A Pricing Revolution at Florence’s Museums

‘La Chimera’ at the Archeological Museum

In many cases, prices will rise at the city’s major museums with added benefits this week.

In an effort to better manage the seemingly endless number of tourists that crowd the beautiful and historic museums of Florence, the Uffizi Gallery has adopted a new admissions pricing system as announced by director Eike Schmidt on July 31, 2017, with a new wave of changes starting on March 1.

Through February 28, museumgoers will still have the chance to pay reduced off-season admission to the Uffizi Gallery (€8) and for the museums in the Pitti Palace excluding the Boboli Gardens (€13) as well as only €15 to all monuments in the Duomo complex (Cathedral, Baptistery, Bell Tower, Santa Reparta Crypt and the Cathedral Museum).

Beginning March 1, admission to Duomo landmarks will increase to €18 with ticket validity extended to 72 hours instead of previous 48 hours.  As of the same date, the Cathedral Museum and the Misericordia Museum (the latter which up to now required reservations to enter) can be visited with a cumulative ticket costing €16.  Starting this year, the Baptistery is now free to residents of Florence, the greater Florence metropolitan area and the towns located in the former province of Florence. Those eligible must show a valid ID card at the entrance.

The wave of changes has involved the Bardini Garden, which is now open to residents of Florence, Arezzo and Grosseto for free, while the ticket price will be waived for everyone on the first Sunday of month.

From March 1 to October 31, high season access to the Pitti complex will be increased to €16, and €20 at the Uffizi, with a few extra perks. The Pitti Palace will offer an additional 50% discount to those visitors who purchase their ticket before 8:59 am and enter in the first two time slots between 8:15 – 9:25 am.

Any ticket purchased for the Uffizi Gallery will also include the admission into the Archaeological Museum. The hope is to divert some of the tourism to lesser-known landmarks. The Uffizi alone currently attracts 2,000,000 visitors a year.

The Uffizi and Archeological museums share a rich past.   The Archaeological Museum has an impressive history. Inaugurated in the presence of King Victor Emmanuel II in 1870, the museum initially consisted of collections donated by the Medici and Lorraine families. The Franco-Tuscan archaeological expedition in 1828 to Egypt brought hundreds of artifacts to Florence. Financed by Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Charles X, King of France, the mission was led by Jean-François Champollion – known for deciphering hieroglyphs and his pioneering in the field of Egyptology – and Ippolito Rosellini, a scholar and professor from Pisa. Since then the Egyptian section has become the crown jewel of the museum.

Exhibits include funerary vases, jewelry, wall fragments with hieroglyphs, sarcophagi, ancient tunics, a pair of ancient sandals, and of course mummies. The timeframe spans from the Paleolithic Age to the Roman period. In each room, historical and anthropological information is presented in both Italian and English for visitors. The collection is extremely impressive and well curated. The Archeological Museum also showcases discoveries from Etruscan necropolises: bronze armor; jewelry; sarcophagi; ceramic pots and jars. (rosanna cirigliano & molly hamilton)