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Accademia Gallery

The gallery is famous for its prisons and for Michelangelo’s “David”, in the late 800’s moved to a gallery appropriately suited for the statue. It also preserves paintings between the 200’s and 500’s and plaster cast collections respectively done by Lorenzo Bartolini and Luigi Pampaloni, and a collection of Russian Icons. Now you can do online booking of Accademia Gallery Tickets without queuing up! 100% guarantee by WAF experience.

Advanced Reservations for Important Sites in Italy

Don't you love just wandering around a new city, finding some "gotta see it" place and then standing in line for forty five minutes so that you can get in?  Yeah, I do, that's awesome.  If you don't think that's awesome you have another option, make reservations in advance for some of the most popular sites. 

Listed below are the sites that we may want to visit in Italy that I recommend we reserve in advance.  Please review this list and reply, or comment below on any that you'd really like to see, or really like to skip.  Then, we can develop a plan of attack for booking and purchasing the advance tickets.

Venice

• Doge’s Palace – Secret Itineraries Tour – Skip the lines at the exquisitely gawdy Palace that housed Venice's rulers for hundreds of years and take a small group English language tour into rooms of the palace that are not open to the public. Tours are €16 for anyone under 65 and €10 for anyone over 65. Tours are available at 9:55, 10:45, and 11:35 am.
• St. Mark’s Basilica – The most famous cathedral in Venice and one of the best known examples of Byzantine architecture. The Basilica lies in the Piazza San Marco and is adjacent to the Doge’s Palace. It was originally the chapen of the Venetian rulers. Reservations are available at 10:45 which coincide with the English tour of the Basilica. Cost to book in advance and skip the lines €1.

Florence

• Accademia Gallery – Featuring “The David” as well as other famous works by Michelangelo, Botticelli, and some other important dead Italians. Tickets for Accademia are €10 for those under 65 and €5 for those over 65 plus a reservation fee of €4 per person.
• Uffizi Gallery – One of the most famous museums of paintings and sculpture in the world, and an exceptionally beautiful building built in 1560 along the Arno river featuring works from the 1200’s to 1800’s. Featured artists include Raphael, Caravaggio, Michelangelo, Botticelli, Leonardo de Vinci, Rembrandt, and Rubens. Reservations for Uffizi are filling up quickly, but we can get a reservation for October 17th at 12:00. Tickets for Uffizi €10 for those under 65 and €5 for those over 65 plus a reservation fee of €4 per person.

Note: A combo reservation card is available for €18 to visit these museums and skip the lines, but one would not want to visit them both in one day as they are on opposite sides of town. If we were to skip one museum in order to preserve an extra “free day” in Florence to explore I would recommend taking our chances with the Accademia and only reserving Uffizi.

Rome

• Borghese Gallery: A beautiful space surrounded by a grand public garden. The Borghese features art and sculpture by Bernini, Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, Rubens, Requires reservations and limits visits to 360 people at any given time. Time slots are available every two hours starting at 9:00 am and ending at 5:00 pm. Reservations are free, and tickets cost €10 per person which may be paid at the door.
• The Vatican– Home of the Sistine Chapel. Without an advanced reservation prepare to wait in a LONG line, any time of day. 2 hour guided English language tours of St. Peter’s Basilica, the Renaissance Art Collections, and Sistine Chapel are available for €36 full price and €30 for seniors, or in the evenings after the museum has closed for €31 full price and €25. To explore on your own without a tour tickets are €15 full price and €8 for seniors – all advanced reservations also include a $4.00 per person reservation fee.

So, what do you want to do??

Tour Venice before we arrive

So, you may be thinking I'm a little nuts, monomaniacal is how the hubs so lovingly put it.  But, this is my hobby! 

Anyway - I found the coolest little gadget, my gear-loving BIL (Brad, that's you) might enjoy this one. 
http://maps.veniceconnected.it/ - allows you to check out any area of Venice and just start walking around.

Want to see where we are staying and the surrounding neighborhood?  Just click that little link above, then select Ponte degli Scalzi and walk across the bridge by selecting the forward button, and voila - you're at the Hotel Boscolo Bellini (the salmon colored building straight ahead).  Keep walking and you can see the shops, restaraunts, and Banco de San Marco all around where we are staying. 

Hmmmm - how do I feel about the "Open No Stop" $3.00 spaghetti at that little tratorria, fabulous or kind of disgusting? Guess we'll find out!

Florence: Birthplace of the Renaissance