Ady & Meg.
We certainly feel that this was an experience that we will never forget - for all the wrong reasons! 😂
We booked online for entry at 8:15, and arrived a little earlier than this. When we arrived the gallery was closed and there were not any queues forming yet. When a member of staff arrived to start arranging the places for people to queue, we (and the other 8:15 arrivals who has since arrived) were told to stand on the other side of the pavement, away from where they were setting up the queuing areas. As time went on, more people arrived, with 8:15s continuing to be told to stand to the side, whilst later arrivals got into the actual queuing area. However, when it came time to enter, the staff let the people in the queuing area in first, before the people who had been told to stand to the side?
Letting that one go, our next battle was to get through Security. As we went through the door, we saw a small sign saying we could not take big bottles of water in. Being used to other galleries having cloakrooms, we were shocked to be told that we had to throw all of our water bottles (we had packed to be out for the whole day) in the bin!
Once that saga was over, we scanned our tickets and were just heading through into the gallery itself when we were called back and accused of not throwing away all of our water (we had). We were yet again searched, and the staff then told us that they would store our can of Red Bull under the desk - why couldn't they have done that with the water / our bags if it were such a big deal?!
Finally we were allowed entry into the gallery and to be honest, we found it completely underwhelming, especially considering the price. The highlight of the gallery was of course Michelangelo's David, but even that failed to impress us. We wondered if these feelings were due to our issues at entry, but having spoken to other tourists they too reported dissatisfaction.
You may feel that seeing Michelangelo's David is a must whilst in Florence, but we wouldn't recommend spending much time here - even with the drama at Security, a toilet break and walking around there twice, we were in and out in 45 minutes!
Flossie.
I was not invited on this adventure ☹
Add comment
Comments