Things to do in Florence: itineraries, tickets, opening hours and what to see for free

Which things to do in Florence you actually manage to fit in depends less on your taste than on the museum calendar. The centre is walkable end to end, the Duomo to the Uffizi is five minutes, but the state museums close on Mondays, the Cathedral cannot be visited on Sundays and Palazzo Vecchio shuts at 14:00 on Thursdays. An itinerary that ignores those three facts loses half a day. Below are three plans already fitted around the closures, the official prices that matter and everything you can see without spending a euro.

How many days do you really need in Florence

One day is enough for an honest taste: the Duomo from outside, one climb, the Uffizi and Piazza della Signoria. No hope of adding the Accademia.

Two full days are the minimum for the big three without rushing: the Duomo complex, the Uffizi Gallery and the Accademia Gallery, plus the centre. It is the most common format and it works.

Three days open up the Oltrarno, Pitti Palace with the Boboli Gardens, a second museum of your choice between the Bargello and the Medici Chapels, and a sunset at a viewpoint. From the fourth day on a trip out of town makes sense, and the options are in Tuscany day trips.

The arithmetic of hours is simple: the official Uffizi rules set two hours as the minimum time needed to visit the Gallery; the Accademia takes barely an hour; the Dome costs 45 minutes plus the queue at the entrance check. Anyone planning four museums in one day is planning a sprint, not a visit.

The weekly closures that decide your itinerary

Print it and build the trip around this table rather than around your preferences. The full opening hours museum by museum are in Tickets.

One day in Florence

Assumption: you arrive by train the evening before and leave in the evening. Avoid Monday and Sunday.

The €30 Brunelleschi Pass covers the Dome, the Bell Tower, the Baptistery, the Museum and Santa Reparata, is valid for three days and carries no refunds and no changes: the full rules are in Duomo.

Two days in Florence

Day one is the day above, lightened: the Dome, the Baptistery, the nave, the Uffizi and the Signoria. Day two opens at the Accademia and ends in the Oltrarno.

Three days in Florence

The third day is the one that changes the trip: the Oltrarno at a slower pace, a garden and a less obvious museum.

Three days easily pass €120 per person in admissions alone. If you are lining up four or more major museums, it is worth reading the break-even calculation for the passes in Passes.

What to see in Florence for free

Florence is not a free-entry city, but the list of things that cost nothing is longer than it looks.

• The nave of the Cathedral: free, no ticket and no booking, Monday to Saturday 10:15–15:45. Not on Sundays.
• Piazza della Signoria and the Loggia dei Lanzi: open-air sculpture, always accessible, with no glass in between.
• Piazzale Michelangelo: public space open 24 hours, with the bronze copy of David and the four Medici allegories.
• San Miniato al Monte: free church, Mon–Sat 9:30–13:00 and 15:30–19:00, Sundays from 8:15; sung vespers at 18:30.
• The Rose Garden, just below the Piazzale: free, open 9–20 in the summer months, with the Folon sculptures and a Japanese garden.
• Basilica of Santo Spirito: free, with the young Michelangelo’s Crucifix in the sacristy; closed on Wednesdays.
• The courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi and its Project Space: free entry, until 20:00 and until 23:00 on Thursdays.
• First Sunday of the month: all state museums are free. See below why that is not always a good idea.

The views from above, compared

If tired feet mean you only get one, the Piazzale wins: it costs €2.00 of bus fare and gives you the image you came for. The ways up and the sunset timings are in Piazzale Michelangelo.

Things to do in Florence with kids

Painting galleries run out of steam quickly with children. The rest of the city holds up better than you would think.

Museo Galileo, in Piazza dei Giudici: instruments, globes and machines, a stated visit of one to two hours, a family ticket from €32 and free entry under six. The museum itself suggests it works from seven or eight years upwards.

Leonardo Interactive Museum, at Via dei Servi 66/R: machines you work with your hands, online ticket around €8.30. Careful: fifty metres away there is a second Leonardo museum, the Museo Leonardo da Vinci at Via del Castellaccio 1/R, with different tickets and different management. The two get confused constantly, and the difference is explained in Leonardo Museum.

Pinocchio Museum Experience, at Via Ricasoli 44, a step from the Accademia: immersive sessions every forty minutes, full price €14, family of two adults and two children €44.

The Boboli Gardens as a park: big, with drinking fountains and lawns, and the one place in the centre where running is not a problem. Remember that under-18s pay nothing in state museums: the bill belongs to the adults.

If it rains

Rule number one: the Arnolfo Tower closes when it rains, and there is no refund. Everything else works.

The Museo dell’Opera del Duomo fills two hours indoors, with lifts. Palazzo Strozzi is easy, and on Thursdays it stays open until 23:00, with the €5 young ticket from 18:00 for under-30s. The Bargello, San Marco and the Medici Chapels are one-hour museums each, so they are perfect for breaking up a ruined afternoon.

The first floor of the Mercato Centrale is open every day until 23:00 and works as a shelter with tables; the historic ground floor, on the other hand, closes at midday and on Sundays.

The neighbourhoods: Oltrarno, Santo Spirito, Sant’Ambrogio

Oltrarno is the left bank: artisan workshops, Pitti Palace, the Brancacci Chapel and the climbs towards San Miniato. It is where the centre stops being a shop window.

Santo Spirito is the Oltrarno square that comes alive in the evening, with the bare facade of the basilica on one side. Inside there is a little-known Michelangelo and entry is free, but on Wednesdays it is closed.

Sant’Ambrogio, to the east, is the covered-market neighbourhood, open Monday to Saturday from 7:00 to 14:00: the right place to understand how Florence eats away from the main squares. The comparison between the markets and the food tours is in Mercato Centrale.

The mistakes that cost you a day

Buying at the last minute. From April to October the morning slots for the Uffizi, the Accademia and the Dome sell out weeks ahead. The physical ticket office stays open even when online availability is gone, but the wait is exactly what you wanted to avoid.

Booking two museums at the same time. The Uffizi alone asks for two hours minimum; add the security check and the cloakroom. Between one entry and the next always leave three hours, not two.

Going to the Duomo on a Sunday morning. The Cathedral cannot be visited on Sundays and the Dome opens only from 12:45 to 16:30. It is the single most frequent mistake of all.

Counting on the first Sunday of the month. Yes, state museums are free, but booking is not possible and priority entry is suspended: the ticket you save you pay for in the queue. When it genuinely pays off is explained in When to visit.

Forgetting your luggage. The Duomo luggage drop is compulsory and free; the Accademia Gallery has no cloakroom and will not let you in with a suitcase. The alternatives at the station and in the centre are in Luggage storage.

Decide first what to do in Florence, then buy the tickets in the right order: the rigid slots first, the Dome and the Tower, then the museums with time bands, and last of all everything that is free and cannot be booked.