Diy visit to the Ufizi in Florence?

Hi everyone, the NCL epic shore excursion is €300, a no go.

Has anyone visited the ufizi leaving from the port? Is it a terrible idea in June or feasible?

Thanks in advance!

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Hi everyone, the NCL epic shore excursion is €300, a no go.

Has anyone visited the ufizi leaving from the port? Is it a terrible idea in June or feasible?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

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We are in Livorno on 30th May on the Constellation. Our plan for the day is as follows:

1. First shuttle of the ship at 7.00am or taxi to the train station. Catch train to Pisa view the leaning tower and obligatory photos. back to the station for train to Florence arriving approx. 11.30. Straight to Uffuzi Gallery and then onto the Accademia to see "David" catching the train back to Livorno around 3.30 - 4.00pm arriving 5.30. Taxi / shuttle back to the ship for 7.00pm sailing. If one wants to skip Pisa catch the train direct to Florence from Livorno.

All train tickets and tickets to Uffuzi and Accademia can be purchased on line approx. a month out so there will be no requirement to queue or buy ttrain tickets at the various train station. The train tickets cost approx. 29 euros in total. Entry to Accademia 18.50 euros per person, Uffuzi 18 euros per person. Trenitalia website for train tickets . Tickets for Uffuzi and Accademia can be purchased on the official government website. There is no need to use sites like Viator and similar who buy ther ticket from official sources and place their mark up. Our expected total spend for the day is approx. 90 euros per person.

It is a little more effort than sitting in a bus to nd from the ship but the savings are enormous

Purchasing your Uffizi tickets online gives you a dedicated entrance time & you will not have to queue for hours to get in. This method should pose no problems whatsoever with your visit to the museum - the Uffizi is fabulous!

We are in Livorno on 30th May on the Constellation. Our plan for the day is as follows:

 

1. First shuttle of the ship at 7.00am or taxi to the train station. Catch train to Pisa view the leaning tower and obligatory photos. back to the station for train to Florence arriving approx. 11.30. Straight to Uffuzi Gallery and then onto the Accademia to see "David" catching the train back to Livorno around 3.30 - 4.00pm arriving 5.30. Taxi / shuttle back to the ship for 7.00pm sailing. If one wants to skip Pisa catch the train direct to Florence from Livorno.

 

All train tickets and tickets to Uffuzi and Accademia can be purchased on line approx. a month out so there will be no requirement to queue or buy ttrain tickets at the various train station. The train tickets cost approx. 29 euros in total. Entry to Accademia 18.50 euros per person, Uffuzi 18 euros per person. Trenitalia website for train tickets . Tickets for Uffuzi and Accademia can be purchased on the official government website. There is no need to use sites like Viator and similar who buy ther ticket from official sources and place their mark up. Our expected total spend for the day is approx. 90 euros per person.

 

It is a little more effort than sitting in a bus to nd from the ship but the savings are enormous

Thanks

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Purchasing your Uffizi tickets online gives you a dedicated entrance time & you will not have to queue for hours to get in. This method should pose no problems whatsoever with your visit to the museum - the Uffizi is fabulous!

I'm looking forward to it

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Perhaps we should give some cost info (for comparison to tour pluprices). Round trip train from Livorno to Florence will cost you slightly less than 20€. Admission to the Ufizzi is 8€ plus an additional 4€ if you want reservations (which avoids most lines). So, you are looking at about 32€ per person...plus approximately another 10€ in taxi fares (using shared taxis to and from the port from the Livorno train station. So now you real cost is up to about 42€ per person. Not sure what the cruise lines are currently charging for an excursion that includes the Ufizzi...but it will be substantially more. At the Ufizzi, in lieu of a guided tour you can opt to rent an audio tour. Here is a link to the Official Ufizzi booking site (in English):

http://www.b-ticket.com/b-ticket/uffizi/venue.aspx

Be careful because there are many other "non official sites" that will charge you an additional fee.

