What to book in advance in Florence and general suggestions

[LaLaFlottes]

As part of our holiday later this year, we will have a couple of days in Florence.

Any suggestions for sight seeing would be welcome - especially anything we should book in advance?

Thank you!

The Uffizi Gallery, for sure.

Museo dell' Opera del Duomo is surprisingly interesting, and not one of the big ticket museums, so maybe you wouldn't have to book...I haven't been for 20 years though.

The church of Santa Maria Novella, with its Masaccio trinity.

For hanging out, the Piazza di Santo Spirito is nice, as is Santa Croce and its piazza.

Book everything to secure a time-slot and manage your time. You can get multi venue passes and only need one museum entry time booked ie. Uffizi then turn up at Pritti Palace and Boboli garden but most are running on timed tickets and combined Duomo tower/museums/baptistry had sold out by 11am. You can queue for Duomo only but it snakes around the building.

Definitely book for the Uffizi.
We were underwhelmed by the Duomo - looks better from the outside.
You might want to think about booking restaurants; we had to have a main meal in a ghastly chain because everywhere else was booked.

Thank you for your recommendations - I will make a start today!

We didn’t book anything and had no issues. Certainly didn’t book any restaurants and never had to go to a chain, we ate very well (too well, my clothes were pretty tight at the end!).

If you're going in peak season (which is anything from Easter to October), then definitely book the big museums. Everyone wants to go to the Uffizi and the Accademia (which is where Michelangelo's David - the original one - is), so book those. There are lots of other places that are nice and interesting (Bargello, Pitti Palace, Santa Maria Novella, Santa Croce, the Duomo and Baptistry, the Museo San Marco), so I'd have a good look at a guide book or search online and figure out what your priorities are, because there is a ton of stuff to see and you won't have time to see it all. Will you have kids with you? IME their tolerance for hot museums and churches is low, so don't try and pack too much in, or at least schedule some gelato stops on a regular basis (the best gelateria is called Vivoli and it's near Santa Croce).

I went at the end of Covid and booked everything! TBH a lot of this was due to Covid as everything had time slots and limited numbers for social distancing. Some of it you have to as they are so popular, some things I could have missed.

I would definitely book the Uffizi and if you want to climb the dome, then you need to book that too. The Palazzo Vecchio is really good, I would book one of the special tours so you can see the Studiolo.

As I had to book everything I ended up emailing everywhere - every site is very helpful. The Brancacci Chapel is being restored so visiting is limited - however if you go it is amazingly special as you climb up the scaffolding and can see the frescoes close up. They are very helpful at telling you when tickets are released so you can snap them up on the day. We did feel quite smug while waiting watching people turn up and being turned away.

As with everything in Italy, make sure you are booking on the official museum website and not a reselling site.

If you want to do something different a food tour is awesome. We used Curious Appetite and they were great.

Our guide instilled in us the rules of gelato - no non-natural colours, no open containers piled high, should only come from a closed container, anywhere any good will have a queue.

Similar rules for eating out - nowhere with cabinets of steak on display. Plus there are not enough Chianina cows in Italy to supply all the restaurants claiming to sell Chianina beef.

Sorry to jump on this - I really want to go to Florence but I'll be going on my own, anyone done this and was it ok?

I didn't go on my own but I can't see why it would be a problem.

Florence is small, really really small, so all the sites are in very easy walking distance and there are tourists walking about wherever you go. It's a big tourist centre so English is widely spoken and public transport is very easy.

Visitors are pretty split between day trippers/short weekend breaks and art obsessives.

It is museum/church heavy - there's a reason it always appears on Mumsnet threads of most disappointing destinations when people go thinking it is a must see but aren't really in to museums and churches. However if you are into this, it's amazing and full of likeminded people.

Whatever you do, fly to Pisa and not Florence. At Florence the runway is too short, so flights are frequently cancelled, flying without luggage or reduced passengers as soon as there is a hint of wind. We were lucky to get on our flight but our luggage did not.

Osteria de Pazzi, nr Santa Croce, is nice. Standard Tuscan fare, with added bursting into song. (The Pazzi were a noble Florentine family, but there's a play on words because it also means crazy 🤪).