Florence museums in a day

Do you have your timed entry reservations? There are many museums and other sites in Florence that don’t need reservations, but those three definitely do.

The link below has Rick Steves's recommended itineraries for Florence.

https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy/florence-itinerary

His one day itinerary is copied below. Use this as a starting point and adjust for your needs.

Florence in One Brutal Day

8:15 Uffizi Gallery (finest paintings) — with a reservation

11:00 Bargello (great statues) or explore and shop San Lorenzo/Mercato Centrale area, lunch

13:00 Follow my self-guided Renaissance Walk through the heart of the old town

15:00 Duomo Museum (great bronze work)

17:30 Accademia (David) — with a reservation

19:30 Cross Ponte Vecchio for dinner and take my guidebooks' self-guided Oltrarno Walk

I plan on making reservations but wanted to get advice on the best order and amount of time for each before I picked the times.

Rick Steves has a walking tours for Florence sites in his book (plus on his app).

The book says to allow 2 hours for his Uffizi walking tour. It also mentions that the Uffizi's own audioguide tour takes about 1.5 hours.

Rick's Accademia Gallery tour says to allow 1 hour but it can be done in 30 minutes if you only want to see David and the Prisoners.

You might consider the Walks of Italy full day tour. You start out at the Accademia before it opens with skip the line tickets. You then take a walking tour of Florence, including the Duomo (but not the dome walk) and the Ponte Vecchia. After a lunch break you meet back for a skip the line tour of the Uffizzi. The Uffizi was open late the day we went so after our tour ended around 5:00, we spent some time exploring on our own.

Our guide Marco has a Masters degree in art history and was an excellent tour guide, pointing out things we wouldn't have known without his comments. Walks of Italy limits their groups to 15 or less. Our tour in December had 10 in the morning and 6 in the afternoon. We didn't even use our headsets in the afternoon.

Forget the Tower; you can look at it from ground level - and give yourself some time in Uffizi, just not to get drunk with too much art.

Uffizi gallery should be priority one in the morning. Get your timed entry and attack it while you have your full energy. You’ll probably max out at about three hours. Plan on sitting down for a nice long meal break after.

It’s important to note the Duomo Museum is separate from the Duomo, and has all of the important art inside. It’s very good. That makes the Duomo kind of light on art inside (relatively) but comes with one of the longest lines in Florence. Climbing the dome is another animal, and if you really want to do it that’s fair. However, by all accounts it can be a tough, claustrophobic climb. For my money, climbing Palazzo Vecchio was much more “user friendly” and actually gives you a view of the Duomo (which you don’t get when you’re on it!) Palazzo Vecchio had long hours when I visited as well.

The Accademia is the easiest of these three. Timed entry will get you inside, and once there it’s a relatively quick visit. The art aside from Michaelangelo’s sculpture is not worth spending time on. I think our visit was well under an hour.

These sights are all in walking distance, so a walking order of them is not that important. Florence can be overwhelming, but if you get your tickets lined up and skip the crowds it’s much easier. Mercato Centrale makes for a memorable, casual lunch or snack stop. If you’re feeling good, the Medici Chapel is a great, high impact quick sight too.

I think the Uffizi is about 3 hours, Accademia about 1 hour and Duomo Museum about 1.5 hours. If you usually enjoy going up towers, then definitely go up the Duomo. I think it’s one of the best tower views I’ve seen and I’ve seen lots of them. The view from the Palazzo Vecchio is good too, but I would take the Duomo’s view.

Agree with the suggestion Uffizi first and most importantly as early as you’re willing to go. it gets really crowded.

The Accademia is also crowded but I noticed a fortunate dynamic - the timed entry system creates waves of people entering, but they don’t linger at the David for the whole 15 minute period until the next entry group. Hence you can get 3-5 minutes with the David and relatively few people around if you just wait for the time group to move along.

If you’re climbing the tower or Duomo it is tiring, so consider doing it later in the day so you’re not dragging for the other visits.

Uffizi - Accademia - Duomo museum - climb would be my preferred plan.