Uffizi Gallery in Florence - Beat the Queue

Housed in the Palazzo degli Uffizi in Florence, Italy; the Uffizi gallery is one of the most famous art galleries in the World. It contains one of the biggest collections of Renaissance art and some of the most iconic artworks from Botticelli, Caravaggio, Da Vinci and Rembrandt, among others.

When booking your flights, Florence apartment and hire car, also consider booking your tickets for attractions such as the Uffizi Gallery. It is reported that in high season visitors can spend up to five hours queuing for entry to the gallery. Tickets can be booked online directly from the official Uffizi gallery website and will allow you more time to enjoy the abundance of other tempting attractions in Florence city centre.

Completed in 1581, after 21 years of construction, the Uffizi Gallery was designed by Giorgio Vasari as office buildings for the Florentine Magistrates, Uffizi means office in Italian. The design of the building is considered highly influential by architecture historians as the long internal courtyard that that looks towards the Arno River through a Doric Screen is considered to be the first uniform streetscape in Europe. The accentuated perspective and unbroken cornicing create the linear quality that led to this observation.

The Uffizi Gallery possesses a monumental collection of artworks that are distributed among some 45 exhibition rooms, meaning that it is advised to set aside at least 3 hours of your day to appreciate all of the vast collection and leave time to visit any of the other nearby museums or galleries.

It is also recommended to take one of the audio tours that are available, as this will give you historical insight and make your viewing experience a lot more worthwhile.

Ticket prices begin at €9.95 and visitors simply visit the official Uffizi website where they enter the date, time and number of visitors that they wish to admit and the ticket order can be made quickly and easily online using a credit card. The price includes a small booking fee but it is definitely worth paying to avoid the queue in the often stifling, Florence summer heat.

European citizens between the ages of 18 and 25 and teachers are entitled to a reduced rate and those under 18 and over 65 are entitled to free entrance, although children under 12 years old must be accompanied by an adult.

The Uffizi Gallery is located at the Piazzale degli Uffizi in central Florence.

The History of Chianti in Florence

Created in the ripe Tuscan countryside since the 14th century and defined as a wine-producing area in 1716, Chianti and Chianti wine is one of Italy’s most favourite products. All apartments in Florence deem it necessary to have at least a couple of bottles of Chianti, their home-grown produce.

The Chianti area now incorporates about 65 square miles between Florence and Siena, which has grown and added new territories since its first days of wine-making.
The original Etruscan family of Clante settled in the area in the 7th and 8th centuries, and the wine-making activity is said to be attributed to them.
Always enamoured for its fertile valleys and natural beauty, the Chianti region mixes woods of oak and chesnut with olive groves, villages, vineyards and many little rivers.

In the 14th century, a dispute over land ownership was settled as two young nobles from the rivalry cities, Guelph Florence and Ghibelline Siena, had a race to cover land and claim it. According to the story, the race was to start at the first cock of the crow in each city. Florence had kept a black rooster without food, so that it would crow earlier in the morning and this led to Florence gaining more of the Chianti territory. The image of this black rooster is still used today as the seal on the Chianti wine bottle.

Striving to protect the Chianti wine production and its hugely popular culture in more modern times, there have been several societies established, to allow for the correct ecological management of the region around Florence, and the organisation of the tourist flow within the Chianti area. The seal of this community is marked by the ever-faithful Chianti rooster.

When in Florence, be sure to relax with a glass of Chianti and savour the city’s great past.