Firenzecard — Attraction in Florence

I would highly recommend The Firenze Card. The Firenze Card saved us $73. (It could have saved us $117 but we happened to be there on a day when it rained so hard all the museums closed due to flooding risk- we missed the Accademia and rebooking times was possible but we had seen it previously and had other things we prioritize- but just know it's possible to save this much). It was easy to buy and use. I read tons of reviews about the Firenze Card and have a few tips that will ensure you have a five star experience. Make sure your on the official Firenze Card Website... most of the negative reviews are from people who bought something else that wasn't actually a thing. The official Firenze Card works fine. Download the Firenze Card App and get familiar with it. Then once you purchase the card they email you a voucher number you enter it in the app and you're ready to go to your first museum. Super easy. Same with the reload. Check carefully what the card covers and doesn't cover (hint: it doesn't cover the Duomo). Make your list of sights you plan on seeing in Florence and then do the math to see if this is a good deal for your itinerary. And note you probably will end up go to a few extras just because you can.... we ended up just popping in the Medici Residents and Barjello with extra time we had and they were fantastic. So you'll probably save more money than you plan. They don't actually send you instructions on how to book the Uffizi and Accademia. After you buy your card Google "how to book the Uffizi with Firenze Card" and you'll find the instructions on the official website. I called the number provided ahead of time and they gave me a number and then you go to the ticket office just before your assigned time and they give you physical tickets. It was easier than I anticipated from reading other reviews. Alternatively, you don't have to call international and you can wait till you're in Florence and go to the locations listed in the instructions but you might be limited in times available if it's only a day or two ahead. You can book your tickets/ time on the Uffizi or Accademia official website and choose the free ticket but you'll still have to pay the 4 euro reservation fee per ticket this way (Which adds up if there are a bunch of you =no longer free) but you don't have to pay the 4 euros if you call and book. The reservations for the Palazzo Vecchio was super easy done in the app. I just had to explore the app to figure out where to make the reservations. And as I explained earlier we had a rain storm so we had to change our reservation time for the Palazzo and I was able to do that through the app. Nobody looked down on us for using the Firenze Card instead of regular tickets. :) We definitely saved a ton of time skipping the line at Uffizi and Palazzo Vecchio. Other places -there weren't any lines in March. Even though we had an unfortunate weather event you can see the Firenze Card was still a great purchase for us. Hope this helps confirm your decision to purchase the...

I strongly recommend buying the FirenzeCard. If you have 3+ days, it easily pays for itself even before weighing the benefit of the the expedited entry at some, if not most sites. I've included my cost and value calculations below.

We bought the actual card at our first stop at the Bargello and it was very easy to use throughout our 72 hours of use. Given some of the negative experiences posted about the mobile voucher and app, I'd definitely recommend getting the physical card. Point of Sale locations are found under the "Buy" section of the FirenzeCard, but I'd suggest getting it at one of the less popular attractions on your list.

We also staggered our sightseeing so that we could use our 72 hours over 4 days; we started on the afternoon of our first day and ended on the morning of our fourth day. While still a frenetic pace, it was less grueling than 3 concentrated days and still allowed us to see everything we wanted.

Used from 12:30PM on 3/19/19 to 12PM on 3/22/19. Paid €85. Individual prices without FirenzeCard are included next to each attraction to illustrate savings and value: Bargello €8.00 Galleria Dell'Academia €12.00 Uffizi €20.00 Santa Maria Novella €7.50 Basilica San Lorenzo and Library ticket €9.50 Capelle Medicee €11.00 Palazzo Vecchio €19.50 including special exhibits Boboli Gardens €10.00 Pitti palace €16.00 (Uffizi + Pitti + Boboli Combo = €38) Ferragamo Museum was closed for renovations Bardini Gardens €10.00 (could be accessed for free with Boboli ticket) Museo San Marco €8.00 Nat'l Archeology Museum Firenze €10.00 Medici Palazzo Riccardi €10.00 including special exhibits Santa Croce Basilica €8.00 5 paid Duomo sites plus free Cathedral €18.00

Total price without FirenzeCard €177.50

In summary, we paid €85 euros to get €177.50 in attraction admissions. That's over 50% off! That €85 also includes expedited entry through the FirenzeCard or Reservation Lines depending on the site and access to special exhibits.

Just get the card and you'll...

The Firenzecard was the most extraordinarily bad thing we purchased in Florence. May I urge you not to buy it on the highest possible terms. We wanted to book at the Uffizi using the card before we came to Florence. But there was no way of booking online using the card. After investigation we found that we had to call to make the booking. We called the number provided about 10 times. Each time the call hung up, after having got through the menu options and having waiting for varying lengths of time in a queue. We arrived in Florence without a reservation at the uffizi and decided to visit the Firenzecard desk at the welcome centre outside the station. We were told that there was a booking desk where we could make bookings at a church in the centre of town and we were told it was open on Tuesdays. So on Tuesday we duly went there first thing battling through the rain. Incidentally my mother is disabled and in a wheelchair so it takes considerable effort to get anywhere. But when we arrived at the location we discovered it was closed. Quite frankly, we gave up. It was only a short stay and although we were able to use the Firenzecard to get into other things it was ridiculous that we couldn’t book the uffizi using the card. I will also add that the card was enormously fiddly with about 5 different stages and processes to get through before you could load it on your phone. We were told we could extend the card by a further 2 days using the app and we had to go through the process all over again. Unbelievable that in this age of technology we had to go through this. We never got to the uffizi or the galleria accademia in the end at...