Five Ways to Visit Florence’s Uffizi Gallery (and One to Avoid)

In the many years that I have been creating itineraries for independent travelers to Italy, I’ve never met a traveler who wanted to go to Florence and didn’t want to visit Florence’s Uffizi Gallery. But the Uffizi is a huge and exhausting museum with thousands of paintings and sculptures that can make your brain hurt (or worse). 

You need a plan of attack for this museum, so below are pros and cons of five ways to visit Florence’s Uffizi Gallery. (Since several of those mean buying your own admission tickets, I’ve also described five ways to get Uffizi skip-the-line tickets.)

Let me emphasize that there is no good reason to stand in a three-hour ticket line at the Uffizi! Instead, consider visiting the Uffizi Gallery with one of these options:

“Waiting line in front of the Uffizi gallery” by Alex via Flickr, licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

Five Ways to Visit the Uffizi

Uffizi Private Guided Tour

Hire a private guide to take you through the museum. I’ll say right off the bat that this is what I recommend if your budget allows. There are lots of excellent private guides such as Freya’s Florence.  

Pros: 

• Your guide will get your skip-the-line tickets. 
• You’ll book the tour starting time according to your own schedule. 
• An expert guides you through the galleries and you’ll learn a huge amount about art, about history, and about Florence. Tailor the tour as you’d like (for example you might want to spend more time on Caravaggio and less on Botticelli), moving at your own pace and asking for bathroom, coffee, or bookshop breaks according to your own needs. 

Cons: 

• This is the most expensive option for 2 visitors (but if there are 4 or 5 or 6 of you, a private guide might be less expensive than a group tour).

What it costs: 

• For a 2-3 hour tour, a private guide will cost your group about €200 – €300 plus admission tickets (€24 for adults including booking fees). 

Uffizi Group Tour

Many companies offer guided group tours at various prices and lengths (usually 90 minutes, 2 hours, or 3 hours) and you’ll see the groups throughout the museum when you visit Florence’s Uffizi Gallery. These tours must be booked in advance, leave at pre-scheduled times, and the groups are of various sizes. As long as the group is small (fewer than about 12 people such as the tours offered by Context Travel or Walks of Italy) a group tour can be great. Larger tours may make you feel like you’re being herded like cattle.  

Pros: 

• Skip-the-line admission tickets are included when you book a tour. 
• An expert takes you through the galleries, providing history and context. Your specific questions are answered by a real person.  

Cons: 

• You can’t tailor the tour to your own needs. 
• If the tour is large, there’s that cattle thing. If you decide to take a tour with a larger group, make sure to stick close to the guide so you can hear everything. 

What it costs: 

• Expect to pay about €50 – €75 per adult for a 2- or 3-hour smaller group tour; a larger group tour might be even less.     

Uffizi Audio Tour, Downloaded Ahead of Time

Before you leave home, download an Uffizi audio tour onto your phone or other smart device and then book your own skip-the-line admission tickets using one of the five methods below. Pros: 

• Very inexpensive
• Go at your own pace and still get a great tour
• You can listen to the audio ahead of time if you want (to make sure it’s clear, not an annoying or monotone voice, etc). 

Cons: 

• You have to book your own skip-the-line tickets. 
• You can’t ask a guide questions. 
• It’s difficult to chat with your fellow travelers unless you press pause and pull your headphones off your ears. 
• It drains your battery. 

What it costs: 

• Entrance tickets plus the audio tour: the official Uffizi Gallery App is free; Rick Steves’ Uffizi audio tour is free; the iTunes Uffizi audio tour app is $2. 

Uffizi Gallery Audio Tour with Headset, Rented Onsite

You can rent the Uffizi’s official audio guide when you arrive at the museum, as long as you have ID. 

Pros: 

• Inexpensive
• You move along at your own pace, skipping artworks or whole rooms if you’d like.
• The audio guide contains excellent information. 
• It doesn’t drain your phone battery. 

Cons: 

• You need to buy your own skip-the-line admission tickets (use one of the approaches described below). 
• You can’t ask a real person any questions. 
• It takes time to pick up and drop off the audio guide at the beginning and end of your visit (potentially more lines). 
• Some people describe the audio tour as dull and monotonous, but others say the tour is delightful and the voice is cheery, go figure. 

What it costs: 

• Entrance tickets plus €7 for the hand-held audio guide  

Uffizi Self-Guided Tour, with Pre-Printed Materials

Book your own skip-the-line tickets using one of the methods described below, then visit Florence’s Uffizi Gallery on your own, avoiding large tour groups, and read about works of art at your own pace. 

For pre-printed materials, you could buy a book or find a list of the Uffizi’s most famous works and print out information from the web to bring with you. You can even study up before departure so you’re not overwhelmed by seeing everything for the very first time by spending time online at the Uffizi website.  

Pros: 

• It’s inexpensive. 
• Go at your own pace. 
• Easy to start a discussion within your group/family. 
• Just see what you want to see. 

