Museum, tower or both?
The Comune's hours and tickets page prices the two visits separately. We found no combined museum-and-tower ticket on the Comune's pages or its official box office, so doing both means buying both.
| Visit | Adult | Age 18–25 | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Museum only | €18 | €12 | Salone dei Cinquecento, state rooms, rainy days |
| Tower only | €20 + €1 booking | €13 + €1 booking | The view, if you have little time indoors |
| Museum and tower | €38 + €1 booking | €25 + €1 booking | A half day in the palace |
| Firenze Card | €85 for 72 hours | — | Five or more paid museums in three days |
The €1 presale fee on tower tickets comes from the official box office. Under-18s enter the museum free; the box office also lists a free tower ticket but does not say who qualifies, so book a free ticket for a teenager rather than assume one.
The Firenze Card covers both the museum and the tower, but at €85 it only pays off with several other paid museums; our Firenze Card guide works through the break-even.
Opening hours and this month's closures
| Part of the palace | Mon, Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun | Thursday |
|---|---|---|
| Museum | 9:00–19:00 | 9:00–14:00 |
| Arnolfo Tower | 9:00–17:00 | 9:00–14:00 |
Museum tickets are sold until one hour before closing. For the tower, arrive 15 minutes before your booked time.
Palazzo Vecchio is still Florence's town hall, so council business closes rooms at short notice. The museum page lists these closures for November 2026:
- 3 November: partial closure; the Salone dei Cinquecento stays open.
- 4 November: the museum is completely closed.
- 7 November: partial closure; the Salone dei Cinquecento is closed until 14:00.
The same page says visits to the archaeological excavations were suspended from 16 October 2026, along with the Roman theatre route.
Climbing the Arnolfo Tower: the rules
The tower is 95 metres tall, and the Comune's tower page describes a stone staircase of 223 steps to the lookout. The box office's rules give 418 steps instead; the two pages do not explain the difference, so plan for the longer figure.
- Booking: compulsory, by buying the ticket in advance.
- Age: no children under 6; under-18s must be with an adult.
- Rain: the tower closes to the public, but the medieval walkway (camminamento di ronda) below it stays open.
- Heat: the box office warns that heat alerts can also restrict visits.
- Access: not suitable for wheelchairs or pushchairs.
If rain is forecast for your only free afternoon, book the museum for that day and keep the tower for a morning with a better forecast, or swap it for the Duomo climbs covered in our Duomo and dome guide.
Reduced and free tickets
Reduced prices apply to visitors aged 18–25 and to university students. Museum entry is free up to and including age 17, and for several other groups listed by the Comune, among them visitors with disabilities and a companion, licensed tour guides and interpreters, journalists and ICOM members.
Residents of Florence and the municipalities of its Metropolitan City have two options set out on the civic museums page:
- Card del Fiorentino: €10, personal, valid 365 days from collection, giving access to the civic museums.
- Domenica Metropolitana: free entry to the civic museums on the first Sunday of each month; guided visits in the scheme must be booked.
Neither applies to visitors staying in the city without residence.
If Palazzo Vecchio is part of a bigger museum day, our Uffizi tickets guide covers the gallery next door, and the Bargello guide the sculpture museum a few minutes' walk east.
