Uffizi Gallery/Academia in November

I think having a reservation is always a good idea, but I did walk in to both museums with no wait (Accademia) and minimal wait (Uffizi) around that time last year.

Making reservations in advance is always wise because you save time waiting in line, unless you get lucky and there were no lines that day!

It's a really good idea for the Uffizi but you can have your hotel make the reservation a day or so in advance. For the Accademia, you should be able to walk in towards the end of the day, about a hour or two before closing.

There's a good chance you could purchase tickets day of visit in November, but do you want to take the gamble? Many Florence hotels will call and make your reservations for you, and most offer that service as a courtesy to their guests. All you need to do is provide them with a few dates/times that would work.

My wife and I visited both in late September. We checked into our hotel in Florence on a Wednesday, asked them to make reservations for the Uffizi the next day (which they did gladly with no problems), and we then headed to the Academia around mid-afternoon. There was a line that took about an hour or so of waiting, but we enjoyed the time talking with other fellow travellers in line. I did notice that there was another shorter line if you were willing to pay an additional 4 Euro per person to not wait.

I stayed 2 night in February 2009...walked over to the Uffizi in the middle of the afternoon after eating lunch and walked right in. The Accademia, I visited this past September and went over to a church just down the street from the museum and bought a timed ticket there. This was on a Saturday around 10AM or so when I walked past the Accademia. There was a pretty long line snaking down the street. At the church/museum, I could have got a entrance for 10:45 but ended up getting for around 1pm instead...went to 2 other museums and walked back...still was quite a lengthy line. The Accademia didn't take too much time maybe an hour...Uffizi is a lot bigger. You can certainly do both in 1 day. I would hit the Uffizi in the morning when you probably have the most energy and the Accademia in the afternoon- if you try to do both on the same day. But if you get stressed, like others have said, you can get most hotels to make reservations for you. I was a little crazy and took the train from Rome in the morning and wasn't really sure if I was going to go to Florence or not until the day before.

How much hotels charge for making ticket reservations for you?
Thanks.

Your hotel shouldn't charge you anything. They do it as a service. They'll give you a reservation number and you use that at the ticket window to actually purchase your ticket.

I've been to both museums three times in November without reservations and will be going again this year. I waited about ten minutes at the Academia once but usually the only line has been at reservations desk.