Galleria dell'Accademia (Michelangelo's David)

How to visit without queuing

The Accademia is small and central — Via Ricasoli, about a five-minute walk north of the Duomo — so the trick isn’t getting there, it’s getting in. Book a timed ticket online before you go. Pre-booked visitors use the Red Point fast lane and walk straight through; everyone buying on the day waits in the Blue Point ticket queue, which runs 15 to 60 minutes in peak season. The booking adds a €4 reservation fee on top of the €16 entry, and it’s the rare add-on worth paying without a second thought.

Aim to book at least a week ahead, and earlier than that for summer mornings, which sell out first. Arrive 15 to 20 minutes before your slot so the metal-detector screening doesn’t eat into your entry time. If you happen to be in Florence on the first Sunday of the month, entry is free — but there’s no advance booking then, so you trade the fee for a long queue.

What’s inside, and is it worth it?

Most people come for David and many leave within five minutes, which is a mistake. The statue earns its fame — it’s far bigger and more finely worked than the postcards let on, standing under a purpose-built domed skylight at the end of the hall. But the four unfinished Prisoners lining the corridor up to him are the quietly better thing to see: Michelangelo left them half-trapped in the marble, chisel-marks and all, and you watch his thinking in mid-act. Beyond the Michelangelos there’s a room of Renaissance paintings including a Botticelli, and a museum of historic instruments with a Medici-owned Stradivarius.

Yes, go — but give it an hour rather than treating David as a tick-box. It’s a compact museum, not a Uffizi-scale day, so it pairs well with a morning at the Duomo or an afternoon across the river in the Oltrarno. If you have to choose one Florence gallery and you want sculpture over painting, this is the one.