Statue of David - Lots of questions

Martha, you may want to consider getting the Rick Steves (or other) guidebook for Florence/Tuscany. I think you will really like it. Since you are a good planner, it will give you this type of background and info on the Accademia as well as dozens of other sights in Florence and insure you will have a great trip.

Others say budget 90 minutes to see the Accademia. I think two+ hours is adequate, except for those who sit and admire the David for a long time. The Accademia is actually quite small. Give yourself time to negotiate the crowds.

Our hotel booked our reservations for us. You show up at your designated (requested) time, and you might have to wait 5 or 10 minutes after that. There was no tour with our admission. The main thing to see in the Accademia is the David. There are some other pieces, but NOTHING like the Vatican or the Uffizi. I think 2 hours would be a very good amount of time to spend there.

Martha
I am not aware of any direct number but if it exists I am sure it is in Rick's book.He also lists tour guides for Florence and they usually will arrange for the tickets if you hire them.
In the past, I have used Initaly.com for tickets. It also happens to be a great search engine for anything associated with Italy.

As for Florence, you can order Academia and Uffizi tickets and they are reliable.

The reservations just allow you in and you are then on your own. There is no time limit (as opposed to the Last Supper in Milan).
You can probably tour the entire museum in less than two hours and then go to the Uffizi and plan on a few hours to really appreciate it.

Go to www.tickitaly.com. It's one of the sites Rick recommended, and it's easy.

Use the site that Darryl recommended, and two hours is perfect, as everyone is saying. I was amazed at how much time I spent looking at the statue. I am not much of an art lover, but it is hard not to be amazed by the statue of David.

When you have a reservation, it is good for a fifteen-minute window to enter. What that means in practice is that you show up for your reserved time and they will make you wait in a separate line for reservation holders for anywhere up to fifteen minutes after your reservation time.

There is no tour, but the Galleria Accademia has a number of other treasures to see in there as well, and they often have a temporary exhibit too.

Please just try and reserve as early as you can as the reservations are very popular and book up well in advance.

this is the official online reservation site (you can also view it in English): http://www.b-ticket.com/b-ticket/Uffizi/default.aspx

Also, the phone number is: +39 055 294883

i suggest calling. it's super easy and super fast and you don't pay till you get there.

Thank you everyone. I just called them and made the reservation with an English speaking person. It was easy. They just took our last name and gave me a 6 digit reservation number. They didn't want a credit card or anything. The reservation agent just said we pay cash when we arrive. Thank you all so much. I appreciate your help. I can't wait to get there.

Martha

Marco has given the correct website and phone # for the lowest cost way to to reserve for the Uffizi and Accademia in Florence. Martha followed his advice and got it done. Marco has given the same website and phone # given by Rick in his book and on this website. Phoning is often the fastest and easiest method. Dial it this way from the US:011 39 055 294 883Important: Call during businss hours Italy time, which is 6 to 9 hours ahead of the East/West coast of the US (I think, I may be an hour off, you can Google websites that will give you the time in Italy). To make the call during Italy business hours, you'll have to wake up early or stay up late. It may be busy, keep calling. Or go to the website given by Marco (and Rick).

I just made reservations via this number. It took three minutes from dialing to hanging up. Amazing!! I am on Pacific time and called at 6:30am. I'm obviously surprised how easy it was!!

Also, in the 2008 RS Italy book the phone number listed on page 383 ends with 833. This is incorrect. The number listed in this post ends with 883 and is the correct number.

Have a wonderful day! Two more weeks today and I'll be on an airplane! Whoo hoo!!

I'm kind of surprised that Rick recommends that website that charges an extra six euros a ticket when you can just call the number in his book.

Martha, be sure and check out the computer model of David (when I was there it was to the right as you're looking at his face). We were with a group, so I didn't have time to fully explore, but it was fascinating. Gives additional info/insight into the marvelous sculpture.