Things to Do in Florence, Sorted by Ticket

Florence’s sights sort into three groups by what they ask of you: free to walk into, pay at the door, and three that in practice need a booked time, the Accademia for Michelangelo’s David, the Uffizi, and the climb up Brunelleschi’s dome. No official body ranks them, so this page sorts them by ticket. The free group is larger than many visitors expect: the Cathedral itself, Ponte Vecchio, Piazza della Signoria and its Loggia dei Lanzi, Piazzale Michelangelo and San Miniato al Monte cost nothing to enter.

At a glance

Book ahead: the three that can run out

The Accademia and the David

Michelangelo’s David is here, 517 cm tall including its carved base. The museum names B-Ticket as its only official online channel and warns that without a reservation “the wait for access may be long”, and its 2026 ticket conditions forbid tour sellers to call a timed ticket “skip the line”. If the David is on your list, the timed ticket comes first.

See the David tickets

The Uffizi

Every ticket carries the visitor’s name and is checked against an ID; a mismatch means no entry and no refund. The ticketing concessionaire warns that on busy days the on-site tickets can run out. Book a named ticket, or a tour that includes one, before you travel.

See the Uffizi tickets

Brunelleschi’s dome

There is no ticket for the dome alone. The climb, 463 steps with no lift and about 45 minutes, comes only with the Brunelleschi Pass or a guided climb, and its slot is compulsory, named and final. The Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore says “There is not, nor will there be, a ‘skip the line’ service”, and it turns away tickets bought from unauthorised sellers. The three Duomo products on the Duomo page come from operators on its 2026 list of authorised resellers.

Pay at the door

Palazzo Vecchio’s museum is free for under-18s, and its reduced €12 ticket is for ages 18 to 25 and university students; the top of its 223-step tower closes in rain, with no refund. Santa Croce, one of the largest Franciscan churches in its own words, holds the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli and Rossini, and asks for shoulders and legs to be covered (free disposable kimonos are available). The Medici Chapels hold Michelangelo’s New Sacristy, with his figures of Night, Day, Dusk and Dawn, and the Bargello keeps, by its own account, the world’s most important collection of Italian Renaissance sculpture, Donatello’s bronze David among it. Orsanmichele is no longer a free church stop: church and museum share one €10 ticket.

Across the river, the Pitti Palace ticket covers the Palatine Gallery and the palace’s other collections, and the Boboli Gardens have their own; the Boboli Gardens guide has the hours. The Vasari Corridor, reopened in December 2024, is the exception: it runs one way from the Uffizi over Ponte Vecchio to the Pitti and must be booked with an Uffizi ticket, as the Vasari Corridor guide explains.

Passes cover several of these. The Accademia’s group sells €26 for 48 hours (the Accademia and the Bargello) and €38 for 72 hours (all its open museums, not on Mondays). The Firenze Card costs €85 for 72 hours from the first museum, still needs reservations at the Uffizi, the Accademia and Palazzo Vecchio, and covers no Duomo monument and no public transport; the Firenze Card guide works out who saves.

Free

The Cathedral

Santa Maria del Fiore is free and needs no ticket from Monday to Saturday, 10:15 am to 3:45 pm, and is closed to visitors on Sundays and during religious celebrations. Bare shoulders, legs uncovered above the knee, hats and flip-flops are refused. The Opera warns that “skip the line” tickets for the Cathedral are a “misleading offer”, because entry is always free.

Ponte Vecchio

The bridge dates from 1345. Goldsmiths’ workshops replaced the butchers and fishmongers in 1593, and the city calls it the “most precious bridge in the world”. By the city’s rules only jewellery, watches, art and antiques are sold on it, and bikes are walked across. The Ponte Vecchio guide has more on the bridge.

Piazza della Signoria and the Loggia dei Lanzi

The Loggia, with Cellini’s Perseus and Giambologna’s Rape of the Sabine Women, is still free, but since 23 January 2026 you need a free ticket collected on site. In the square, the David in front of Palazzo Vecchio, the Marzocco and Donatello’s Judith and Holofernes are copies; the originals are in the Accademia, the Bargello and Palazzo Vecchio.

Piazzale Michelangelo, the Rose Garden and San Miniato

The city calls Piazzale Michelangelo “the panoramic point par excellence over the city”, and bronze copies of the David and of the New Sacristy’s four allegories stand at its centre. Just below, the Rose Garden opens daily (9 am to 6 pm in October) with over a thousand varieties of rose. San Miniato al Monte, above, is free with no booking; its monks sing vespers in Latin and Gregorian chant at 6:30 pm, and visits stop during services. The Piazzale Michelangelo guide covers the walk up.

