What to book ahead in Florence: Uffizi, David and the Duomo dome
One Florence sight has no walk-up option at all: the climb up Brunelleschi's dome. You need a Brunelleschi Pass with a time slot, and when the slots are gone online, the ticket office has nothing extra. Book that first. The Galleria dell'Accademia (Michelangelo's David) and the Uffizi both sell tickets on the day, but a reservation saves a long queue, so book them if your day has a fixed shape. The Cathedral itself, the Ponte Vecchio and the city's squares you can walk into. That's the short answer to what to book in advance in Florence. Every rule below links to the official page that sets it.
One Florence quirk surprises people: at the Uffizi, booking ahead costs more. A ticket bought on the day is €25, and the same ticket bought before the day is €29. You pay the extra €4 for a set entry time.
Last checked: Nov 2026. Rules, hours and prices change, so open the official page before you buy.
What to book in advance in Florence: the table
| Place | Book ahead? | The official rule | Walk-up option |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brunelleschi's Dome | Yes, required | Time slot is mandatory, can't be changed | No: online availability is final |
| Uffizi + Vasari Corridor | Yes, required | Mandatory reservation, €47 ahead | €43 on the day if any are left |
| Galleria dell'Accademia | Recommended | €20 plus €4 booking fee | Yes, box office, even if sold out online |
| Uffizi Gallery | Recommended | €29 bought before the day | Yes, €25 at the loggia ticket office |
| Giotto's Bell Tower | Recommended | Giotto Pass with a time slot, €20 | Check before you go |
| Palazzo Vecchio | Optional | Museum €18, tower €20 | Yes, ticket office |
| Florence Cathedral | No | Free, no booking or ticket | Yes, Monday to Saturday |
| Ponte Vecchio | No | A public bridge | Yes |
Book this first: no slot, no climb
Brunelleschi's Dome
The Duomo complex doesn't sell single tickets for each monument. Its official price list has three combined passes, and only one includes the dome:
- Brunelleschi Pass, €30: the Dome, Giotto's Bell Tower, the Opera del Duomo Museum, the Baptistery and Santa Reparata (the old church under the Cathedral floor).
- Giotto Pass, €20: everything except the Dome.
- Ghiberti Pass, €15: the Museum, the Baptistery and Santa Reparata.
Children aged 7 to 14 pay a reduced price, and children under 7 go free.
The Duomo ticket FAQ sets the rules for the dome. Booking a time slot for the Dome is mandatory. Once booked, the date and time can't be changed, cancelled or refunded. The pass runs for 3 calendar days starting on your dome date, and the other monuments on it need no slot, so you can see the Baptistery and the Museum on the next two days.
Three more rules from the same page:
- Online is the whole supply. If the slots are sold out online, the ticket office in Piazza San Giovanni has no extra places.
- There is no skip-the-line ticket. The Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, which runs the complex, says it doesn't offer one and that "skip the line" products sold by others aren't authorized. It lists its official resale partners on the FAQ page.
- Your name is checked. The Brunelleschi Pass is issued in your name, and staff ask for an identity document at the Dome entrance. Arrive no more than 5 minutes before your slot.
The climb is 463 steps. Dome slots start at 8:15 and the last one is at 18:45 Monday to Friday and 16:30 on Saturdays. On Sundays and public holidays the slots run from 12:45 to 16:30.
One date to know in 2026: the Dome closes for maintenance from 16 to 20 November, and the Bell Tower from 9 to 13 November. If your trip falls on those days, the dome is off the list.
Big bags go to the free luggage storage at Piazza Duomo 38/r, beside the Museum entrance, before you enter any of the monuments.
Uffizi with the Vasari Corridor
The Vasari Corridor, the covered walkway that runs from the Uffizi over the Ponte Vecchio, is sold as a combined ticket on the Uffizi tickets page. It carries your name, is non-refundable and needs a reservation. It costs €47 bought before the day and €43 on the day. Your Uffizi entry is set 2 hours before your Corridor time, so plan half a day around it. If the Corridor matters to you, book it before anything else in Florence.
Book if the time matters: the door is open, the queue may be long
Galleria dell'Accademia (Michelangelo's David)
A regular Accademia ticket is €20, and booking an entry time adds a €4 fee. The museum's ticket page names B-Ticket as the only official channel authorized by Italy's Ministry of Culture, and you can also book by phone on +39 055 294883.
You don't have to book. The information page says that even when online availability is sold out, tickets can be bought at the museum box office on the day, and warns that the wait could be long. The visit page puts it the other way round: "Reservations are highly recommended." The €4 buys you a time instead of a line.
The gallery opens 8:15 to 18:50, with last admission at 18:10. It's closed every Monday, 1 January and 25 December. There's no cloakroom and no luggage storage, so only small bags (40 x 30 x 18 cm) go inside.
Admission is free on the first Sunday of each month, and on those days nothing can be booked: you wait your turn at the entrance.
Uffizi Gallery
The Uffizi tickets page lists a single named ticket at €25 bought on the day of your visit and €29 bought before it. Both get you into the same museum. The advance ticket comes with an entry time, which is what the extra €4 pays for. You can buy online at tickets.uffizi.it, by phone through the call centre (800 615 615 in Italy, +39 055 0354135 from abroad, every day 8:00 to 19:00), or at the ticket offices under the Uffizi's loggia.
The Uffizi opens Tuesday to Sunday, 8:15 to 18:30. The ticket office closes at 17:30, and it's closed on Mondays, 1 January and 25 December. Like the Accademia, it's free on the first Sunday of each month.
Giotto's Bell Tower
The Bell Tower comes with the Giotto Pass (€20) or the Brunelleschi Pass. The Duomo FAQ says Giotto Pass holders must enter at the start of the slot they booked, while Brunelleschi Pass holders can climb the tower any time in their 3 days without a slot. Last slots are at 18:45 every day. The tower is under restoration; the top terrace stays open, with views partly reduced by the works.
