The mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi, has just announced in the news that will soon from today, March 25th 2011, Florence have an integrated museum card, the Firenze card. The card will be valid at all state and comunal museums in Florence, will cost 50 euros and last 3 days (72 hours); as such it is principally aimed at tourists.
The card will be available starting from today March 25th 2011! February 14 2011 (yes, on Valentine’s day, how lovely!)
We don’t yet know how and where to purchase it and the exact list of all 30 museums included in it, but this information will be provided on this blog as soon as it’s available.
The card can be bought directly on line at the Florence Museum Card site or you can purchase it in one of the listed sales points.
Main advantages of the Firenze Card
* Access to major museums, villas and historical gardens in Florence
* Admission to museums is granted by showing the card at the entrance, with no reservation requirements
* Public transports: ATAF&Linea buses and trams
* With you can access to museums and means of transport also EU citizen with an age lower than 18 years
* Updated information kit on participating museums
Museums in Italy are run by different entities, so the challenge in creating this card has been to get them all to agree to participate. Florence’s state museums include: Galleria degli Uffizi, Galleria dell’Accademia, Galleria Palatina, Museo degli Argenti, Giardino di Boboli, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Museo di San Marco, Cappelle Medicee, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Museo Archeologico, Museo dell’Opificio delle Pietre Dure and Ville Medicee (Villa La Petraia, Villa di Poggio a Caiano, Giardino della Villa di Castello, Villa di Cerreto Guidi).
While the major comunal museums are: Palazzo Vecchio, Museo Bardini, Museo di Santa Maria Novella, Brancacci Chapel.
There are also some private museums in the city (like Palazzo Strozzi); the city is currently negotiating with these other museums and hopes that they will agree to be part of the card.
The official site will also allow you to discover all the possible activities and events going on during your stay and included in the price of the card!
To know exactly which museums are included in the card you can check out the official map and list in the Florence Museum Card.
Visualizza Firenze Card2 in una mappa di dimensioni maggiori
A large percentage of the Firenze card’s proceeds will be used to improve the functionality of Florence museums and to complete the major renovations at the Uffizi that have been underway for many years.
Unfortunately, this card will NOT include public transportation (as had been previously announced, and is common in other cities). Luckily, the historical center of Florence is small and rather easily walkable. We agree that this is not the best solution for tourists. Nonetheless, we feel that this is a step in the right direction and we hope that the mayor will be able to negotiate more or better features for the card in the future. As the card now also includes the price of public transportation, we would say is definitely an improvement and a better feature than the conditions previously announced!
If you’re staying for a longer period and wish to spread out your museum visits, the Amici degli Uffizi offers a one-year membership (60 euros per adult, 40 euros per student, or 100 euros for a family of 4) that gets you into state museums (but not comunal ones).
For more information write to info@firenzecard.it
