Looking for Galleria dell'Accademia tickets, or just discovered they're sold out for your dates?
Don't panic - we've got you covered to see Michelangelo's David in Florence!
Updated December 2023
We've' shared our favourite things to do in Florence over in our main guide, but in this short explainer post, we're going to share the three best ways to buy your official Galleria della Accademia ticket so that you can see the statue of David.
One of the world’s most famous pieces of art, found in one of Italy's most visited cities and its second most popular musem, visiting the Galleria dell'Accademia is an unmissable and incredibly in-demand activity for every first-timer in Florence.
Unless you fancy a very long wait in line (up to two hours in high season) and potential disappointment, it's recommended to buy tickets several weeks in advance to ensure your place, dramatically cut down on wait time, and allow you to bask in David’s beauty.
Yes, we said weeks.
However, if you've recently discovered all the Galleria dell'Accademia tickets are sold out for your upcoming trip - or you're already in Florence - don't panic! We've got a solution (unless you’re trying to visit on a Monday).
As we were fortunate to stand alone before David for a couple of minutes, and it was so impactful, we've also shared a few insider to tips at the end of the post to enhance your chances of seeing Michelangelo's masterpiece without the crowds.
This is everything you to know about buying Galleria dell'Accademia tickets - with a handy summary of all the main points below.
How to get tickets to Accademia Florence | THE Essentials
· The Galleria dell'Accademia is open from 8.15 am to 6.50pm, with last admissions at 6.20pm
· The gallery is closed on Mondays, but open every other day of the week
· It’s an 8-minute walk from the Duomo and 15-minutes from Santa Maria Novella station - find it here on Google Maps
· Standard entry is €20 for adults, €6 for EU citizens aged 18-25 with ID, and €4 for children under the age of 18 and for disabled travellers plus a companion. All these ticket prices include the €4 booking fee (so technically children are free).
· Tickets are sold for specific time slots, and you need to arrive at least 15-minutes before to collect and queue up - earlier if you don’t want to be behind lots of other people
· You can buy tickets on the official website but note they're often sold out days (and sometimes weeks in advance). Registration is required and all transactions.
· Tickets purchased on the official platform cannot be cancelled or refunded
· If those tickets are sold out, you can always find official last-minute tickets here and here
· These tickets are usually around €23 for adults but offer increased availability and flexibility, with free cancellation and refunds up to 24 hours before the date of your visit
· Alternatively, several Galleria dell'Accademia small-group tours include guaranteed tickets - this is a highly-rated option with an English-speaking art historian
· Entrance is free on the first Sunday of each month, but tickets cannot be reserved in advance.
· It is still possible to buy tickets on the door, but this will involve long wait times, uncertainty, and unnecessarily eat into your Florence experience.
· It’s always incredibly busy, but if you buy a ticket for early in the morning or later in the afternoon you improve your chances of a more meaningful experience
· Buy your last-minute skip-the-line Accademia tickets here
· Plan to travel better with our destination guide: 13 Wonderful Things To Do In Florence
Where To Buy Official Galleria dell’Academia Tickets
To see Michelangelo's David, you need to visit Florence's Galleria dell’Accademia (Academy Gallery).
A lot of people assume that David will be found in the larger, more famous Uffizi Gallery in the city centre, but the Galleria was chosen when the statue was moved from Palazzo della Signoria, the town hall of Florence, in 1873.
The Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze is located on 58/60 Via Ricasoli on the north bank - find it here on Google Maps.
It’s a small-ish building and relatively easy miss if there weren’t long queues and the unfortunate scribbles of graffiti on the wall. It’s a bit of a walk to it from the river or other popular sites in the centre; we recommend you factor in 15-minutes for it so you don’t miss your time slot.
The official website of La Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze has lots of visitor information, a map of the gallery, concession ticket information, and details on exhibits (note that there’s a very high-ranking website which many people mistake for the official Galleria dell’Accademia website, but it's NOT legit).
The official website does not however sell tickets directly, but instead links out to its website partner called B-Ticket.
This government-owned booking platform lists nearly all the museums in Florence, so you have to first select English, select your date, scroll down to Galleria dell'Accademia, select tickets, then choose from the available 15-minute time slots.
It is very common however for these tickets to be completely sold out, especially if you're planning for a last-minute purchase. For example, writing this on a Friday afternoon in the middle May, the first available Galleria dell'Accademia ticket available via that platform is for the 23rd of JUNE!
That's four weeks away, so you can only imagine what availability is like in peak summer.