Cons: 

• Your eyes are on the page rather than on the work of art. 
• You can’t ask an expert if you have questions. 
• You have to book your own tickets. 

What it costs: 

• Entrance tickets plus a few dollars. 

Uffizi Walk-Through, with No Guide and No Written Materials

This is of course an option, but not one I’d recommend.

Pros:

• I can’t think of any pros here. 

Cons:

• The Uffizi is not set up as an interactive museum. The labels next to the paintings are not descriptive; most just have the name of the painting and the artist, so you won’t get any context or history. You’ll be annoyed by the tour groups disrupting your peace, and like this Tripadvisor reviewer, you may decide you’re “bored to death” after looking at “500-year-old paintings of angels and cherubs” with no additional information.

Five Ways to Buy Skip-the-Line Uffizi Tickets

Buy Uffizi tickets online ahead of time

This is the official website for booking Uffizi tickets online. (Doing an online search for Uffizi tickets will bring up lots of websites selling these tickets at a steep markup.)

• Once you select your ticket option, you will be directed to the B-Ticket official ticketing service. 
• Follow the prompts to choose the day and time you prefer for your visit. 
• Adult tickets cost €20 plus a €4 booking fee per ticket. 
• Uffizi tickets also include admission to the National Archaeological Museum and the Museum of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure. 
• Once you’ve paid, you’ll receive a confirmation email that is your voucher. Present this email (either printed or on your smart device) at the Uffizi reservations window at door number 3, where there could be a (shorter) line of people, like you, who bought tickets online. You will pick up your admission tickets there, then enter the Uffizi through Door Number 1, where again there could be a (shorter) line.

Buy PassePartout tickets online ahead of time

At the same official website for buying skip-the-line Uffizi tickets, you’ll find the PassePartout option. 

• This ticket is good for five days and includes entry to the Uffizi (plus National Archaeological Museum and the Museum of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure), Pitti Palace, and Boboli Gardens for €38 instead of €46, so is well worth the cost if you plan of visiting all three of these sights. There is a €4 booking fee per ticket. 
• Once you select your ticket option, you will be directed to the B-Ticket official ticketing service. 
• Follow the prompts to choose the day and time you prefer to visit Florence’s Uffizi Gallery. The first sight you must visit is the Uffizi, and the ticket is valid for five days after that visit. You do not need to book a day and time inadvance for the other four sights.
• Once you’ve paid, you’ll receive a confirmation email that is your voucher. Present this email (either printed or on your smart device) at the Uffizi reservations windo at door number 3, where there could be a (shorter) line of people, like you, who bought tickets online. You will pick up your admission tickets there, then enter the Uffizi through Door Number 1, where again there could be a (shorter) line.
• Visit the other four sights included any day or time in the five days following your Uffizi entrance.

Buy a Friends of the Uffizi Card

The Amici degli Uffizi card can be purchased online and is good for one calendar year

• Skip the line and visit the Uffizi whenever you like (though a maximum of four card-holders are admitted every 15 minutes, so you may have to wait briefly on very busy days when numerous members are visiting), so no need to pick a timed entry. 
• For adults it’s €70/year (for a family of four it’s €100/year) and includes unlimited entry to the Uffizi Gallery, Pitti Palace museums, Boboli and the Bardini Gardens.

Get Last-Minute Tickets in Florence 

If you arrive in Florence without Uffizi tickets, and there’s a long line at the Uffizi, there are a number of other Firenze Musei ticket offices that often have shorter lines. These ticket offices are open according to the hours of each individual museum.

• Ticket office at the Orsanmichele Museum (Via de’ Calzaiuoli between Piazza del Duomo and Piazza della Signoria).
• Ticket office at Pitti Palace (Piazza de’ Pitti 1)
• Ticket office at the National Archaeological Museum of Florence (Piazza della Santissima Annunziata 9b)
• Ticket offices in all the state museums in Florence, like the National Museum of Bargello (Via del Proconsolo 4)

Don’t rely on this approach, however, since you risk finding that there are no available tickets for the day or time you want to visit or that there aren’t enough for your party. If the alternative is standing in that long line at the Uffizi, then it’s worth checking at one of these alternatives first.

Make Reservations over the Phone at No Charge and Pay Later 

If you think you might go to the Uffizi while you’re in Florence and you want to make a reservation just in case, this is a great option. 

• Call the Uffizi Gallery at +39 055 294 883 from 8:30 am to 6:30 pm Monday to Friday and from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm on Saturdays. Operators speak English.
• Book the day and time you prefer and copy down the reservation number they provide.
• Go to door number 3 (reservations) at the Uffizi a few minutes before your entry time to pay the admission fees plus the booking fees and pick up your tickets.   
• If you call to cancel your reservation, it costs you nothing. But if you reserved 4 tickets and show up needing fewer tickets, you still need to pay the booking fee – but not the admission – for all the tickets you reserved.
• Enter through door number 1.