Uffizi, Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens 5-Day Pass Florence

Uffizi Gallery: Renaissance masterpieces

The Uffizi was built from 1560 as offices for the Medici state, which is where its name comes from, and it became a gallery for the family's art collection. Today it is the most visited museum in Italy, with corridors of ancient statues and rooms of paintings that trace the story of Italian art from Giotto to Caravaggio. The Botticelli rooms, with the Birth of Venus and Primavera, are the most famous, followed by works of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian.

With this Uffizi ticket you enter at your reserved time through the express security check, and the digital audio guide helps you find the key works in a visit of about three hours. The terrace café above the Loggia dei Lanzi looks over Piazza della Signoria and the dome of the cathedral, a good place for a break.

Pitti Palace and the Palatine Gallery

Across the Ponte Vecchio, Pitti Palace was begun in the 15th century for a Florentine banker and bought by the Medici in 1550, becoming the main residence of the grand dukes and later of the House of Lorraine and the Savoy kings. Its rough stone facade dominates the sloping square in front of it.

Inside, the Palatine Gallery shows hundreds of paintings hung in the old style, frame beside frame, in rooms decorated with frescoes and gilded stucco, with works by Raphael, Titian, Rubens and Caravaggio. The Royal Apartments, used when Florence was capital of Italy in the 1860s, show how the court lived; their visit is reserved in person once you are inside the palace. Allow around 45 minutes for the Palatine Gallery alone.

Gallery of Modern Art, fashion and the Grand Dukes' treasures

The top floor of Pitti Palace holds the Gallery of Modern Art, with Italian painting and sculpture from the late 18th century to the early 20th century, including the Macchiaioli painters who brought light and everyday life to Tuscan art. Thirty minutes is enough for a good first look.

The Museum of Fashion and Costume follows five centuries of clothing, from historic court dress to theatrical costumes and 20th-century Italian design. On the ground floor, the Treasury of the Grand Dukes displays jewels, cameos, hard-stone vases and precious objects collected by the Medici and Lorraine families; it may be closed for maintenance during some periods. Together these museums make Pitti Palace tickets one of the best values in Florence.

Boboli Gardens: the Renaissance garden of Florence

Behind Pitti Palace, the Boboli Gardens climb the hill in terraces, avenues and groves, laid out from the mid-16th century and imitated by royal parks across Europe. Highlights include the grass amphitheatre with an ancient Egyptian obelisk and a Roman granite basin, the long cypress avenue, the island pool with its fountain, the decorated grotto near the palace and wide views over the rooftops of Florence.

Plan about an hour and a half to walk the main routes, and wear comfortable shoes because the paths are steep in places. The gardens are going through their largest restoration in centuries, so some areas may be closed. They are lovely early in the morning or in the late afternoon, and they stay open on most Mondays when the museums are closed.

How the 5-day pass works

The pass is activated at your Uffizi entry on the date and time you choose when booking. From then on you have five consecutive days to enter the other museums once each, with no fixed time, during their normal opening hours. Bring your passport or ID with the digital tickets, which arrive by e-mail, and go straight to Uffizi entrance 1 about ten minutes before your slot.

Most of the museums are closed on Mondays, while the Boboli Gardens close on the first Monday of each month. A smart plan is the Uffizi on day one, then Pitti Palace and Boboli on another morning, leaving time for lunch in the Oltrarno district between the two sites.