Hello,
We will be traveling with our 16 year old and from the reading I'm doing it seems that the Florence museums are free for him. (We are from the US.) As we are going to Italy in July 2016, having either reservations for museums or the Firenze card would help us by-pass lines. However, I also read that if my husband and I bought the cards, we would still need to be in line to pay for a small fee for our son. Is this accurate?
Thanks again for your help.
Take care.
I would love some advice on this as well. In my research, I thought it said only one card was needed per family - if US citizens, need to pay a small fee for the kids, but you can go into a different line to do it. Is this accurate? (We will be there in 3 weeks). If any of you have used the card with kids, have you still purchased a certain time for the more popular sites (i.e. David?), or was the firenze line short enough to not waste a bunch of time waiting?
Jen, each adult must purchase their own card: there is no single card which covers an entire family.
No, you do not make reservations if you have a Firenze card as it serves roughly the same purpose only without a pre-determined time for entry.
Your children will enter the museums with you, and any reservation fees required for them - such as the € 4.00 stated for the Uffizi and Accademia - will be paid at the entrance (or to quote Rick himself: "on the spot"). The Uffizi and Accademia will have separate lines for card holders but other museums might not: no matter as those two have the long ticket queues which are to be avoided.
You skip those ticket lines with the card but not security checks: if the museum is very busy, there may be a line but it will move relatively quickly. It's also possible to them to reach the maximum number of visitors allowed inside at one time so there may be a wait for some of them to clear out.
Few others of the museums will require fees for the kids: at some you'll just collect a free ticket for them upon entry.
Bring their passports for proof of age, should you be asked.
Hello,
We are also traveling with our kids (13 and 15 years old) to Florence in July and we plan to purchase a Firenze card for my husband and I. If we plan to visit the Duomo museum and climb the Duomo dome, should we purchase the Duomo combo-tickets on-line for our kids so that they can skip the line with us. Or do we have to wait in line and pay for the tickets at the ticket booth for the kids?
Thanks,
Liz
I used the firenze card 2 years ago with my child. Because your child is a teen, carry his passport to prove his age if asked. Youth under age 18 are added to the parent's card(s). Most attractions are "free" entry with the firenze card. If there is a small fee for your child, you can still by-pass the regular line and get into the reserved ticket line or firenze card entry line. You will not be stuck in the normal ticket buying line. There are not many long lines in Florence. Go early around 8 am for the David statue or late. The Uffizi has a long line - go after 2 pm or so and use the reserved ticket line. Go to Duomo near the end of day about 1-2 hours before closing for the dome climb. Otherwise, no other attractions have long lines.
You may also do well with friends of Uffizi pass. I don't have info. on this pass, but read good things about it on this site (after I returned from Italy).
To Liza above,
You do not need to buy tickets online in advance for your kids for Duomo complex. This is what you do - there is a ticket booth directly North of the Baptistery down a narrow alley. Just follow the sign and learn the Italian word for ticket - biglietteria. Hand your Florence card to the clerk. You will be issued tickets for the dome climb/ bell tower climb/ museum/Baptistery. You will be asked which features you want. You can get tickets for all at one time or for a single site. You will be given your Firenze cards back along with entry tickets. We just got the tickets for what we were going to see immediately. Then, on another day we went back for tickets to a different site. That way, we didn't worry about losing our tickets for the next site. In other words, one day you may just want to do the dome climb. Then, the next day you may want to do the baptistery and bell tower. You don't have to claim all your entry tickets at one time. There is little to no line at the ticket station. We just walked up to the ticket stand with no line at all.
Very unfortunately, the Friends of the Uffizi no longer offers the pass which was good over a very large number of days/weeks. I was told this by a contact in Florence and in checking myself, it is nowhere to be found on their website. This is bad news for anyone who will be in Florence for more than a few days since the Firenze Pass forces you to run like a maniac to see a large number of sites in just 72 hours. The result is exhausted tourists who may barely recall what they saw. I am SO disappointed that the Uffizi pass is gone since we were looking forward to a very leisurely pace of seeing everything again and saving money simultaneously. We'll keep our leisurely pace but will have to pay full price. Oh well, IMO, the museums & churches in Florence are worth whatever it costs.
The Friends of the Uffizi pass benefits for museums other than the Uffizi were discontinued over a year ago, unfortunately. It was a good buy for people staying in Florence longer than 3 days (we did).
Thanks for the info about the Friends of the Uffizi pass - disappointing! My husband and I will be there over a week in July and planned to buy one since we are in-exaustable when it comes to viewing art. I guess the alternate is to buy a Firenze card and if we need more than 3 days, buy a second one? Or visit the busiest attractions with the Firenze card in the 3 day period and then pay individual entires at sites with smaller lines...?
Or visit the busiest attractions with the Firenze card in the 3 day
period and then pay individual entires at sites with smaller lines…?
Personally, that's probably the tactic I'd take. Use your card for the busiest AND most expensive must-do's on your list, and just pay cash for the less pricey, less busy stuff.
I have a similar question. I will be in Florence with my 2 teenagers (under 18) and plan to buy a Firenze card for myself. What I am trying to find out is if I need a second Firenze card for one of the kids or if we can still go in the Firenze card line at museums and purchase discounted youth tickets for one or both kids. We are not EU citizens, but it seems one youth gets in free with an adult with Firenze card no matter the citizenship. So, is an additional Firenze card needed or no?
We will be in Florence on August 6, 2016 for the day. As I understand, this being the first Sunday of the month all the museums are free. We don't want to wait in long lines. Is it possible or advisable to buy Firenze passes to avoid the lines rather than waiting in long lines to get in for free?
I just left Florence today. I. Got the Firenze card, not cheap bit it made my trip much more enjoyable. It was fabulous to skip lines, and I paid the extra 5 euro to get wifi and bus transport (they couldn't sell me that at the museum I bought the card). I added the second across from the train station. I didn't think I would need the bus pass but since I was already at the stop I took the bus up to piazza Michelangelo. Must see Imo. The pass did not allow me to skip the cathedral line since it's free, that or he didn't want me in with my shorts....
I loved popping into a museum that I would not have of not included. Also it was nice to use the w/c lol. Not only is skip the line fabulous bus also not having to specify what time/date to go to museums.... That is what I liked best. If I passed a shop or view I could stop and enjoy, the museum would wait for me 😄
