Florence civic museums: reviews, Palazzo Vecchio and tickets

Florence’s civic museums sell their tickets on the City portal bigliettimusei.comune.fi.it, and the seller is the City of Florence itself. The MUS.E foundation provides cultural services but is not the ticket seller. Support: supportomusei@firenzesmart.it, which aims to reply within 2 hours. This is an independent review: we are not the City’s ticket desk.

Our verdict. For Palazzo Vecchio, the Arnolfo Tower, the Brancacci Chapel and the other civic sites, the City’s prices (€18 + €1, €20, €15 and so on) are the benchmark; Tiqets and GetYourGuide at €30–32 mean a markup of about 65%. The downsides: no right of withdrawal and refunds only if a museum closes. Ideal if you want the civic museums at the public price; not for anyone who clicks the first search result without checking for the comune.fi.it domain.

Fact sheet

What it sells and at what price

Official prices: Palazzo Vecchio €18 + €1 online booking; Arnolfo Tower €20; Brancacci Chapel €15; Museo Novecento €13; Bardini Museum €10; Santa Maria Novella €7.50. These are the City’s public prices, not special “app prices”.

On Tiqets and GetYourGuide the same Palazzo Vecchio entry often costs €30–32, about 65% more than the €19 online total. Unless the package includes an audioguide or a tour you actually want, you are paying the intermediary. With the Firenzecard, Palazzo Vecchio, the Tower and the Brancacci Chapel still require a free but compulsory booking.

How booking works

1. Open bigliettimusei.comune.fi.it and choose the museum, date and time slot.
2. Pay the City price (€18 + €1 for Palazzo Vecchio, for example) and download the confirmation.
3. Arrive at the entrance with your QR code and ID, following the museum’s instructions.
4. Firenzecard holders: you still need to book a slot where required.
5. Voucher problems: write to supportomusei@firenzesmart.it (target reply time about 2 hours), ideally from the email address you used at checkout.

Don’t confuse MUS.E (the services foundation) with the ticket seller, which is always the City. Avoid look-alike sites that pose as “Palazzo Vecchio tickets” without a municipal domain.

Cancellation, refunds, support

The usual consumer right of withdrawal does not apply to these tickets. Refunds are essentially limited to museum closures, and changing the date at the last minute is not an automatic right. That puts the civic museums in line with the rigid rules typical of Italian cultural sites.

Support: supportomusei@firenzesmart.it, which aims to reply within 2 hours, faster than many national museum call centres. If you bought through a booking platform, contact that platform first: the City has no control over a reseller’s markup.

What the reviews say

On Tripadvisor, Palazzo Vecchio scores 4.6/5 from 9,496 reviews, ranks #33 and holds a Travellers’ Choice award. Visitors are rating the rooms, the Tower and the setting on Piazza della Signoria; complaints about tickets come mainly from people who paid double on a booking platform without realising it. The €19 vs €30–32 gap is the most useful fact on this page.

Pros and cons

Pros: transparent City prices; fast email support (about 2 hours); a well-reviewed Palazzo Vecchio; works with the Firenzecard (with booking).

Cons: no right of withdrawal; refunds only for closures; platforms charge about 65% more; confusion between MUS.E and the actual seller.

Buying civic museum tickets sensibly

Palazzo Vecchio is often the first civic museum visitors look up online, and it is where the platform markup (€30–32 against €18 + €1) is most obvious. The same pattern applies to the Tower, the Brancacci Chapel and the other museums on the portal: the City publishes a price, the platforms bundle or simply resell. If you don’t need an audioguide or a tour, bigliettimusei.comune.fi.it is the sensible choice.

Palazzo Vecchio sits right next to the Uffizi, and many visitors overestimate what they “save” by buying it on a platform they already have open for something else. Keep the checkouts separate: civic museums on the City portal, the Uffizi on tickets.uffizi.it. On the cheaper museums (Santa Maria Novella at €7.50, Bardini at €10, Novecento at €13) any percentage markup hurts even more. With little time, pick one or two civic museums and pay the City price; with a Firenzecard, use them to fill your 72 hours once the five compulsory slots are booked. If a checkout page does not show the comune.fi.it domain, compare its price with €18 + €1 before paying.

Verdict

Editorial score: 4.5/5 on price; 2.8/5 on flexibility. (1) Buy on bigliettimusei.comune.fi.it. (2) Avoid €30–32 platform tickets that add nothing useful. (3) With a Firenzecard, still book Palazzo Vecchio, the Tower and the Brancacci Chapel. See also the Firenzecard review and our Palazzo Vecchio guide.

We are an independent guide. If you book through our Tiqets or GetYourGuide links we may earn a commission; the price you pay does not change.