...

Janet that's the one we had and fully intended to buy again for our next long stay in Florence. I mourn that loss too!!! :O(