Time allotments in Florence museums

How much time do you have?

I'd allot 2 hours for the Accademia. You can hit the major attractions of the Uffizi in an afternoon, but if you want to go deeper than just a skim you'll need a full day.

My problem with museums is museum overload. A half day is about as big a chunk as I can do. Then I need to be outside or involved in some other activity. My ideal would be to visit the Uffizi several times over the course of a week.

Thanks, loads. We're tight on time, so deep dives won't happen. I just hope to develop a framework (timeline) for how to cover key stops during our 2 1/2 daze there.

I've taken university student groups to the Accademia and Uffizi at least 15 times over the past decade, so my perspective is informed by the experience of being with 18-22 year-olds (if that makes any difference): I'd say that 1-1.5 hours would be about right (and perhaps generous) for the Accademia. To merely walk through the Uffizi could take an hour, so about 2.5-3 hours is probably about right for a quick tour of the Uffizi. Of course, the timing depends on your interest level.

A famous French-Italian art historian, Philippe Daverio, said once on a TV interview that people should not go to the museums, look at 400 works of art in 2 hours, then, with their feet swollen, go to the closest bar and have a drink to forget the experience and say "never again". He said that to enhance the experience, one has to go to a museum with the same spirit that one goes to a great restaurant. When we go to a great restaurant we don't order all the dishes in the menu. We choose the dishes we want to try and savor them. The same should be with museums. No matter how large the museum is and how many works of art are in the museum's "menu", one should concentrate on seeing few and enjoy those few only. So when you go to the Uffizi, do some research first, and go and see just the ones you want to see, for no more than one hour or so.

Your collective responses are exactly what I/we needed. Your help is appreciated muchly. And, I am doing my research prior to attending. In fact, you all are part of that process.

We spent about 4 hours in the Uffizi. 1/2 way thru, we had a cafe and cake in the charming terasse.

While the notion of visiting several times is OK for a Florence resident, as a tourist, there are many things on the agenda. We did the Ufizzi, the Academia, the Duomo Museum, the Pitti Palace, and several churches. Quite likely we will never return to Firenze. So, repeat visits are not going to happen. We are experienced visitors to art museums, and have probably been to 300 or so in many countries. We also have a reasonable casual knowledge of art history.

One trip to each is enough.