organized tour or "on our own" to see Academia and Uffizi?

Tough one Lyn. I definitely would not do a group tour at the Academia. It is really quite small, and just reading Rick's guide notes (we also had the ipod version) is more than enough. Daivd and the Prisoners (the biggies) are in one long room and so simple to find. You really will gain nothing in a tour there (except being part of a group and perhaps not getting as close as you wish or having the freedom to walk around and linger, looking at Daivd from different perspectives). The Uffizi is big. We followed the Steve's IPOD tour and found it great. There were plenty of groups there, but again as the entire group arrives at key pieces of art at the same time, it sure looked as if many people didn't get much of a look. I would bring as many Ipod's as you have (you can always share ear buds) and perhaps a few copies of his tour from the book. IMHO. Enjoy.

The Accademia can be done on your own. Use the guidebook and maybe do a little extra reading beforehand. It's pretty small and there isn't much exciting there besides David, unless you are into music instruments. The signs explaining the exhibits are in English.

For the Uffizi, our small group of four hired a private guide. I believe it was about 180 euro, plus tip, and worth every penny! If your budget will allow you to splurge on this, go for it. I am sure there are also slightly larger group tours that might be cheaper, though I don't know of any personally.

A final option if you want to 'share ipods' is to purchase a "splitter" that will allow you to plug in two sets of headphones to a single ipod.

Thanks for yoour helpful responses. Which guide did you use? We can afford an individual guide. Grazie!

Another option would be to rent the audioguide provided by the museum. You don't need an ipod for that and they'll cost you about 3 Euro/person. I thought the one at the Uffizi was actually quite useful and I spent a good 2 hours with it going through the exhibits.

I agree with Liz and Beatrix. The Academia can easily be done on your own. The building was built especially to show DAVID. A few other things but you don't need a tour. For the Uffizi, I suggest that you rent the audio and do your own tour. It will take up to 2.5hrs to go through. A tour is also quite OK if that's what you wish to do.

Rick's Uffizi tour is in hard copy in his book: Florence & Tuscany. You could make a photocopy, of just those pages, for each person.

Thanks everyone for all your help! Now I know what to plan.
Lyn