Museums of Florence

[MaseratiCruiser]

Alessandro, my chosen tour guide of Florence, emailed me tonight and wanted to know which museums we wished to see while in Florence for the day, so that he could purchase advance tickets. He gave me the choices, along with approximate viewing times, of each of the following: Uffizi Gallery (2 hours), Accademia and its David (25 minutes) , National museum of Bargello rich of sculptures (50 minutes) , and Pitti Palace and its Boboli Garden (1 hour).

 

I know that I do not wish to waste most of the day indoors, because I'm sure we will want to stroll the streets of Florence, drive the country side and have a short visit to Pisa. I am pretty sure that seeing "David" is a must at the Accademia, and I have also read posts about the Uffizi as being popular, but I don't recall anyone mentioning the last two museums and if they are worth the visit?

 

I would appreciate any insight from previous visitors, along with suggestions for a good balance of the day between these museums and outside activities.

[carlmm]

Actually I would not call time spent in any of the museums "waste" but you are right in needing to find a balance and to take a choice as you can easily spent weeks in Florence. And of course you will also want to see one or the other of the magnificient churches.

The Pitti Palace actually houses several museums but I guess your guide refers to the main one. It is especially interesting as it was the private collection of the dukes. The arrangement is not like in a museum but just as it was two hundred years ago in the original rooms (more or less). So you do not just see the pieces or art but also get a pretty good impression of the life style.

The Bargello is part of the medieval town and contains a mixture of art.

In any of the museums you could spent even more time than stated by your guide.

In conclusion, given your very limited time frame and you wanting even to squeeze Pisa (worthwhile a day's visit) in, I would recommend to visit the Accademia and the Pallazzo Pitti. Do not spent much time in the Boboli gardens. They are beautiful and relaxing, but you might do that on board. Regarding the uffizii gallery it would just be sad to have to run through them.

 

What ever you choose, it will be a great experience. Enjoy!

[MaseratiCruiser]

Carlmm...I didn't realize how harsh that word (waste) sounded, until you put it into perspective. I didn't really mean it quite that way, which I think you realize. We are facinated with museums, but I know that they can be very time consuming. I guess if we had a week in Florence, two full days or more spent in museums would be time well spent. Since we only have 12 hours or less, I do not want to spend the majority of the time indoors, anywhere for that matter.

 

From what you said, I confer that the Pitti has more statues, relics and antiquities. If so, I believe my wife and I both would be more fascinated with this museum. If I also assume the Uffizi is more of a "art" museum with paintings, then I believe I would rather save that museum for another time when we vacation exclusivly in Italy and have more days to explore. So far, your two suggestions sound like they hit the mark with us. Thanks for your input.

[cruisingmimi]

Hi Cruise4Food,

 

When we were on the Grand in '99 we visited Florence and Accademia. Seeing "David" is absolutely an incredible experience! Not to be missed, in my opinion. We booked our tour through Princess & our tour guide had our tickets onboard. So we just went ahead of everyone waiting in line when we got there! The museum itself has many other interesting artwork to view. Being on a scheduled tour bus, unfortunately we didn't have as much time to spend in the museum as I would have liked. Booking your own tour is the best way because you will be calling the shots, so-to-speak. We then went & viewed the cathedrals and had lunch in a nice restaurant in Florence (all part of the tour). We stayed w/ the tour guide. Also went to the leather shop (not worth bothering with), prices were expensive. Can certainly do better elsewhere. Nice Italian tho. Some of the others in the group went to some of the jewelry shops near the bridge.

 

We drove by Pisa but it was not a scheduled stop. Our friends that we were traveling with had already been to Pisa on a previous cruise & said it wasn't a "must see" in their opinion. We saw it nevertheless from the bus.

 

We then had some scenic photo shoot stops along the way.

 

Again, I think you would regret not seeing David while in Florence. If we go back to Florence, I would love to go to Accademia again & spend more time.

 

Just my opinion. Hope it helps.

 

Mary

[cruisingmimi]

Hi again,

 

Just read another thread just after yours "Rome on your own Bus stops" & there is an excellent and detailed post on Florence that you should read. I think it will really help you decide what you want to see.

 

Mary

[ErinH1]

We visited Pitti Palace, at my request, with Alessandro as well. Inititally I told him we'd wait until we got there to see if we wanted to buy tickets but he had already purchased them for us when we met him. There are quite a few different museums within Pitti Palace. Our ticket was 11 or 12 euros for just the main museum (it didn't take long to go through). I would have liked to have seen the costume museum but that was another ticket. We then chose to buy a 6 euro ticket to Bobli Gardens & "Porcelin Museum". You have to climb, climb, climb in the terraced gardens following the signs to the "porcelin museum". We were looking for a building with teacups, figurines, etc. right? After climbing about half-way and not seeing another building, we realized the porcelin museum was the statues in the Bobli Gardens! In hindsight now, the gardens were not what I envisioned (mostly cement, shrubs and trees) and the museum was something I could have skipped. The rest of Florence, from our quick tour, I loved! Alessandro also took us on a tour of the Chianti countryside and Pisa, which was great. A very full day with a taste of everything I had suggested.

[TedC]

We very much enjoyed the Bargello - a relatively small museum with some early works by Michelangelo, Donatello and some beautiful ceramics by the Della Robbia family.

 

The 13th century building, which once served as a prison, is far less crowded than the Uffizi and far more interesting, IMO.

[dmk]

Don't miss the Uffizi Gallery.

[dperales]

Don't miss the David. The ship's tour doesn't allow it and the people who went on that tour were terribly disappointed. It really doesn't take that much time. We also just walked around Florence and went to the Ponte Vecchio which is worth it if for nothing else than the view of the jewelry in the windows!

Donna