Welcome, fellow travelers and culture enthusiasts, to our guide exploring the historic heart of Florence with the incredible Firenze Card. Imagine stepping back in time, strolling through the cobbled streets where the Renaissance bloomed, and beholding art that has inspired humanity for centuries. Florence has riches unlike many cities in the world. You can visit iconic sites, such as the Palazzo Vecchio and the captivating Uffizi Gallery, home to masterpieces like Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus.”
Walking around Florence, you are in an open-air Renaissance museum with original art (or replicas) and architecture galore to feast your eyes upon. Fabulous statues adorn public piazzas. Churches with facades dressed to the nines abound. Palaces seem around every corner.
There is a lot to see and do just walking around Florence, but sometimes you want to enter a museum, church, or palace…and that is where you might be interested in the Firenze Card.
What does the Firenze Card entail?
The Firenze Card is a 72-hour Florence day pass to over 60 sites. It’s an investment at €85, but you do get priority access at museums who generally have a long line, such as Uffizi and Accademia, that might be worth the cost to you. Although the regular Firenze Card is good only for 72 hours from entry into the first visit, you may be able to purchase an additional 48 hours with Firenze Card Restart for a reduced (sometimes free) price. Note bene: I found the Restart option clunky last time. Mine would not work and I had to wait until the tourist office was open to find the “correct” code to input to restart my card. By that time, I had missed a weekend of potential sightseeing.
How do you buy the Firenze Card? You can purchase online at the original seller or at one of the ticket offices around Florence. Details are here: https://www.firenzecard.it/en/faq
Is there an app?
Yes, and I encourage you to download it if you buy the Firenze Card. The app has a map built in that tells you what locations are near you. It also has your pass integrated into it and will let you know if you’ve been to a place already.
What are some of the major Florence attractions you can see with the Firenze card? You can visit famed places like the Accademia (where Michelangelo’s David is held), the Uffizi Gallery, Santa Maria Novella Church, the Bargello Museum, the Pitti Palace and more. Please note that there are other combination tickets besides the Firenze Card or tours that might be right for you.
Is there entrance to lesser-known Florence museums? Yes, you can visit museums like Museo Horne, Casa di Dante, and others. Please note that some of the museums on the Firenze Card might be included with other passes or free. Florence’s museum circuit has lots of combination tickets where, for a slightly higher fee than one ticket, you can get admission to several. For instance, for 21€, you can get a pass to the Medici Chapels, Bargello Museum, Palazzo Davanzatio, Orsanmichele Museum and Church, and Casa Martelli. Or, for 38€, you can get the Uffizi Passepartout ticket that gives admission to the Uffizi, Pitti Palace, Boboli Gardens, National Archaeological Museum, and the Museo dell’Opficio delle Pietre Dure for five days.
Does it include entry to the Duomo?
No, if you want to visit the Duomo complex (climb the dome, visit the church, see Santa Reparata crypt, go the Duomo Museum, see the Baptistry, or climb the Campanile), you will need to get tickets from the official desk. There are three different passes: https://tickets.duomo.firenze.it/en/store#/en/buy?skugroup_id=3006
Is the Firenzecard right for me? Do you want to see a lot in a little amount of time or would you rather have quality over quantity? If your goal is to immerse yourself in art and history without feeling overwhelmed or rushed, transforming what could be just another trip into an enriching journey of discovery then this pass might not be right for you. Last time I used the Firenze Card, I found myself visiting 3-4 major sites each day (with smaller sites along the way) just to get the 85 euro value from the pass. I had been to some of them, like the Uffizi, many, many times (at least 15), so it was okay for me to go there and only see a couple pieces of art. If you haven’t been many times and/or don’t like to race around from museum to museum, you might want to consider other options.
Will you be there for at least a full 72 hours and will the sites you want to see be open? If you’re not going to be able to use the card to its full advantage, then I would pass. Do you know what is important to see already? If you’ve been many times and know your way around, then this might not be an issue, but if you don’t know what to see at these places, a guided tour might be better for you.
If you only have a few days in Florence or it’s your first time, you may actually want to consider getting a guided tour for the day of the major sites. We recommend LivTours, the Tour Guy, or you may want to check out Viator.
LivTours: https://livtours.com/destinations/florence-tours?af_code=E1DDN61
Tour Guy: https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1362329&u=4109975&m=89095&urllink=&afftrack=
If I buy the Firenze Card, how do you recommend I best use it? Before setting foot on Florentine soil, sketch out a plan. I’ve found the most rewarding approach is to group attractions by proximity. Simply put, the less time spent commuting between museums, the more you absorb the splendor within them. Equip yourself with a good map, and you’re halfway there. Prioritize your “must-see” sites but leave room for spontaneity—sometimes the most memorable finds are those you stumble upon by chance.
Do you think the Firenze Card is a good value for the money? It can be, but it can also be a waste of money. 85 euro goes a long way in Florence for admission fees. A single ticket to the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens is only 22€ and you could spend an entire day doing both. Many of the sites on the Firenze Card are only around 10€, so you could pop in more if needed. It also doesn’t cover any of the Duomo complex, which are “can’t miss” sites. Make sure the places you want to visit on the Firenze Card are open when you want to see them and that it is not a “free” day since the Firenze Card doesn’t give you priority on free days (generally at least once per month).
I recommend that you look at the Firenze Card website and make a list of all the attractions on it that you want to visit. This is what I do. I then look at the admission for each and do the math. Generally, I don’t buy the Firenze Card because even if I want to see many attractions, they still don’t add up to the price of the pass. As I’ve already mentioned, there are other combination tickets that are less costly and might meet your needs better, too. I usually get the Firenze Card Passepartout, so that gives me access to many sites and is less than half the cost. If you only have a few week or fewer, you might find it better to buy a couple strategic tours punctuated with some individual entries to smaller museums. See the next question for my recommendations for tours.
What are other options other than the Firenze Card to see Florence attractions without waiting in line? I highly recommend taking a guided tour. Combination tickets, whether the Firenze Card or Uffizi Passepartout, can provide savings on admissions and skip the lines, but they miss out on the most important, at least to me, part of visiting these places—experiencing them with someone who is a local expert on the place. A small tour with a guide (LivTours only have six people) can offer you the same skip-the-line access as a Firenze Card, but also provides you with someone who knows the city and the places inside out. They will point out architectural features you wouldn’t have noticed, they will beeline right to the most important works in a museum, they’ll highlight features around Florence, and tell stories of the past so you know where Michelangelo, the Medici, da Vinci, and Botticelli strolled.
Link to Florence Tours blog: https://roaminghistorian.com/2023/12/10/great-florence-tours/
LivTours: They offer semi-private groups (6 person limit) with knowledgeable guides and skip-the-line access. Fair to inexpensive prices.
Tour Guy: They have smaller groups (15 limit generally) with knowledgeable local guides and skip-the-line access. Fair to inexpensive prices.
Viator: They have smaller groups (25 or so generally) with knowledgeable local guides and skip-the-line access. Fair to inexpensive prices.
I hope I equipped you with savvy tips and insights to truly maximize your Florence experience. I’ve purchased the Firenze Card a few times over the years. I generally visit about four sites a day with it and am worn out. But if you’ve been to Florence and seen its attractions many times, then it might be a good option for you to “refresh” yourself on what Florence has to offer.
Happy travels!
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