Hello. I read in Steves' guide: "At especially busy times, expect long waits even with a reservation or Firenze Card. There may be a queue to pick up your reservation at door #3 and another 30-minute wait to enter at door #1." We are traveling there during high tourist season. We are wondering if having the Firenze Pass alone and going when we choose to makes sense. Or, should we reserve a date and time? I cannot tell from the guide book if you can reserve a time and avoid paying by saying you have (will have) the Firenze Card. Obviously, I'd prefer not to pay twice, once for the pass and then for a timed reservation.
Posted by
Ontario, Canada
5652 posts
I cannot tell from the guide book if you can reserve a time and avoid
paying by saying you have (will have) the Firenze Card.
No, you can't do that. One or the other. If you'll be visiting a few other museums on the card, then get it. If only 1 or 2 places, make advance reservations.
If you get the card, try to hit the Uffizi when it first opens in the morning. There is simply no way to avoid the crowds in high season. Just try to mitigate it when you can.
Posted by
Minnesota 🎒
16700 posts
Cjean has it right: the queues are what they are for multiple reasons:
A: Everyone must pass a security check so bottlenecks can occur there when large numbers of ticket holders/Firenze Pass users are trying to enter at once. Queues are also possible for processing Firenze Cards and picking up pre-reserved tickets. Worst case, those queues should not be longer than stated above, and definitely much, much shorter than not having tickets/pass at all.
B: For safety, there is a maximum number of people allowed in the museum at one time. If it's very, very busy, they may have to wait until some visitors leave to allow the next visitors in.
Whatever the case, you're going to be ahead of the game with either the Firenze Card or pre-reserved tickets but it won't buy you anything to do BOTH. Along with first thing in the morning ( get there before the opening hour, which is when we went) I read that later in the afternoon can be a good time for shorter queues.
General note about "skip the line" tickets during high season in Italy:
At the most popular attractions in the most-visited Italian cities, having to wait in queues of various lengths/time for security checks and ticket/pass processing is pretty much the norm so just be patient. :O)
Posted by
Freedonia
16557 posts
My experience at the Uffizi last week.....
I had a 1:45 reservation. I went to pick up my tickets at 1:30. I had a one minute wait. I went to door 1 which is for people with reservations. There was no one there and they waved me in early. The line for people without reservations was long.
I was through security and on my way up before my reservation time.
Posted by
Rural Georgia
2213 posts
Christine,
There is another option you might want to consider. We did a Walks of Italy tour of the Uffizi. As part of the tour, you skip the line.
Our tour guide was wonderful. He has a Master's degree in Art History and he provided insights to the history of many of the works we saw. There after the formal part of the tour, he happily answered questions from what to see next to dining recommendations. We were free to stay as long as we wanted.
Tour group sizes are kept small, a dozen or less. There were just six of us (in December) and Marco didn't even use his headset.
Posted by
Minnesota 🎒
16700 posts
WOI tours are very highly rated and well spoken of on the Italy forums, although they are a little pricey. If you decide to go this route, you might want to rethink purchase of the Firenze Pass as you wouldn't be using it for the Uffizi. Depending on how long you will be in Florence, getting in enough of the attractions to justify the price could be difficult, and many of those other attractions do not have the long, long ticket lines that the Uffizi does.
For the duomo complex I would pre-order tickets directly through their website if not using the pass, and especially so if you want to climb the dome. If you purchase tickets through the site, you can also pre-reserve a time to do that (ask if you don't see where on the site to do that). If using the pass, you can't reserve a slot until you get to Florence, and slots fill up fast for high season so would likely be gone by the time you got there.