Friends of the Uffizi vs Firenze Card

Unless you're going back within a year I'd opt for the Firenze card. Say you arrive on day one at 10 a.m. Go to hotel, have lunch, buy and active your card at 3 p.m. and tour a couple smaller museums. This gives you all of day two, all of day three and until 3 p.m. on day four when you'll probably be thinking about a) where to have that last great dinner, b) packing, c) where to have that last great dinner and d) take that after dinner stroll. Figure out your strategy before you leave home - what is closed on say Sunday, Monday, second Tuesday of every month except when there's a total eclipse of the sun (just kidding - kinda). Write it out, really, write it out. Look at your list and then say - what is close together that's open on Tuesday? Even if you have four full days (arriving the night before day one) there's a lot to see/do without activating your card. P.S. Tour the Uffizi when you're fresh - go to the reserved ticket door not the regular line (what were those people thinking!). Do go out on the rooftop cafe terrace - you'll be impressed:) Yes, you will have to wait to gain entry no matter what - x amount allowed in at any one time.

The Firenze card is just not worth it! I calculated the cost of museum tickets (Uffizi, Accademia, Bargello) and found that I'd be saving $40 by buying individual tickets. Also, you're staying there for 4 days, so you'll have to pay museum fees on the third day anyway. I recommend you research the admission fees of museums you're planning to visit, and see if a card is worth it

Totally agree with Sean. Since the Firenze card went from 50E to 72E, it's not in our budget. We won't get to that many places in 3 days, and the bus and wi-fi are not added value. We will just be paying entry fees to the sights we want to see in 72 hours. That also frees us up to travel outside of Florence when we want.

I think it depends on your interest in certain museums. I've joined Friends of Uffizi on my last two visits because it lets me drop into the Uffizi whenever I want, and I really enjoy being able to revisit favorite paintings multiple times (eg, late in the day, when the museum was surprisingly empty). If that's not of interest to you, with such a short stay, individual reservations may be more cost effective. You really only need reservations at the Uffizi, Accademia, and Brancacci chapel (even though other museums offer them). One caution that the Uffizi told me about: If you book their membership through PayPal, apparently PayPal will automatically renew if you don't tell them not to to do so. The Uffizi warned me, because they said it's PayPal's action, not the Uffizi's. Since you mention visiting multiple museums, I thought I'd mention an interesting one I discovered on my last trip: the Palazzo Davanzati is a well preserved medieval merchant home and I found it offered an interesting glimpse into daily life.