The platform is frustrating in that it doesn't allow you to just scroll to the following day(s) to see availability; instead you have to go back to the first page, insert the new date, and repeat the above process. One hack we found to make the process slightly easier though is to filter the museum results down to the specific Galleria dell'Accademia ticket page - we've done that here for you.
It's also annoying that you have to register in order to purchase tickets, as well as pay a €4 booking fee - note that this applies even if you’re only buying free/concession tickets, and is included in the upfront ticket price.
However, they will still be the cheapest available and if you're reading this several months in advance of your Florence visit and have a good idea on your dates / itinerary for the city, we recommend that you purchase your Galleria dell'Accademia tickets there.
If you're super prepared, buying via the official site will also increase your chances of getting excellent early morning or late afternoon time slots (see our inside tips section at the end of the post for more).
HOWEVER, the major drawback buying via that website so far in advance is that cancelling or changing your dates / time is not possible.
Its terms and conditions state: 'no refunds of the price of the ticket shall be given should you decide that the purchase was done in error or that you are no longer able to attend. Nor are refunds given for tickets that were purchased but never retrieved. Confirmed bookings can not be changed.'
If that no-refunds policy doesn't work for your travel style or budget, then we do have an alternative option to give you greater flexibility and control.
All tickets purchased via B-Ticket must be retrieved at the Academy Gallery ticket office on the day of entry by showing your confirmation e-mail with the reservation code. The Gallery also offers the option to book your ticket and entrance time by calling them on +39 055 294883, but this is based on the same availability as the website and still attracts a €4 booking fee.
If you've checked and discovered all the Galleria dell'Accademia tickets are sold out for your upcoming trip - don't panic! The solution to make sure you see David is below.
Accademia Gallery Tickets Sold Out?
Thankfully, there's a reliable and affordable solution to buy last-minute, skip-the-line tickets for the Galleria dell’Accademia.
Aside from last-minute availability, these tickets give you the option to cancel up to 24 hours in advance of your visit for a full refund, therefore allowing you much more flexibility than the official website's restrictive refunds and changes policy.
These tickets are sold via several popular tour + experience platforms which we personally use for all our travels, and we would not recommend them here with you otherwise.
You can find Accademia Gallery tickets here on GetYourGuide, here on Viator, and here on Tiqets.
Alternatively, go ahead and buy this super popular and highly-rated last-minute skip-the-line Accademia ticket.
The reason they offer the best alternative is because several tour companies and platforms are permitted to buy a limited number of advance tickets for the Accademia so, although they absolutely contribute to the shortages, they do ensure a convenient and cost-effective solution to finding tickets when the official website's platform is sold out.
The majority of tickets they sell are skip-the-line too, so you avoid wasting hours in the queue.
They also have more user-friendly interfaces than B-Ticket, so allow you to get a better overview of availability across your dates, allowing you to find a ticket slot which suits your Florence visit rather than putting you in a difficult compromise.
The only drawback is that they do cost a bit more than the standard entry tickets, especially for children, but they are not prohibitively priced for travellers. At time of writing, this popular single adult skip-the-line ticket costs €23, which is just €3 more than the official website’s €20 (ticket + booking fee).
Of course, if you’re buying for 2+ people, that booking fee would be split.
Buy Skip-The-Line Galleria dell’Accademia Tickets
We have done the hard work for you and listed several of the best options on three ticket platforms we use - all of them have hundreds or thousands of positive reviews.
Note that availability and prices offered fluctuate across them, so feel free to click around between them all if you can't find the right dates and to compare prices - you're already paying a few euros extra, so it's important to get good value!
Some of the last-minute options have a tour representative / host who meets you at the entrance to provide the ticket and advise you where to enter, whilst others are self-collection, so make sure to read the confirmation instructions before turning up so you know exactly what to do before entry
1. Timed Priority Entrance Ticket to Michelangelo’s David - buy here
2. Accademia Gallery Tickets: Priority Entrance - buy here
3. Accademia Gallery Timed-Entry Ticket and Priority Access - buy here
4. Michelangelo's David Skip-the-Line Entry Ticket - find out more here
If none of the above have availability for your dates, you still have options! We've linked to the specific David and Accademia Gallery ticket overview pages below on the three platforms so you can find all the available alternatives for last-minute tickets for your trip:
· Buy Accademia Gallery Tickets on GetYourGuide
Accademia Gallery Tours
The final option, which may be preferred if you'd like to better appreciate the history and importance of David and the genius of Michelangelo, and have a local take care of all the admin and entry requirements, is to book a guided tour.
