Reservations to museums that may not need reservations

Make the reservations to the places you know you want to see that are extremely popular that the wait in line when you do not have a reservation is no fun. Read the guide book they usually have something about places where they suggest you reserve in advance. But sometimes you may not know of something and discover it while wasting time wandering the streets that is worth a look and you can just pop in without waiting or a reservation.

The Accademia and Uffizi are the only places that almost always have a long line.

Agreeing with Zoe here: other than the Accademia, Uffizi and anything which requires a reservation (e.g. the dome of the Duomo) you can just show up for everything else.

The cities themselves are works of art - wandering the streets is not time wasted.

Wandering the streets aimlessly is the best way to really know a city and get a feeling of how the city really is, don't see it as lost time!!!

Reservations are mandatory for the museums for which you've already booked (Uffizi, Accademia, & Bargello). I just returned from Florence last week, and agree 100% with the others that you don't need reservations for any of the other sites. I also agree that Florence the city is a picture perfect snapshot museum in its own right. Wandering the historic city center as well as the Oltrarno district are highly recommended experiences.

Depending on the length of your stay and how much you're planning to do in Florence, also consider purchasing the Firenze Card. You get "skip the line" access to all the sites in the city, and you don't have to make reservations for the aforementioned museums. While Rick Steves' Florence & Tuscany 2017 guidebook was ambivalent about the value of the Firenze Card, I saved a large amount of money by investing in that card. Plus, skipping lines is a HUGE time saver, especially if you are traveling to Florence in high season.

"...but the side effect of the reservations might be, you make sure you have a motivation to hurry up and see a good amount of sites and minimize time wasted wandering the streets."

I'm with the others here. This is the antithesis of the way I think of traveling. I like art museums a lot. I visit many of them. But the inside of an art museum doesn't give you much sense of the city/country you are in unless it's a museum devoted to a local artist whose work isn't commonly shown elsewhere. When I think back on previous trips, it's streetscapes I remember the most, not the paintings I have seen. And this is why I do not take tightly-scheduled, rushed trips. If you're running from one sight to the next, you may not have time to open your eyes and see what is all around you, and you certainly won't stumble on that out-of-the way neighborhood where the bus tours never go.

I already made the three reservations I mentioned; now there is no sense in me getting the Firenze card; and I reserved a 3 walking tour one day and I plan to go from Florence to Pisa and back to Florence one day; I won't have a 72 hour time I would use the card enough.

if you want to climb the tower at pisa you will need a timed reservation for that