Handpicked experience · Florence
Florence, Italy
Timed admission to the gallery that holds Michelangelo's David — a small museum that most people rush through, and one corridor in it worth slowing down for.
Get a closer look at works by masters like Michelangelo, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, and Uccello at Accademia Gallery.
See famous sculptures and works of art for yourself such as the incredible "David" by Michelangelo.
Perfect for art lovers and enthusiasts, the gallery is filled with all kinds of art from the Renaissance.
Guaranteed skip-the-line access to the Accademia Gallery
Michelangelo's David together with other Renaissance masterpieces
Works by Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Pontormo and Andrea del Sarto
Nineteenth-century Academy works and pieces from suppressed convents
On-site staff assistance for fast ticket redemption
The Accademia exists in most travellers' minds as a single statue, and it is true that David is why the queue forms. But the building is small, the visit is short, and the best fifteen minutes in it are ones almost everyone walks straight past. This ticket buys guaranteed timed entry and someone to hand it to you; what you do with the hour inside is the part worth thinking about beforehand.
You meet staff at the stated point near the gallery, collect your ticket and go in at your allotted time. After security the route opens into a long corridor, and at the end of it, lit from above in a domed alcove built for him, stands the figure himself — over five metres of him, carved by a man in his twenties from a block other sculptors had given up on.
Beyond the Tribuna are rooms of Renaissance panel paintings, works gathered from convents closed in the eighteenth century, plaster models from the teaching academy, and a collection of historic musical instruments that is nearly always empty.
Worth calibrating. This is not the Uffizi and it does not need half a day — most people are done comfortably inside an hour. Booking it back to back with something else in the same afternoon is entirely realistic, and treating it as a full morning will leave you standing about.
This is the advice worth having. Lining the approach to David are four unfinished figures, blocked out for a papal tomb that was never completed, and abandoned part-carved. Arms and torsos emerge from stone that is still raw at the edges, with the chisel marks left in it. You can see exactly how the man worked. Most visitors glance at them on the way to the famous thing at the end, and many people who linger find them the more moving of the two.
The gallery closes on Mondays, which ruins more Florence itineraries than anything else. It also opens without charge on certain Sundays each year — on those days a prebooked skip-the-line ticket confers nothing, the crowd is considerable, and it is the one occasion when arriving early on your own is the better plan.
The general admission line, which in season is long and moves slowly. It does not exempt you from the security check, and there is still a short line for reservation holders at the door. You will wait a few minutes rather than an hour, which is the whole point, but it is not a walk straight in.
The first slot after opening and the last two hours of the day are the quiet ones. Between ten and two the Tribuna is three deep and photographing anything without a stranger's head in it becomes a project.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
About an hour for most people. The Accademia is a small museum built around one work, so it pairs easily with something else the same day rather than filling a morning.
The four unfinished figures along the corridor leading to him. They were blocked out for a papal tomb and left part-carved, with the chisel marks still in the stone. Many visitors who stop find them the more affecting.
Monday. It is the single most common way a Florence itinerary goes wrong, so check your date before planning the rest of the day around it.
It means bypassing the general admission queue, which is the long one. You still pass security and there is usually a short line for ticket holders, so expect a few minutes rather than none.
On those days a prebooked queue-skip gives you no advantage, the gallery is very busy, and going early under your own steam is the better approach.
The first slot after opening, or the last couple of hours before closing. Between mid-morning and mid-afternoon the hall around David is several people deep.