Accademia Gallery tickets

What you pay and why the booking fee is worth it

There is one standard ticket: €20 full price. The reduced €2 ticket is for EU citizens aged 18–25 (plus Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Uruguay), with ID. Under-18s of any nationality enter free. American, British or Australian adults pay the full €20, student card or not. Prices went up from €16 to €20 in February, so older guides and blog posts are out of date.

Reserving an entry time costs €4 on top. The museum itself says it "strongly recommends" booking because waiting times without one can be long, and the queue of people without reservations stretches along the pavement on Via Ricasoli. Four euros to skip that is an easy call in spring and summer.

The only official online ticket channel is B-Ticket, which the gallery's website links to. You can also book by phone with Firenze Musei on +39 055 294883. Anything else selling Accademia tickets is a reseller.

Watch the clock at the end of the day: the ticket office closes 30 minutes before closing, last entry is 6:10 pm, and from 6:40 pm the upstairs rooms and the musical instrument rooms are already closed off.

Resellers: when paying more makes sense

Tiqets, GetYourGuide and Headout all sell Accademia entry above the official price. That premium is worth it in three situations:

• The official slots are gone. Weekend mornings in high season sell out. Partners often still have availability on dates the official calendar shows as full.
• You want to understand what you're seeing. You can see the David in ten minutes, but the unfinished Prisoners lining the hall, figures still half-trapped in the marble, show how Michelangelo worked better than any label. A short guided tour or an audio guide on your phone helps. The museum also rents audio guides at the bookshop if you leave an ID document.
• You're pairing it with the Uffizi. Several guided tours combine the Accademia and the Uffizi on one day with the timings already worked out. Useful if Florence is a day trip.

If your date is fixed and the official site has space, book there. It's the cheapest way in.

Combined tickets with the Bargello and the Medici Chapels

The Accademia now belongs to the same museum group as the Bargello museums, and there are two combined tickets:

• 48 hours, €26: Accademia plus the Bargello National Museum (Donatello, Cellini, the best Renaissance sculpture outside the Accademia). Bought separately they'd be €20 and €12.
• 72 hours, €38: Accademia plus the Bargello, the Medici Chapels, Palazzo Davanzati and Orsanmichele. Worth it if you want Michelangelo's Medici tombs as well.

The date and time slot you choose when buying is your Accademia entry; the other museums can be visited within the following 48 or 72 hours.

Free days, timing and getting there

Entry is free on the first Sunday of each month and on three national holidays: 25 April, 2 June and 4 November. No bookings are taken on those days, so it's first come, first served at the door. On 8 March entry is free for women. Expect long lines on all of them.

The gallery is on Via Ricasoli, a few minutes' walk north of the Duomo towards Piazza San Marco, and about 15 minutes on foot from Santa Maria Novella station. The entrance and ticket office at number 60 are step-free, and the whole visit route is wheelchair accessible.

Don't rush out after the David: the plaster cast gallery and the musical instrument collection on the ground floor are usually quiet, even when the main hall is packed.