I am visiting Florence for the first time with my partner and I have booked to go from 24-27th April 2024. I have since discovered that the 25th April is Liberation Day, a national holiday, and I am wondering whether I should now try and change my dates as I won't be able to pre-book any of the main attractions in advance and apparently the main galleries are free so everywhere will be super-crowded. I booked Florence as we went to Rome last November and loved it so much that I wanted to go and see Florence next, but when we went to Rome I was able to organise our 3 days there and pre-booked 'skip the line' tickets for the Vatican Museums, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and Borghese Gallery, and it worked out really well. Given that one of our 3 days is a national holiday and I can't pre-book anything, my heart sank and I was wondering if anyone out there had been to Florence on Liberation Day to let me know what to expect (I don';t even know if I will be able to change my dates now!) Thank you!
Posted by
11609 posts
We were concerned when we had scheduled a trip to Venice on Liberation Day April 25 which is also the Saint’s Day for Venice, San Marco. It was a lot more crowded than our previous days as Italians were off work and visited Venice. But we survived by staying away from the main tourist sites that one day. See the main sites on your other two days and discover some off the radar sites on 4/25.
Posted by
New Jersey
68 posts
I will be in Florence on Liberation Day as well. My plan is to avoid the free museums and their surrounding areas. Way too crowded for me. By the way, not everything is free. Just the biggies. Instead, I plan to hit the smaller sites.... and eat lots of gelato! So, you can still make you reservations, you just have to work around that day. You're lucky your trip doesn't involve a Monday, which is the day those same museums are closed. Then you would really be screwed! Have a great trip, maybe I'll see you on the ground. I'll be the one with gelato in my clutches!
Posted by
Minnesota 🎒
16621 posts
It might be a good opportunity to visit attractions which are not on the State Museum list. While I haven't seen an official announcement yet that those will be free on April 25th this year, if we just assume that they will be then think about making a list of those others?
For instance, the duomo complex is not a state museum, nor is venerable San Miniato church up above lofty Piazzale Michelangelo (great view), Santa Croce (Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli are buried there), Santa Maria Novella, Santa Trinita (read up on the Sassetti Chapel frescoes), Santissima Annunziata (a wealth of works by a who's who of Renaissance artists) and Ospedale degli Innocenti on that same piazza (Piazza SS. Annunziata), The Ospedale was designed by Brunelleschi, whose famous dome can be seen from one end of the piazza. It was a 15th- century foundling home, contains some important works of art, and may be the oldest continuously operating children’s care institution in the world.
Anyway, you get the idea? Florence will be busy but there's much to see outside of the biggies so don't despair!