As above, all offer a full refund if you cancel 24 hours before the start time.
We've shared three highly-rated options below, all of which include reserved priority entry:
Florence: Skip-the-Line Accademia Guided Tour | A one-hour small-group tour with an English-speaking guide. Prices from £25 per person.
Accademia Gallery Semi-Private Tour | Groups are limited to 10 people for this English-speaking tour. Prices from £35 per person.
David & Accademia Gallery Tour | Pricer are £36 per person.
Alternatively, if you don’t have much time to explore Florence, you could opt for this highly-rated four-hour walking tour which combines the Uffizi & Accademia, and includes skip-the-line entrance for each of these two unmissable galleries.
An alternative architecture and art-history focussed option is this walking tour which includes the Ponte Vecchio and Duomo as well as your skip the line Access and a pre-reserved entry time at the Accademia Gallery.
Tips For Making The Most of YOUR VISIT
Andrew wrote ‘A Moment With Michelangelo’s David’ in the middle of the night as the piece of art had such an impact on him. Although it’s a huge tourist attraction for which you have to invest time and money, it’s a wasted visit if you don’t take a moment for yourself to stop, look, and appreciate the work of Michelangelo.
Although you’re always going to be sharing him with the gaze of many others, David isn’t going anywhere, so it’s all about your subjective approach and connection.
These are our tips to avoid the crowds, improve the experience, and help you get the most out your Galleria dell’Accademia ticket.
· We managed to book the first time slot of the day (8:15-8:30 am) and, despite a hangover, managed to turn up 30 minutes early to collect our tickets.
· Although skip-the-line tickets avoid the lengthy general queue lines, there is still a specific line for everyone with that time slot (marked as ingresso prenotati / reserved entrance). Therefore, turning up 30 minutes before your time slot to collect your ticket and be at or near the front, especially if you’ve managed to get the first time slot and want to be first through the doors (despite our early arrival for the first time slot of the day, we were still actually toward the back of the queue!)
· Where to pick up tickets for Galleria dell Accademia? The ticket office is at #51 Via Ricasoli, opposite the Accademia entrance and to the right (maps). Collect your tickets there first with the email confirmation and then join the queue at the entrance - if purchasing some of the skip-the-line tickets above, your ‘host’ will meet you on the street and provide tickets.
· Go to the bathroom before you turn up at Galleria Della Accademia! And leave any large backpack at home, as they're not permitted and there's no cloakroom.
· Don't faff when you enter: go left at the entrance and right to go straight to the room housing David! As we weren’t right at the front of our queue for the first morning slot, and sort of went this way by accident, we bypassed everyone else in front - and it’s the reason that we had that moment with David all on our own! Take a look at the Galleria dell’Accademia map here to understand the layout we’re referring to.
· If you can't get one of the first time slots of the day, then your next best bet is to go for one of the later afternoon slots! By this time, lots of the large tour groups and day trippers will have gone and fewer people will be turning up after you. Most people counterintuitively think that any morning slot is better than a late one but, on the official website, the afternoon slots always have better availability, and with the crowds thinned out you'll find far fewer people there than at 10 or 11am. It also allows you to linger until closing.
· Put your phone away. It can be infuriating to see so many people just focussed on photos and selfies before moving on, never taking the time to actually admire David and contemplate why this piece of work has been so revered since it was first unveiled. Of course, make sure you get your photos, but nothing will match drinking in every little detail of his form - the veins, the forearms, the torso, the gaze of determination - with your own eye. Read about our moment with David in this blog post.
· Don't rush though the rest of the Galleria dell’Accademia! There are several other wonderful pieces of Michelangelo's sculpture here, as well as many beautiful lesser-known works and paintings. If you pass over the merits of all of those, then it's a shame. Once you’re done with David, we recommend you take a moment to at least visit the neighbouring Gipsoteca (‘Hall of Models’) room, which hosts a captivating array of piled up plaster casts and marble statues by Lorenzo Bartolini.
· Taking the time to wander around the other rooms and exhibits gives you a chance to come back to David for a second glimpse - and given how much effort it can take to have that first glimpse of a masterpiece, why on earth wouldn't you want to do that.
· Don't be a dick. Of course, we know you won't be one, but the fact of the matter is that lots of people will simply get in other people's way and lack any consideration of the experience and connection that we're all seeking (or at least some of us). Also, don’t run in to try and be first.
