Florence end of December

You’ll need tickets in advance for the Accademia and the Uffizi. There are also many other places to view art for which you don’t need tickets in advance: the Museo San Marco, the Bargello, the Capella Brancacci (although you are supposed to make reservations in advance for it), the Capella Medici, the Palazzo Pitti, etc. Florence is also wonderful for strolling around and enjoying the views, as you mentioned. My own inclination would be to do any of this independently.

If you don’t know much about art, my inclination is to recommend that you do at least one of the big sites - - maybe the Uffizi- - with a guide. It really helps to know what you are seeing and why it’s noteworthy. A good guide will fill in some of the historic background, as well. Otherwise the experience may seem like an undifferentiated blur.

cjvanburen, how long/which dates will you and your family be in Florence? The amount of time you have to work with will likely dictate how much you should include in your itinerary.

Thanks for quick replies today. To answer when or how long we'll be there, we'll get there noon Sunday and leave sometime on Wednesday, Jan 1.

One of the top sites I think you shouldn't miss is the Duomo museum ("Museo dell'Opera del Duomo"), even though it doesn't make many "top sites" lists. It includes many of the true treasures of the Florence Cathedral, like the Baptistery doors (the ones outside on the Baptistery itself are copies), as well as other beautiful sculptures by Renaisance talents. It's beside the cathedral with a rather low profile, but it's very, very worth a visit. There is a copy of David on the piazza outside the Palazzo Pitti, but the original, full size one, is in the Accademia Gallery and requires an advance ticket. Another gorgeous and under-rated gallery is the Museo del Bargello, particularly if you prefer sculpture to paintings. That's the gallery with Donatello's sculpture of David (very different than Michelangelo's), as well as many by Michelangelo and Bernini. It's also not on most people's must-see list, but it should be.

If you want an interesting tour that will really hold your attention, I recommend my favourite tour company Context Tours. You can get a tour for just the 4 of you, but their group tour size has a max of only 6 people anyway, and their guides are usually very involved in the area and have lots of interesting information and answers to any of your questions. I did one of the Uffizi Gallery, but they offer many options of places or themes (like one that focuses on Michelangelo, or Dante, or food).

...we'll get there noon Sunday and leave sometime on Wednesday, Jan 1.

OK, so you have abt. 2.5 days to work with, and the National museums (Uffizi, Accademia, etc.) are closed on Mondays so to do the two you've listed, you'd need to get advance tickets for a different day. You don't say if you're coming into Florence by rail from another Italian city or by air from outside the country but if it's the former, you could order Accademia tickets for later Sunday afternoon. If it's the latter, I don't recommend buying anything in advance should a flight delay/cancellation cause you to miss your time slot. Order Tuesday morning tickets for the Uffizi.

The other thing you could do Sunday afternoon is take a self-guided walk of the historic center. Rick provides a free "Renaissance Walk" that can be downloaded to your own devices, and many guidebooks provide self-guided walking itineraries you could follow as well.

https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/audio/audio-tours/italy

Monday would be a good time to take in some of Florence's other treasures. The duomo complex is a possibility, and one ticket admits you to all of the associated structures (baptistry, dome (with prior reserved timed climbing slot), museum, crypt, church, bell tower). The church itself is free so the ticket doesn't allow you priority entry but it does for the other pieces. The interior of the church is also far less impressive than the exterior or the interior of the baptistry so you really could skip it if the queue is too long.

https://www.museumflorence.com

Backing up to the Uffizi.... Yes, it's one of the world's great art museums but there's no rule that says you must or even should do this one if you're an art novice and/or your time is short. It can be an overwhelming, eye-crossing thing for beginners to take in! The good news is that there are plenty of other places in Florence to get a healthy dose of wonderful art/architecture, and to do it without dealing with the mob and vast collection at the Uffizi. To avoid retyping, this previous thread has a list of some of my faves to pick and choose from (and they are $ bargains besides):

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/enjoying-florence-on-a-tight-budget

The additional bonus about some of these venues? Unlike "David"- originally created for an elevated perch high on the duomo so is purposely out of proportion to accommodate that perspective - you'll get to see works still in their original positions (in situ) after many centuries.

When we were in Tuscany, we did a day trip to Florence. We’d been there, but long ago. We chose to do two Walks of Italy tours.

The morning tour started with the Academie, then we went to the Duomo and spent the rest of the morning walking the streets listening to a wonderful walking lecture of the history of Florence. After lunch, we did a tour of the Uffizi.

I highly recommend WOI and these two tours. The groups were small - 12 in the morning tour and 6 in the afternoon tour. Our guide for both has a Masters in art history. Skip the line tickets are provided by both and we walked right in. The Uffizi stayed open late the evening we went and after the tour was over, we could explore on our own. The morning tour was a great introduction to the city and you can get plenty of ideas of where you’d like to explore in more depth later.

There’s plenty on both tours that I think would appeal to teenagers. We were there the week before Christmas and the weather was mild and Florence was not crowded.

I hope you have a wonderful time!