Markets

The Mercato Centrale’s upstairs food hall opens every day from 9 am to 11 pm; the historic market on its ground floor opens Monday to Friday 7 am to 3 pm and Saturday 7 am to 5 pm. Sant’Ambrogio, which calls itself Florence’s oldest market, opens Monday to Saturday from 7 am to 2 pm.

The tours that cover them

The free centre is walking-tour ground. Every guide in Italy needs the national licence, and since February 2025 Florence has banned voice amplifiers and required wireless headsets for street groups of more than eight people, guide not counted. The walking tours page compares the guided walks and the free walking tour guide the tip-based ones.

Golf carts are where the rules changed. Since 15 October 2025 the city has banned tourist rides in golf carts, caddies and rickshaws across the whole UNESCO area, Cascine park excepted, apart from white electric shuttles of up to eight passengers, run by agencies with a Comune permit on two fixed routes: the western riverside, stopping at Lungarno Vespucci, and the Piazzale Michelangelo loop. They cannot enter the core around the Duomo, the Signoria and Ponte Vecchio, and since 1 April 2026 a licensed guide or tour leader must drive or ride along. The golf cart page has the tours.

Bikes are walked across Ponte Vecchio, and the bike tours page features an e-bike ride up to Piazzale Michelangelo. Since 30 April 2026 no new cooking school may open in the historic centre unless it runs inside an existing licensed restaurant or bar; the food tours page has the guided tastings, and the cooking classes page the classes, in town and on farms outside it.

Workshops: the cooking classes page also lists a perfume masterclass at the Antica Spezieria Erboristeria San Simone, where you blend your own fragrance and take home a 30 ml bottle (from $79 as of October 2026, rated 4.8 from 694 reviews). perfumemasterclassflorence.com covers the city’s perfume-making workshops, what happens in a class and the history behind them.

Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa, Chianti and the Cinque Terre are on the day trips page.

Rules and costs to know

The city’s police regulation bans lying on the steps of monuments and churches, and eating, drinking or sleeping in public in a plainly indecent way. You may not climb monuments, step into fountains or throw anything in them except coins where tradition allows, and you may not feed pigeons. The tourist tax is €3.50 to €8.00 a person a night in hotels, by star rating, and €6.00 in B&Bs and short lets, for at most seven nights; under-12s are exempt.

Questions people ask

What should you not miss in Florence?

It depends on what you came for. For art, the Accademia and the Uffizi, both booked ahead. For architecture, the free Cathedral and Brunelleschi’s dome, which the Opera calls the largest masonry dome in the world. For the city itself, Ponte Vecchio and the view from Piazzale Michelangelo. Florence in one day puts them in order, and the map shows where they are.

What are the top 3 things to see in Florence?

No official top three exists. Three of the walking tours listed here pass the same three free sights, the Duomo, Piazza della Signoria and Ponte Vecchio, and the three that need booking are the Accademia, the Uffizi and the dome.

What day are museums free in Florence?

The state museums, the Uffizi, the Accademia, the Pitti Palace, the Boboli Gardens, the Bargello and the Medici Chapels among them, are free for everyone on the first Sunday of each month and on 25 April, 2 June and 4 November, with no reservations and no priority entrance; the Vasari Corridor and the Pitti’s Royal Apartments still need a free online booking. Palazzo Vecchio and the Duomo are free on first Sundays only for residents of the Metropolitan City of Florence.

Can I enter the Duomo in Florence for free?

The Cathedral, yes, from Monday to Saturday at the hours above. The dome, the bell tower, the Baptistery, the Museum and Santa Reparata need a pass; children up to 6 go free, and ages 7 to 14 pay the reduced price.

Is Palazzo Vecchio free entry?

Only for under-18s. Adults pay €18 for the museum and €20 for the tower, and the free first Sunday is for residents of the Metropolitan City of Florence.

What food is Florence famous for?

No dish is official, but the Region of Tuscany’s register of traditional products calls lampredotto, the abomasum or fourth stomach, the undisputed star of the hot sandwiches sold from tripe vendors’ carts. Schiacciata alla fiorentina is a sweet Carnival cake, found only at Carnival time. Two of the food tours listed here include a Fiorentina steak.

What is a must buy in Florence?

Nothing official says. On Ponte Vecchio, where only jewellery, watches, art and antiques may be sold, goldsmiths have worked since 1593, and the perfume masterclass above ends with a bottle you blended yourself.

Are there any parts of Florence to avoid?

No official list exists. In October 2026 the Prefect of Florence extended for five months the reinforced-surveillance zones around Santa Maria Novella station, Cascine park and parts of the city’s Quartiere 2 and 5, where police have extra powers to order people away. Both the US State Department and the UK Foreign Office warn of pickpocketing at tourist sights, and the US adds public transport.