Hank

Perhaps we should give some cost info (for comparison to tour pluprices). Round trip train from Livorno to Florence will cost you slightly less than 20€. Admission to the Ufizzi is 8€ plus an additional 4€ if you want reservations (which avoids most lines). So, you are looking at about 32€ per person...plus approximately another 10€ in taxi fares (using shared taxis to and from the port from the Livorno train station. So now you real cost is up to about 42€ per person. Not sure what the cruise lines are currently charging for an excursion that includes the Ufizzi...but it will be substantially more. At the Ufizzi, in lieu of a guided tour you can opt to rent an audio tour. Here is a link to the Official Ufizzi booking site (in English):

http://www.b-ticket.com/b-ticket/uffizi/venue.aspx

 

Be careful because there are many other "non official sites" that will charge you an additional fee.

 

Hank

The OP said in her first sentence - 300 euros

If you have a long day in port I would do it on your own, that's an outrageous price unless there are lots of other things, and including lunch.

You will also have the ability to view at your leisure - and to visit other sites. I shudder when I see the gangs of people being herded around in tour groups on whistle-stop tours ;)

As pointed out pre-book your Uffizi tickets. Just make sure you have a plan for getting to and from Florence, with train times, or even a taxi would cost less than that if you have someone to share with.

Sheesh. For 600 Euros you could rent a private car and driver from RIL for the entire day for 2 people including quick access to the museums (the drivers know the guards) and see a LOT more.

People on our ship did it DYI and said it was fine HOWEVER even though they had timed tickets they ended up waiting over 60 minutes because the museum was too full (6 ships in port that day BTW) so earlier is better. They did suggest possibly museum first and Pisa (if interested) later, since the cruise buses tend to do the other order.

We have today booked tickets for Uffizi and Accademia via credit card. Unfortunately they wont send the tickets to us on line but we have to pick them up on site. We have allowed 3 1/2 hours from proposed ships arrival time to get to Florence by train (train scheduled 1 1/2 hour trip). We have also prebooked and paid for entry to Accademia for 2 hours later. Cost of Uffizi including booking fee 16.50 euros. Accademia including booking fee 12 euros. We cant book our train fares yet for another couple of weeks as we don't arrive in Livorno until 30 May.

We used the official booking site

http://www.b-ticket.com/b-ticket/uffizi/default.aspx for tickets to both museums and took about 10 minutes total

Hello - we are going by cab (Tuscanybytaxi) here are the details if you are interested:

, the price for one taxi (up to 8 passengers) for the Florence

and

Pisa tour is approximately 360/400€ (taximeter).

Normally the waiting time is 3/4 hours in Florence and 1 hour in

Pisa.

The payment is cash directly to the driver at the end of the day.

Starting from the ship we need about 1 hour drive to get to

Florence. Usually we make a first stop at the Michelangelo Square to

see the best view of the city. The next stop is at the Duomo area in

the center of the city.

From Florence we need about 1 hour drive to go to Pisa. From Pisa we

come back to the ship in about 30 minutes drive.

Our drivers have a knowledge of english and spanish, but they are

not touristic guides.

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Another option to get to Florence is via bus for 30€ via tuscanybus which we are the thinking of booking for our MaPay trip

http://www.tuscanybus.com/getting-to-florence/

Favoriting this thread EOM. New to this forum so if there is a better way please let me know. Grazie!

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Favoriting this thread EOM. New to this forum so if there is a better way please let me know. Grazie!

 

 

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There are as I see it 4 options:

Bus option

Train option as we are doing

Taxi or private car including rental car

Ships excursion

Most have positives and negatives and significant cost variations

Thank you all for the great advice!

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We have changed our trip. Instead of going Pisa then Florence we are going direct to Florence then Pisa as it is closer to Livorno should something go awry. We will still have 2 hours in each of Uffizi and Accademia and 1/2 hour at the tower in Pisa. cant do too much more in a day