Walk right in: no booking needed
Florence Cathedral
The Cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, is free. The Duomo price page says: "Free access, without booking or ticket." It opens Monday to Saturday, 10:15 to 15:45, and it's closed on Sundays and during religious celebrations.
There is a dress code, set out on the opening hours page: no flip-flops, no bare shoulders and nothing above the knee. The same rule applies at the Baptistery.
Palazzo Vecchio
Florence's town hall on Piazza della Signoria is a museum you can buy into at the door. The Palazzo Vecchio page lists the museum at €18 and the Tower and Battlements at €20, with the ticket office closing one hour before the museum closes. It opens 9:00 to 19:00 every day except Thursday, when it closes at 14:00. Reservations go through the museum's info line (+39 055 0541450). If the tower matters to you, check before you go, since tower hours aren't on that page.
Ponte Vecchio and the squares
The Ponte Vecchio is a public bridge with shops along both sides, and you just walk across. The same goes for Piazza della Signoria, the Loggia dei Lanzi beside it, and Piazza del Duomo outside the Cathedral.
Day-of-week traps that change what you book
A booking only helps if the place is open. These rules, all from the official pages above, decide what fits on which day:
- Mondays: the Uffizi and the Accademia are both closed. Give Monday to the Duomo complex, Palazzo Vecchio and the bridges.
- Sundays: the Cathedral is closed for worship, and dome slots run only from 12:45 to 16:30.
- Thursdays: Palazzo Vecchio closes at 14:00.
- First Sunday of the month: the Uffizi and the Accademia are free, with no reservations, so expect a single queue. The Baptistery closes at 13:30 that day.
- First Tuesday of the month: the Opera del Duomo Museum is closed.
- November 2026: the Bell Tower is closed 9 to 13 November and the Dome 16 to 20 November.
If your trip has one Monday, spend it on the Duomo and Palazzo Vecchio, and keep the Uffizi and David for another day.
How I checked a Florence day for what to book ahead
I built a one-day Florence trip in Passage AI for Wednesday 25 November 2026, a day when every stop on it is open. It runs north to south: the Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence Cathedral, the climb up Brunelleschi's dome, Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi and the Ponte Vecchio. For the full route with lunch and the view from San Miniato, see the one-day Florence walking itinerary.
Walk times are straight-line estimates between stops, and Directions opens your phone's maps app for the street route. The longest leg is 6 minutes, from the Accademia to the Cathedral. Everything else is 5 minutes or less, so your booked times set the shape of this day.
The Need tickets? scan
Need tickets? reads the whole trip and lists the stops worth booking ahead, each with a short reason, a confidence tag and a link to the official site or a ticket search. You do the booking yourself on that site.
It put the Accademia, the Uffizi and Brunelleschi's dome at the top as likely, which lines up with the three bookings that matter most on the official pages. The Ponte Vecchio came back as lower priority or walk-in friendly, and it's a public bridge. For the Cathedral, the Duomo price page settles it: the church is free, and the passes are for the dome, the tower and the rest of the complex.
Fitting the bookings into one day
With the opening hours above, the day works best like this:
- 8:15, Accademia. The gallery opens at 8:15, so book the first slot.
- 10:15, Florence Cathedral. It opens at 10:15, and it's free.
- Late morning, the dome. Book a Brunelleschi Pass slot an hour or so after you enter the Cathedral. Bring ID.
- Early afternoon, Palazzo Vecchio. On a Wednesday it's open until 19:00.
- Mid afternoon, the Uffizi. Book an entry time, or buy on the day before the ticket office closes at 17:30.
- End of the day, the Ponte Vecchio. It's 2 minutes from the Uffizi.
Optimize looks for an order with less walking and shows the new order before changing anything. On this day it found one with 1 minute less, climbing the dome before visiting the Cathedral. Both orders work. I kept the original one so the Cathedral visit comes first and the dome slot can sit later in the morning; tap Apply new order if you'd rather take the shorter walk.
On the day
Once you're in Florence, Guide opens each stop with a story, and you can tap Listen to hear it read aloud. At the Accademia the story starts with David and the gallery built around him. Your saved trip plans also open without a signal.
FAQ
Do you need to book the Duomo dome in advance?
Yes. The dome is only sold with the Brunelleschi Pass (€30) or a guided tour, and a time slot is mandatory. Slots can't be changed or refunded, and the Duomo FAQ says the ticket office has no places beyond what's shown online.
Can you buy Accademia tickets on the day to see David?
Yes. The museum says tickets are sold at the box office on the day even when online availability is sold out, though the wait could be long. Booking costs €4 on top of the €20 ticket and gives you an entry time. It's closed on Mondays.
Is it cheaper to buy Uffizi tickets on the day?
Yes. A named Uffizi ticket is €25 bought on the day and €29 bought before the day, according to the official tickets page. The advance ticket gives you a set entry time.
Do you need a ticket for Florence Cathedral?
No. Entry to the Cathedral is free, without a booking or ticket, Monday to Saturday from 10:15 to 15:45. It's closed on Sundays. Cover your shoulders and knees.
Is there a skip-the-line ticket for the Duomo?
No. The Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore says there is no skip-the-line service, because the booked time slot already does that job, and it doesn't authorize skip-the-line products sold by others.
How this was made: planned in Passage AI on 3 Nov 2026, facts checked against the official sites of the Uffizi Galleries, the Galleria dell'Accademia, the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore (Duomo tickets) and Fondazione MUS.E (Palazzo Vecchio), written by Edward.
Cover photo: George M. Groutas on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0, cropped)
