Florence Tickets

Florence is the most important city in Tuscany. It has a rich past associated with culture and the arts due to its valuable contribution during the Renaissance, when it was home to artists such as Michelangelo Botticelli. In this guide, I'll tell you about the best tickets to discover it.

A popular myth in Florence claims that visitors do not know the city until they have visited the Uffizi Gallery, as it has one of the oldest art collections in the world and is the most visited art gallery in Italy, so I recommend booking tickets for the Uffizi Gallery in advance.

There you will find paintings by Michelangelo, Botticelli, Da Vinci and Rembrandt, as well as other works by Italian Renaissance masters and other famous artistic representations.

The entire tour of the gallery will take approximately 3 hours, and you can also marvel at the architecture of the building, which has been the museum's home for over 500 years. You will also find Greek and Roman statues and sculptures, drawings and designs, and sketches by Italian inventors.

• Price: from £35.

If the Accademia Gallery isn't the most visited art museum in Florence, it's because of the Uffizi Gallery. But this collection, with over 1,000 works and 300 years of history, is one of the most complete in Italy. Its treasures also include one of the greatest works of art in history, Michelangelo's David.

On the artistic journey offered by this gallery, you can discover temporary and permanent exhibitions, as well as the works of other lesser-known Renaissance artists, such as Ghirlandaio and Uccello, who stood out for their brushwork.

In addition, the Accademia Gallery also has a varied collection of musical instruments, many of which belonged to famous figures from the city. The best way to avoid queues at the ticket office is to buy your tickets online.

• Price: from £26.

The Basilica of Santa Maria Novella is not one of the largest in Florence, but it is one of the best known and most beautiful, combining Renaissance architecture with Baroque decorations inside.

You can visit this religious building on your own with a general admission ticket or by booking an audio guide, but in any case, you cannot leave the city without seeing it.

During your visit, you can also see the ceiling frescoes created by some of the most representative Florentine artists of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, such as Nardo di Cione, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Filippino Lippi. If you choose the option that includes a tour of the cloisters, you can also visit 13th and 14th century tombstones.

• Price: from £15 (with audio guide).

The Boboli Gardens, located in the heart of the city, are the largest green spaces in Florence and also home to the Porcelain Museum. Here you can stroll along the paths, take a break and visit the trails surrounded by plants, flowers, Renaissance sculptures and marble fountains.

Spring is the ideal time to visit, as it is the perfect place to escape the hustle and bustle of the Florentine city centre and lose yourself in a geometric green space that belonged to the Medici family and has been open to the public since the 18th century.

Inside the Boboli Gardens, you will also find an ancient amphitheatre, pergolas and an Egyptian obelisk, which you can also visit when you book your tickets for the Boboli Gardens.

• Price: from £17 (including admission to the Porcelain Museum and the Bardini Gardens).

If you want to take a trip back in time to the Renaissance, you cannot miss the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, one of the most famous religious buildings in Tuscany.

This building is distinguished by Brunelleschi's Dome, one of the masterpieces of Gothic art combined with influences from the Italian Renaissance, which you can reach via 463 marble steps.

During your visit to the cathedral, you can also see the Baptistery, Giotto's Bell Tower, the Museum of the Opera del Duomo and the Church of Santa Reparata. You don't have to visit all the sites in the complex in a single day, as when you buy your ticket for the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore , you have up to 3 days to complete your visit.

• Price: from £47.

The Medici were one of the most powerful Italian families of the Renaissance. Patrons of artists and allies of the Catholic Church, they invested much of their fortune in the construction of temples.

One of the buildings you can see when you book tickets for the Medici Chapels is the interior of the Basilica of San Lorenzo, which was the family mausoleum and is crowned by three frescoes by Michelangelo: 'Day and Night', 'Dawn and Twilight' and 'The Virgin and Child'.

During your tour of the religious building that houses the tombstones of 49 members of the Medici family, you will also find the sculpture of Anna Maria Luisa de Medici, the last member of the family who donated the entire art collection to the government of Florence, thus preventing the plundering suffered by other Italian cities such as Verona and Lucca.

• Price: from £17.

Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the leading figures of the Renaissance, and there is no city in northern Italy that has not been influenced by his inventions and discoveries.

However, it was in Florence that he became a legend, and if you visit the city, I recommend booking tickets for the Leonardo Da Vinci Interactive Museum to discover the life and work of this multifaceted artist, who is still considered one of the most brilliant minds in history.

The exhibitions focus on Da Vinci's inventions, such as the tank, the catapult, the screw, the printing press and the vertical ornithopter. In this educational museum, you can see each of these innovations alongside the original drawings.

• Price: from £12 (skip-the-line ticket).

The National Archaeological Museum is one of Florence's best-kept secrets, where you can take a trip back in time to discover the art and culture of the Etruscan and Egyptian civilisations, which had direct links with the Italian peninsula in ancient times.

When you book tickets for the National Archaeological Museum in Florence, you will be able to see more than 14,000 historical pieces in over 20 exhibition rooms. You can explore this museum on your own or with the help of an audio guide available in several languages.

