Frequently Asked Questions

Tickets and Booking

How can I buy tickets?
Tickets can be purchased directly at the ticket offices of the museums that are part of the Polo Museale Fiorentino. For some museums the ticket can be purchased online. On the website, select the museum you wish to visit and consult the section Info, where you will find all the necessary information for visiting the museums of the Polo Museale Fiorentino. Alternatively, you can consult the Opening hours section, which specifies which museums offer the option of buying tickets online. Otherwise you can phone 055 294883.

How can I book the visit?
Booking is not obligatory, but it is recommended for some of the museums of the Polo Museale Fiorentino, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Accademia Gallery.

To make the booking, you can phone Firenze Musei on 055 294883, or you can book online on the Firenze Musei website.

The cost of booking varies depending on the museum. For information about ticket prices and the cost of booking select the museum you wish to visit and consult the section Info.

Who is entitled to free admission?
Who is entitled to free admission? Free Admission.

Cited below is Ministerial Decree no. 239 dated 20 April 2006, (published in the Official Journal no. 172 dated 26 July 2006) which ratifies the provisions governing entrance tickets to monuments, museums, galleries, excavations of antiquities, parks and monumental gardens:

• Article 4 of Ministerial Decree no. 507 dated 11 December 1997 is replaced by the following: “Art 4 (Free entrance and admission free of charge). - 1. Free entrance to the institutions and cultural sites pursuant to article 1, paragraph 1, is authorised when the revenue from the sale of tickets in the previous year is inferior to the costs sustained, directly or indirectly, by the Ministry to collect the same.
• The regional committee for ticket services can establish free access to the institutes and sites specified in paragraph 1 on the occasion of special events.
• Persons entitled to free admission:
  • tour guides from the European Union in the exercise of their professional activities, upon display of a valid licence issued by the competent authority;
  • tourist interpreters from the European Union when their assistance is required alongside the guide, upon display of a valid licence issued by the competent authority;
  • Ministry personnel;
  • members of the International Council of Museums (I.C.O.M.);
  • citizens of the European Union under age of eighteen or over the age of sixty five. Visitors under the age of twelve must be accompanied;
  • groups and parties of students from state and private schools in the European Union, accompanied by their teachers, subject to booking and in the number established by the head of the institution;
  • teachers and students enrolled in the faculties of architecture, cultural heritage conservation and educational sciences, or on degree courses in literature or literary subjects with an archaeological or historic-artistic specialisation in the faculties of literature and philosophy, or on corresponding courses in similar faculties set up in the Member States of the European Union. The free ticket is issued to the students upon display of the certificate of enrolment for the current academic year;
  • teachers and students enrolled in the Fine Arts Academies or corresponding institutes of the European Union. The free ticket is issued to the students upon display of the certificate of enrolment for the current academic year;
  • disabled citizens of the European Union and a relative, or other accompanying person who can demonstrate that they work in social or health care services;
  • voluntary association workers who, on the basis of agreements with the Ministry pursuant to art. 112, paragraph 8 of the Code, perform activities of promotion and circulation of information regarding the cultural heritage.
• For reasons of study or research, certified by schools or universities, academies and research and cultural institutes in Italy and abroad, or by the Ministry, or for specific motivated requirements, the heads of the institutions may allow free admission for specified periods to persons making request thereto.
• For the reasons or requirements provided for in paragraph 4, the competent directors general may issue to individual persons annual passes for free admission to all the institutions and sites specified in paragraph 1, and may also – subject to the opinion of the regional committee for ticket services – identify categories of individuals to whom free admission to the same sites may be granted for specific periods.
• For citizens of the European Union aged between eighteen and twenty-five, and for teachers in State schools, the price of the entrance ticket is halved.
• For citizens of States that do not belong to the European Union, on condition of reciprocity, the provisions on free admission laid down in paragraph 3, letter e), and those on reductions laid down in paragraph 6 apply.

Who is entitled to a reduction on the price of the ticket?
Information about who is entitled to a reduction on the price of the ticket can be found in the section called Reduced Tickets.

Working at the Polo Museale Fiorentino

What do I have to do if I want to work at the Polo Museale Fiorentino?
In the Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della città di Firenze, as in all other public sector departments, recruitment takes place via public competition, notices of which are regularly published in the Official Journal (Gazzetta Ufficiale). In the case in question, the competition is announced by the Ministry for the Cultural Heritage (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali). For further information, consult the Competitions section on the official website of the Ministry.

Certain services of the Polo Museale Fiorentino are managed by private companies; in these cases recruitment is performed using procedures different from those described above.

How can a course of training or voluntary service be organised?
Vocational training sessions can be organised, pursuant to Art. 18 of the Law 196/97 and the Decree of the Ministry of Employment no. 142/98, for persons who have fulfilled obligatory scholastic requirements. The training can be organised only subject to special agreements between the sponsoring body and the employer.

As regards voluntary activity, we would note that a memorandum of understanding has been drawn up between the Ministry for the Cultural Heritage and Activities and the Voluntary Associations, in order to integrate institutional services with manpower by involving the human resources locally available. Consequently, the interested party has to belong to a voluntary association with which the Soprintendenza can draw up an agreement. Therefore, applications made by interested individuals cannot be taken into consideration, but only those made by voluntary associations operating in the sector of the cultural heritage.

Information on the works of art and photographic material

Does the personnel of the Polo Museale Fiorentino provide attributions or estimates on privately-owned works of art?
We would inform the kind users of the site that the art historians of the Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della città di Firenze cannot reply to queries regarding privately-owned works, particularly in relation to attribution or commercial value.

Where can I find historic or artistic information about the works of art belonging to the Polo Museale Fiorentino?
For detailed information about the works belonging to the Polo Museale Fiorentino you can perform a search in the section of the site called Digital Archives.

The Digital Archives are made up of five sections: the Inventories of the Works, the Catalogue of the Works, the Photographic Archive, the Historic Archive and the Hymnals of San Marco.

Over the course of time many inventories have been drawn up of the works of art possessed by the Florentine galleries. Some of these inventories have been digitised and can now be consulted online in the section of the site called Inventories of the Works. The consultation of these registers offers users a wealth of information about the inventoried works.

The Catalogue of the Works is based on the cataloguing of the works of art performed by the Ministry for the Cultural Heritage and Activities, and the cataloguing criteria are different from those used in the Inventory of the Works. Thus, to obtain as much information as possible about the work you are interested in, we recommend that you supplement the research in the Inventories of the Works with exploration of the Catalogue of the Works.

The Photographic Archive, which will be online in the near future, will make available to users a vast array of photos of the artistic heritage of the Polo Museale Fiorentino. For further information on the photographic material, consult the page of the website dedicated to the Photographic Department.

The Historic Archive allows you to consult online the indices of the documents produced by the Florentine museum galleries between 1739 and 1940.

Finally, in the section denominated the Hymnals of San Marco, users can view and leaf through the famous illuminations by Beato Angelico which were displayed in the exhibition held in the Museum of San Marco between December 2007 and March 2008. Now, following the conclusion of the exhibition, they can be consulted online.

How can I obtain photos of the works of art?
For information on how to get hold of photos of the works, consult the page of the website devoted to the Photographic Department.

For the utilisation of the images, consult the page of the website devoted to the Authorisation Office.

To obtain detailed information about the terms and conditions of use of the material present on the website, please refer to the Copyright section.

Is it permitted to make films and take photos inside the museums?
It is forbidden to take photos or shoot films inside the museums without the necessary authorisation. Reproductions, prints and specialist publications can be purchased in the respective Bookshops.