Is it possible to see the Uffizi and Accademia Gallery without a guide?

I concur with the above. We did both with only reservations and enjoyed them both. The Uffizi was a bit overwhelming on our own however, you may consider and audio guide too, though I can't be sure they are available.

You can easily view the Accedmia without a guide as it is basically two rooms - David and another room :) However, the Uffizi is very large and I would recommend a tour just because there is so much to see. I will recommend that you do buy tickets ahead of time (I did on the internet) because we walked up and there were huge lines at both museums (this was in September - I can imagine they would be even worse in June) - and we walked right in.

Not sure of the purpose for the Friends membership. With a reservation you go to the reservation line and enter at the time of the reservation. Rick Steves' Florence guidebook has a self guided tour of the Uffizi that worked pretty well for us. As prior posted it is huge and you could take a couple days just to walk through each room.

Hi Maureen. I'm a museum person but even I get tired after a couple of hours in a museum. What I like to do is research the collection in advance and choose some areas to visit, so I spend my time and energy seeing things I'm really interested in. Some highlights of the Uffizi include Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" and "Primavera", Hugo van der Goes's "Portinari Altarpiece" (a masterpiece of northern Renaissance art), and of course Leonardo da Vinci's "Annunciation."

Thanks, everyone. The purpose of a friends membership is that it gives you entrance to all the state museums, and some villas and gardens, including Boboli Gardens, in Florence, so if there are other places you'd like to see, you've already paid the entrance fee. It's 60 euros per person, 100 euros for a familiy of four. But it does have the restriction of 4 members allowed every 15 minutes, and with my luck, all the members will show up when I arrive!

We downloaded Rick's free audioguides for both the Accademia and Uffizi-- as well as his walking tours of Florence-- and loved them. Give them a shot-- they're free!
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/rick-steves-italy-audio-tours/id272230438

My husband and I are moderate museum people (4 hour visit anywhere, max) and found the free RS audio tours of all the museums we visited in Italy to be adequate for what we wanted. I think the Uffizi tour hit most of what the live guides were saying, as I felt like we moved along from room to room at about the same pace as groups with a guide.

We toured the Vatican museum with a guide and I'm glad because the building itself is so vast that you can easily loose a lot of time just by trying to find your way around. The Uffizi are large but well laid out. It is easy to follow a general path without a personal guide. We rented the audio guide from the museum and that was excellent. As to the limitations of 4 people for entry I would phone up the museum's reservation line. I'm not familiar with the membership but I encountered a similar problem when I wanted to make online reservations for our family of 6. It was not possible at the time. But when I phoned the reservation line directly it was not only possible but I also got a much larger range of choices for reservation times. You can certainly have your B&B make the reservations for you but phoning up the museum yourself is actually very easy. They have English speaking operators and could probably help you better with your additional questions regarding the membership.

The Uffizi audio guide is very good and very thorough. You can skip ahead if it gets too tedious, which it might for the average museum goer. I believe the Accademia also has an audio guide. No need for a tour there especially, since it's a room with David, a few other Michaelangelos, a second room with plaster casts and a small gallery with whatever current exhibit is on.

Maureen, I just read on the SlowTrav site that someone else worried about the 4 per 15 minute problem; she said that even though it was summer they were just waved through, so maybe you'll be so honored, too! The Friends of the Uffizi Pass allows unlimited, head-of-the-line access to many of the 'biggies'. If you've ever considered a Paris Museum Pass, it's very similar except this pass expires at the end of the calendar year. DEFINITELY getting one next time!

All, a quick question about the Friends of the Uffizi pass, for those who have had one, it doesn't auto-renew or anything bad like that does it?

Ted, I've just come across several websites with reminders to 'renew your Friends of the Uffizi' membership...so it looks like we're safe! No auto-renew... Many people buy their passes in Florence - you could purchase with cash - but I don't trust the office to be open when I want it to be open...it IS Italy. I've read reports of people ordering online and receiving their cards in the mail within 3 weeks...

We are arriving on a Sunday, when the office is closed, and plan to go the Accademia on Sunday, so we can't get the membership the day of. In order to get it in advance, they do not accept credit cards on line "as our web payment is being upgraded during these days".
Our only other choices are to use a bank wire, which is cost prohibited, losing the discount in the process, or sending a bank check, but how do you do that in euros?

Thanks Eileen. We are going in September, so we will order around the beginning of summer. When you factor in the convenience of just waving a card and getting in to these fantastic museums, it is well worth 100 euro (even though there are only 2 of us).

I am dreadfully sorry about the quick second post, but Maureen, this may be of some interest to you. The Firenze Card is 50 euro and good for 72 hours. This is the card that has been discussed here and other places recently and may be a viable option. http://www.firenzecard.it/

If you don't mind reading (vs. an audio tour), just buy a RS "2011 Florence and Tuscany Guidebook" before you leave the U.S. The book is loaded with very good guided tours with lots of pictures and descriptions of the sculptures, paintings, etc. as well as a map of the museum's layout. I found that it helped to read it beforehand so I had an idea as to the floorplan of the museums (Uffizi, Bargello, San Marco, etc.), where the great works were located, etc. We travelled to Florence 3 weeks ago and visited about 8 museums in 3 days, so I am speaking from experience.

We were one of the couples that did order the "Friends" passes. I have spoke of them often here. There was no stated restriction of 4 persons per 15 minutes mentioned. This was 2009. We were always waved immediately in by the guard. We did visit the Uffizi 3 times, and it worked the same each time. both at the Uffizi and Academia, Pitti Palace, and I think 4 more places. I mailed them a check for 100 Euros and received the passes in the mail. It did take about 3 weeks. If you know you will be arriving during a week day, you could fax the application in, and they will have the passes ready for you at the welcome desk and you can pay at that time. This is the route I would take next time. Hands down, one of the best tips we used during our trip. The Firenze pass sounds promising, but the date for the card to be released seems to keep drifting out into the future. You can PM me if you have any more questions.

Hello,
I am not sure that I understand the restrictions of the Friends of the Uffizzi family membership. Are there age restrictions on the "children". We are a family of four but our "children" are 21 and 24. I am not sure if it simply means "4 people" Thanks for your help

We just returned from a visit to Italy, including both the Uffizi and the Accademia. We strongly recommend the Rick Steves audio tours that you can download (for free) onto your I-Pad or I-Phone. We used them throughout Rome, Florence and Venice and found them to be excellent.

The Accademia in Florence is NOT "just two rooms"!!! It has a large section of very old musical instruments, and a lot of paintings as well.
Worth a look. http://www.uffizi.firenze.it/english/musei/accademia/visita/