In both cases, you will discover one of the largest Egyptian collections in Italy, as well as statues, vases, sculptures, sarcophagi and Greek and Roman busts.

• Price: from £15 (skip-the-line ticket).

You will love the Bargello Museum for its exhibitions, but also for the building that houses it, as it is one of the oldest in Florence, with construction beginning almost 1,000 years ago.

There you will find some of the artistic treasures of the Renaissance, such as Michelangelo's Bacchus and Donatello's David, as well as other works that are part of the temporary exhibitions

The building was originally the headquarters of the Captain of the People, but later became the residence of the Bargello, i.e. the head of the city police, so when you book tickets for the Bargello Museum, in the catacombs of the building, you can still visit the prison.

• Price: from £17 (skip the queue).

The Pitti Palace was another of the buildings owned by the Medici family, who came to own more than half of Florence's buildings. Its beauty lies not only in its architecture, but also in its location right in front of the Boboli Gardens, the city's largest green space.

When you book tickets for the Pitti Palace, you will also be able to see paintings, sculptures and works of art by masters of the Florentine Renaissance, such as Raphael, Titian and Rubens.

In addition, from the second floor of the Pitti Palace, you can enjoy one of the best views of the Arno River, which divides Florence in two.

• Price: from £27 (skip the queues and get access to all rooms).

Galileo Galilei was not only one of the most important men in the world during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance for his discoveries and scientific contributions, but also one of the most notable residents of Florence.

Booking tickets for the Galileo Museum in Florence is the best way to discover the universe of this astronomer who invented the telescope and studied most of the planets in the Milky Way.

You can also take part in interactive activities, see some of his inventions, enjoy temporary exhibitions and explore the life of this genius through audiovisual formats. In addition, you will learn about the importance of his discoveries for other scientists.

• Price: from £20 (no queues).

The Renaissance had a close relationship with the Catholic Church in Italy, and in Florence this relationship was evident in the work of Fra Angelico, a monk who combined his ecclesiastical work with painting and spent much of his life in the Church of San Marco.

Part of the building is now a museum and houses Angelico's main works, including The Beato. When you book tickets to the Museum of San Marco, you will also have access to the Church of San Marco, one of the most important churches in Florence.

You will be able to understand what life was like in a religious convent in the 15th century, as the building has been preserved in its original state. During the tour, you will also see the Chapter House, where Fra Angelico's main frescoes are located.

• Price: from £17.

You can't leave Florence without enjoying a concert, and the show inspired by the Three Tenors is one of the best options. This show, which revisits famous opera arias with the cadence of Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras, will take you through the notes of La Traviata, Rigoletto and Tosca.

What's more, booking tickets for the Three Tenors concert also gives you access to the interior of the Santo Stefano al Ponte Vecchio auditorium.

These concerts last approximately 1 hour and a half and the auditorium has space for 20 people, so you'll need to book your tickets in advance to enjoy a musical experience you won't regret.

• Price: from £28.

Salvatore Ferragamo is considered the most famous shoe designer in the world, and if you visit Florence and are a fashion lover, I recommend booking tickets for the Ferragamo Museum, which traces the career of this shoemaker and all the fashion stars who took part in his fashion shows.

During the tour, you will see some of the most famous designs created by Ferragamo, learn about his life and the journey that led him to become the most famous shoemaker of Hollywood's golden age.

At the end of the tour, you can also visit a gift shop.

• Price: from £15.

If you want to enjoy an alternative experience in Florence and you are a fan of railways, you can book tickets to visit the HZERO Museum, which has been open to the public since 2015 and has become one of the world's leading model railway museums.

Among its best exhibits is a 280-square-metre model railway that traces the beginnings of railway work in Europe.

This exhibition is ideal for families with children, as tickets also include access to interactive activities for the little ones, as well as workshops. It is a very different experience from most museums in Florence.

• Price: from £17.

Florence is one of the cradles of Renaissance history and its museums are full of works of art from the period, but it also has one of Italy's most avant-garde attractions in the Selfie Museum, a creative art exhibition of photographs and immersive videos in which you are the star!

When you book tickets to visit the Selfie Museum, which covers more than 1,000 square metres, you will have access to an infinite number of mirrors, marquees, exhibitions and artistic creations that you can use to take eccentric and memorable photographs.

You can also learn about the brief but intense history of this art form, which consists of taking photographs of oneself.

• Price: from £15.

If you want to visit one of Florence's most famous Renaissance buildings and combine it with an art exhibition, then don't miss out on tickets to the Strozzi Palace. This 15th-century building, located in the heart of Florence, features monumental columns and a stone façade with Latin inscriptions.

In addition, the main hall of the Strozzi Palace houses a permanent exhibition that traces the history of the building and its relationship with Florence since its construction.

You can also visit other temporary exhibitions of contemporary and abstract art, as it is one of the few museums in the city to showcase this type of artistic creation.

• Price: from £14.