Museums · Florence · Italy
7 best museums in Florence
The collections worth your time, how long each takes and how to fit them together.
Updated By the AMZBooking editorial team
Photo: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0
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Quick answer
Start with Uffizi Gallery, Galleria dell'Accademia and Bargello National Museum. Together the 7 picks below take roughly 10–13 hours across 6 areas; all charge for entry.
Key facts
- Places in this guide
- 7
- Free entry
- 0
- Time to see them all
- 10–13 hours
- Areas
- Piazza della Signoria, San Marco and Santa Croce
Museums in Florence
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Museum · Piazza della Signoria
1.Uffizi Gallery
The Medici's former government offices hold one of the world's great collections of Italian Renaissance painting: Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera, Leonardo's Annunciation, Michelangelo's Doni Tondo, Titian's Venus of Urbino and a room of Caravaggios.
- Time needed
- 3–4 hours
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- Iconic
- Art
- Rainy day
- History
Museum · San Marco
2.Galleria dell'Accademia
Michelangelo's David, carved from a single block of marble between 1501 and 1504, stands more than five metres tall beneath a skylit tribune designed for it in the late 19th century.
- Time needed
- 1–1.5 hours
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- Iconic
- Art
- Rainy day
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Museum · Santa Croce
3.Bargello National Museum
Florence's medieval police headquarters and prison now holds the city's finest Renaissance sculpture: Donatello's bronze David, Michelangelo's early Bacchus and Brutus, Giambologna's Mercury and the two bronze panels Ghiberti and Brunelleschi entered in the 1401 competition for the Baptistery doors.
- Time needed
- 1–1.5 hours
- Cost
- Low cost
- Art
- History
- Rainy day
- Off the beaten path
Museum · San Lorenzo
4.Medici Chapels
Behind the basilica of San Lorenzo, the domed Chapel of the Princes is clad in coloured marble and semi-precious stone inlay, while Michelangelo's New Sacristy holds his Medici tombs with the reclining figures of Night and Day, Dawn and Dusk.
- Time needed
- 45 minutes–1 hour
- Cost
- Low cost
- Art
- History
- Architecture
- Rainy day
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Museum · Piazza del Duomo
5.Museo dell'Opera del Duomo
The cathedral museum displays the originals removed from the Duomo complex for protection: Ghiberti's gilded Gates of Paradise and the north doors from the Baptistery, the Pietà Michelangelo carved for his own tomb, and Donatello's wooden Penitent Magdalene.
- Time needed
- 1.5–2 hours
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- Art
- History
- Rainy day
- Off the beaten path
Museum · Uffizi riverfront
6.Museo Galileo
Beside the Uffizi on the Arno, Museo Galileo displays the Medici scientific collections: Galileo's two surviving telescopes, the lens with which he discovered Jupiter's moons, astrolabes, giant globes and, in a glass reliquary, the middle finger of his right hand.
- Time needed
- 1.5 hours
- Cost
- Low cost
- Kids
- Rainy day
- History
- Off the beaten path
Museum · San Marco
7.Museo di San Marco
The Dominican convent of San Marco was decorated by Fra Angelico and his workshop, who painted a fresco in the friars' cells, and the upstairs corridor opens with his Annunciation.
- Time needed
- 1 hour
- Cost
- Low cost
- Art
- History
- Rainy day
- Off the beaten path
Grouped by area
| Area | Places | Time needed |
|---|---|---|
| Piazza della Signoria | Uffizi Gallery | 3–4 hours |
| San Marco | Galleria dell'Accademia and Museo di San Marco | 1–1.5 hours + 1 hour |
| Santa Croce | Bargello National Museum | 1–1.5 hours |
| San Lorenzo | Medici Chapels | 45 minutes–1 hour |
| Piazza del Duomo | Museo dell'Opera del Duomo | 1.5–2 hours |
| Uffizi riverfront | Museo Galileo | 1.5 hours |
Booking and timing
Of these 7, 4 low cost, 3 mid-priced. Book ahead for Uffizi Gallery and Galleria dell'Accademia. The longest visit is Uffizi Gallery; group the rest by area to save travel time.
- Uffizi Gallery: Timed tickets are strongly advised from spring to autumn; buy them on the official Uffizi site rather than from resellers.
- Galleria dell'Accademia: Timed tickets avoid queues that stretch along Via Ricasoli for an hour or more in high season.
How to fit them into 3 half-days
Grouped by area and kept to about four hours each, so you walk more than you ride.
- Half-day 1 (Piazza della Signoria): Uffizi Gallery, at least 3 hours.
- Half-day 2 (San Marco, Santa Croce and San Lorenzo): Galleria dell'Accademia → Museo di San Marco → Bargello National Museum → Medici Chapels, at least 4 hours.
- Half-day 3 (Piazza del Duomo and Uffizi riverfront): Museo dell'Opera del Duomo → Museo Galileo, at least 3 hours.
The quietest months for queues
- January: highs of 11°C (52°F), about 7 rainy days, quiet crowds. Cold, often bright days with morning fog in the valley; queues at the Uffizi and the Accademia are at their shortest of the year.
- February: highs of 13°C (55°F), about 7 rainy days, quiet crowds. Quiet and inexpensive with mild afternoons; bakeries fill with schiacciata alla fiorentina for Carnival.
- November: highs of 15°C (59°F), about 9 rainy days, quiet crowds. The wettest month, with short days, but quiet museums and peppery new-season olive oil (olio nuovo) on bruschetta.
The neighbourhoods they are in
- Santa Croce — Franciscan basilica, leather workshops and late-opening bars east of the centre
- San Lorenzo and San Marco — Market halls, the Medici church and the Accademia just north of the Duomo
More of Florence
Questions travellers ask
+Where should I start in Florence?
Uffizi Gallery. The Medici's former government offices hold one of the world's great collections of Italian Renaissance painting: Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera, Leonardo's Annunciation, Michelangelo's Doni Tondo, Titian's Venus of Urbino and a room of Caravaggios.