Florence Uffizi Gallery Tickets and Tours

With 1,500 works of art and 45 rooms covering the history of classical art, the Uffizi Gallery is one of the oldest and most important collections in the world. Here's a guide to the different types of tickets and guided tours available to help you make the most of your visit.

The Uffizi Gallery is one of those museums with endless queues and 2 million visitors a year, so getting a ticket or a guided tour in advance is practically essential. Here are the best options:

If you prefer to visit tourist attractions on your own and at your own pace, getting a fast-track ticket like this one to the Uffizi Gallery is highly recommended. As I mentioned, the queues at the ticket office of this museum can be endless, and entering the Gallery already tired can spoil your visit.

With this ticket, you are guaranteed to skip the queues and have time to visit the collection at your own pace, without following any guided tour; and, if you want to enhance the experience, you can always choose the version with a downloadable audio guide so you don't miss a thing.

Other combined ticket options

• Offer: Tickets for the Uffizi Gallery, the Pitti Palace and the Boboli Gardens (5-day pass): Ideal if you plan to spend several days enjoying Renaissance art: you will have five days to visit the three most emblematic Medici monuments at your leisure.
• Priority entrance to the Uffizi + Accademia Gallery with audio guide: Perfect if you want to see Michelangelo's David and the masterpieces of the Uffizi in one day, skipping the queues at both museums thanks to fast-track access.

If you are one of those travellers who starts their day of sightseeing first thing in the morning and don't want to get lost in the immense collection of the Uffizi Gallery, take advantage of this ticket, which offers you a guided group tour to discover the secrets of its main masterpieces with preferential access during the least busy time of day.

This is, in my opinion, the best option. Personally, I think that a museum with so much art can be overwhelming, and visiting it without a specialised guide can make your visit less interesting. With this guided tour by a professional, you are sure to see and understand the essentials of one of the most important museums in the world. What's more, as the groups are small, the atmosphere will be more personal and intimate.

What does this tour include?

If you've decided to visit both the Uffizi Gallery and the Accademia Gallery with Michelangelo's David (which I highly recommend; I wouldn't be able to choose just one of the two), choose a guided tour of the two most important museums with a tour of Florence.

I found this to be a great option to save time (you'll skip the queues) and money, as it is cheaper than hiring a guided tour for each museum separately. It also includes a walking tour of Florence's historic centre, where your guide will explain the history of this beautiful city and some of the most important monuments you will see along the way, such as the Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio and the Piazza della Signoria.

About the Accademia Gallery

The Galleria dell'Accademia is another must-see museum in Florence, as it houses none other than Michelangelo's original 5.2-metre sculpture of David. It was built in 1784 to be used as a sculpture studio for students of fine arts and includes other sculptures by Michelangelo, such as the 'Prigioni' and 'San Matteo', and religious works by other Renaissance masters, such as Andrea Orcagna, Fra Filippo Lippi and Botticelli.

What does this tour include?

Itinerary

This guided tour of Florence with fast-track entry to the Uffizi Gallery is really good value for money, as it includes a walking tour of Florence and some of its most famous sights, such as the exterior of the Basilica of Santa Croce, the Convent of San Domenico and Piazza della Signoria.

What does this tour include?

Itinerary

Opening

The Uffizi Gallery in Florence is open from Tuesday to Sunday. It is closed on Mondays, 25 December and 1 January. Opening hours are from 8.15 a.m. to 6.50 p.m. In summer, it has special opening hours on some afternoons.

How to

The Uffizi Gallery in Florence is located at Piazzale degli Uffizi, 6. You can reach the Uffizi Gallery on foot from anywhere in the city centre, by tourist bus or by bus lines 23 and C1.

Firstly, because it is one of the most important museums not only in Florence but in the whole world and, secondly, because even if you are not a great art lover, seeing works such as Botticelli's 'The Birth of Venus' or Da Vinci's 'The Annunciation' is one of those things that must be done once in a lifetime.

At the Uffizi Gallery, you will also travel through the history of classical art, from Greece to the 18th century, through other gems by artists such as Caravaggio, Masaccio, Michelangelo, Fra Angelico, Raphael, Titian, Giotto, and Greek and Roman statues, drawings and prints.

A bit of history

The vast collection in this museum is due to the fact that it was used as a storage place for the entire collection of works gathered by the most famous and powerful dynasty of patrons in history, the Medici. Designed by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 on the orders of Cosimo I de' Medici, this Gallery of the Offices owes its name to the fact that it was originally conceived as the headquarters of the Florentine magistrates.

After the Medici family fell from power in the 18th century, the palace was transformed into a museum, housing 1,500 works of art distributed across 45 rooms arranged in chronological order.

A visit to the Uffizi Gallery is a must in Florence, but so is seeing Michelangelo's David, located in the Accademia Gallery, and Florence Cathedral, so check out my other articles on Florence Accademia Gallery Tickets and Tours and Florence Cathedral Tickets and Tours discover the best ways to visit them and get there on a tourist bus in Florence: Florence Hop-On Hop-Off Bus.