Best Florence Tickets

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

A popular myth in Florence claims that visitors don't know the city until they visit 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 the masters of the Italian Renaissance, but also other famous artistic representations.

The total tour of the gallery will take you approximately 3 hours and you can also marvel at the architecture of the building, which has been the home of the museum for more than 500 years. You will also find Greek and Roman statues and sculptures, drawings and projects and sketches of Italian inventors.

• Price: from €35.

If the Accademia Gallery is not the most visited art museum in Florence, it is because there is the Uffizi Gallery. But this collection, which has more than 1000 works and is 300 years old , is one of the most complete in Italy. Its heritage also includes one of the greatest works of art in history, Michelangelo's David.

In the artistic journey proposed by this gallery you can discover temporary and permanent exhibitions, as well as the works of other less popular Renaissance artists, such as Ghirlandaio and Uccello, who stood out for the stroke of their brushes.

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

• Price: from €26.

The Basilica of Santa Maria Novella is not one of the largest basilicas 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 the general admission ticket or by booking the audio guide option, but in any case you cannot leave the city without visiting it.

During your visit, you will also be able to 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 tombstones from the 13th and 14th century.

• Price: from €17 (with audio guide).

The Boboli Gardens, located in the heart of the city, are made up of the largest green spaces in Florence as well as the Porcelain Museum. There you can stroll along the paths, take a break and visit the paths that are surrounded by plants, flowers, Renaissance sculptures and marble fountains.

Spring is the ideal time to visit them, being the ideal place to escape from the hustle and bustle that characterises the Florentine epicentre and lose yourself in a geometric green space that belonged to the Medici family and which 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 will also have access to when you book tickets for the Boboli Gardens.

• Price: from €19 (with entrance to the Porcelain Museum and Bardini Gardens).

If you want to take a trip back in time to the Renaissance years, you can't 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, which is one of the masterpieces of Gothic art combined with Italian Renaissance influences and which you can reach through 463 marble steps.

During your visit to the Cathedral you can also visit the Baptistery, Giotto's Bell Tower, the Opera del Duomo Museum and the Church of Santa Reparata. You don't have to visit all the sites in the Cathedral in one day, as when you buy a ticket for the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore you will 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 a large part of their fortune in the construction of temples.

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

During the 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 to donate the entire art collection to the government of Florence, thus avoiding the plundering suffered by other Italian cities such as Verona and Lucca.

• Price: from 17€.

Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the absolute representatives 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 you book tickets to the Leonardo Da Vinci Interactive Museum to discover the life and work of the multifaceted artist, who is still considered one of the most brilliant minds in history.

Exhibits focus on **Da Vinci'**s inventions, such as the tank, the catapult, the worm gear, the printing press and the vertical ornithopter. In this educational museum you can see each of these innovations together with the original drawing.

• Price: from €12 (admission without queuing).

The National Archaeological Museum is one of Florence's best kept secrets, where you can take a journey into the past to discover the art and culture of the Etruscan and Egyptian civilisations, which had a direct relationship with the Italian peninsula during Antiquity.

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

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

• Price: from €15 (admission without queues).

The Bargello Museum will enchant you with its exhibits, but also with the building that houses it as it is one of the oldest in Florence, with a construction that began almost 1000 years ago.

Here you can 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 initially the headquarters of the Captain of the People, but later became the residence of the Bargello, that is, the chief of the city's police, so by booking tickets for the Bargello Museum, in the catacombs of the building, you will still be able to visit the prison.

• Price: from €19 (no queues).

The Pitti Palace was another of the buildings of the Medici family, who came to own more than half of the buildings in Florence. Its beauty lies not only in its architecture, but also in the fact that it is located right in front of the Boboli Gardens, the largest green lung of the city.

When you book tickets for the Pitti Palace you can also find paintings, sculptures and art pieces by Florentine Renaissance masters such as Raphael, Titian and Rubens.

In addition, from the first floor of the Pitti Palace, you can discover one of the best open views of the Arno River, which is the tributary that divides Florence in two.

• Price: from €27 (no queues and 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 way to learn about 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 the temporary exhibitions and retrace the life of the genius through audiovisual formats. You can also 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 that relationship was evident in the work of Fre Angelico, a monk who combined his ecclesiastical work with painting and who spent much of his life in the Church of San Marco.

Part of the building is now a museum and houses Angelico's major works, including The Blessed. When you book tickets to St. Mark's Museum you will also have access to St. Mark's Church, which is one of the main 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 can also visit the Chapter House, which houses the main frescoes by Fra Angelico.

• Price: from 17€.

You can't leave Florence without enjoying a musical concert, and the Three Tenors-inspired show 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.

In addition, booking tickets for the Three Tenors concert also gives you access to the interior of the auditorium of Santo Stefano al Ponte Vecchio.

These concerts last about an hour and a half and the auditorium seats 20 people, so book your tickets in advance for a musical experience you won't regret.

• Price: from €28.

Salvatore Ferragamo is considered the world's most famous shoe designer and if you are a fashion lover visiting Florence, I recommend you book 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 can see some of the most famous models that were designed by Ferragamo, learn about his life story and the journey that made him the most famous shoemaker of the golden age of Hollywood cinema.

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

• Price: from €15.

If you want to live an alternative experience in Florence and you are a railway enthusiast, 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 references in the field of model railways.

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

This exhibition is ideal to visit with the family and children, as the tickets also give you access to interactive activities for the little ones, as well as workshops. It's a very different experience from most museums in Florence.

• Price: from €19.

Florence is one of the cradles of Renaissance history and its museums are packed with works of art from the period, but it also has one of Italy's most avant-garde offerings in the Selfie Museum, an exhibition of creative art, photography and immersive video where the protagonist is you!

By booking tickets to visit the Museum of the Selfie, which covers over 1000 square metres, you will have access to an infinite number of mirrors, canopies, exhibits and artistic creations that you can use to take eccentric and memorable photographs.

You will also be able to review the brief but intense history of this modality that consists of taking photographs of yourself.

• Price: from €15.

If you want to see 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, which is located in the centre of Florence, has monumental columns and a stone façade with Latin inscriptions.

In addition, in the main hall of the Strozzi Palace there is 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, being one of the few museums in the city that deals with this type of artistic creations.

• Price: from €16.