Florence museums

We've made our way through a few museums and galleries while in Florence. The Italians are very serious about art and churches. Unlike many of the other countries we've visited, you cannot take pictures is museums nor in the churches.

In the churches, shoulders must be covered and at San Marco in Venice, knees must also be covered. For those that have been hiding under a rock and don't know this rule, paper shawls/skirts are provided to cover up.

So, needless to say, we do not have pictures of Michelangelo's real David, which is located inside the Accademia in Florence. It is quite impressive. There are two replicas; one is located in the Piazza della Signoria outside the Uffizi and the other is located in the Piazzale Michelangelo. Below is a picture of the replica.

Uffizi has a very extensive collection of art. We had the concierge at the hotel reserve tickets for us, as we heard the queue to get in can be 2-3 hours long. We entered around 8:15, just as they were opening and had to wait about 5 minutes. The regular queue was probably about 30 minutes long. It appeared as though they limit the number of guests inside Uffizi. We rarely saw anyone once inside...yet there was still a rather large queue when we exited.

The Accademia also allows you to call and reserve tickets. If you stand in line and wait, tickets are 10 Euro each. If you have reserved tickets they are 14 Euro each. With reserved tickets, we probably waited 5 minutes and the queue for non-reserved tickets was probably about an hour. The David was definitely the most popular exhibit; however there was a special exhibit on the Perfection in form by Robert Mapplethorpe. This was the prefect prelude to seeing the David. His photographs were pretty impressive.

As a side note, you can go online and order tickets, however most of the websites charge about 20Euro per ticket (to either the Accademia or the Uffizi). I would recommend just using the concierge at the hotel when you arrive, rather than ordering online. You save a few bucks and the hotel staff can get you in earlier than the times available online.

The Modern art museum, was modern only by comparison to the other museums in Florence. It was a very nice setting on the third floor of Palazzo Pitti; however if you are expecting Warhol...that's a little too modern for this museum.