Extended Summer Hours at Florence’s Museums

The Vaso Francois room at the Archeological museum

Several of Florence’s major museums will close later than usual during the summer season. 

The Accademia, the setting of Michelangelo’s David and a collection of medieval triptychs, will be open to the public until 10 pm every business day through September 28. The ticket office closes half an hour earlier, at 9:30 pm.

The Uffizi Gallery– home to Botticelli’s Primavera and Birth of Venus, Piero della Francesca’s Dukes of Urbino, Caravaggio’s Medusa, Rembrandt’s Portrait of an Old Man, a recently installed exhibit that showcases da Vinci’s Adoration of the Magi, and many more masterpieces – will lengthen its Tuesday and Wednesday schedules (8:15 am to 10 pm) in order to accommodate the summer crowds.

Florence’s National Archaeological Museum (Piazza Santissima Annunziata, 1), which displays some extensive collections of Etruscan, Roman, Greek, and Egyptian artifacts (as well as the considerable historical contributions of the Lorraine and Medici families), will have extra hours on Tuesdays this month, during which guests can come and go from 8:30 am to 10 pm. 

The Palazzo Vecchio in Piazza della Signoria welcomes guests from 9 am 11 pm Monday through Wednesday and Friday through Sunday for the month of August. Originally built at the tail end of the 13th century as a workplace for local magistrates, visitors to the museum can now view the workrooms of Ghirlandaio, Giorgio Vasari, and Agnolo Bronzino. Full-price tickets are typically €10 for the museum and/or tower and €14 for the museum and tower combo package.

The church of Santa Maria Novella, near the train station of the same name, normally closes its doors at 5 p.m. For the summer season, however, the church is open 9 am to 7 pm Monday through Thursday, 11 am to 7 pm on Friday, 9 am to 6:30 pm on Saturday, and noon to 6:30 pm on Sunday.  Admission is €7.50, and the ticket office stops sales 45 minutes before the closing hours. 

The Medici Chapels, located in the Basilica di San Lorenzo, have modified their hours for two key dates: August 27 (8:15 am to 8 pm) and September 23 (2 pm to 6 pm). 

Tourists can visit the tower of Palazzo Vecchio itself – the Torre di Arnolfo – from 9 am to 9 pm Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Friday through Sunday this August.

The Museo Nazionale del Bargello, the city’s foremost sculpture gallery, boasts a special schedule for tourists during select days in September. On September 10, the museum is open from 8:15 am to 8 pm. For the weekend of September 22 – comprising Saturday the 22nd, Sunday the 23rd, and Monday the 24th – the museum will be open from 8:15 am to midnight, 9:30 am to 1:30 pm, and 8:15 am to 8 pm, respectively. Until September 23, the Bargello’s special exhibit, Islam and Florence, an exploration of the relationship between Renaissance Europe’s economy and craftsmanship and Islamic art, can also be visited.  (claire francis)