What Is Open in Florence on Monday (and Sunday)

Yes — and it is the same set every week, because the closure follows who owns the building rather than what is inside it.

The state museums, run under the culture ministry, close on Mondays: the Uffizi with Pitti Palace, the Boboli Gardens and the Vasari Corridor in one group, and the Accademia with the Bargello, the Medici Chapels and Orsanmichele in the other. That is where David, the Botticellis, Donatello's bronze David and Michelangelo's New Sacristy all are. The Uffizi and Pitti add 1 January and 25 December; the Accademia adds the same two dates and made a single exception for Monday 6 April 2026.

The civic museums, run by the Comune, do not take Mondays off. They each take a different day instead, which is the detail that catches people who have learned the Monday rule: the Brancacci Chapel closes on Tuesday, the Museo Novecento on Thursday, Palazzo Medici Riccardi on Wednesday. Palazzo Vecchio has no weekly closing day at all, but shuts at 14:00 on Thursdays.

The churches run on a third calendar entirely — theirs turns on worship, so Sunday morning is the closed slot, not Monday. And the Duomo complex, run by the Opera del Duomo, opens seven days a week, which is why a Monday in Florence usually starts at the cathedral.

Two exceptions worth writing down. The Boboli Gardens close only on the first and last Monday of each month, so three Mondays in four they are open. And the Pitti's Treasury mezzanine is closed until further notice, whatever day you arrive.

• State museums — closed every Monday: Uffizi, Accademia, Pitti, Bargello, Medici Chapels, Orsanmichele, Vasari Corridor
• Boboli Gardens — closed only the first and last Monday of the month
• Civic museums — open Monday, each closed on another weekday instead
• Duomo complex — open seven days; the cathedral nave closes on Sunday instead

Enough to fill a day twice over, once you stop looking for the state galleries.

The civic museums are the backbone. Palazzo Vecchio opens 09:00–19:00 at €18, with the Arnolfo tower at €20 until 17:00 — the tower closes in rain, which is worth knowing before you climb the stairs to be turned back. The Brancacci Chapel runs 10:00–17:00 at €15, ten people per 30-minute slot. The Museo Novecento opens 11:00–20:00 at €13, though its permanent collection is away at Castelfiorentino until 20 September 2026. Santa Maria Novella opens 09:00–17:30 at €7.50, which on a Monday is the best-value interior in the city.

The Duomo complex is open in full. The cathedral nave is free 10:15–15:45, the dome takes its last climbers at 18:45, the bell tower the same, the Baptistery runs 08:30–19:30 and the cathedral museum 08:30–19:00. That is the whole Brunelleschi Pass available on the one day the galleries are not.

The churches are open too: Santa Croce 09:30–17:30 at €10, San Lorenzo 10:00–17:30 at €9, the Laurentian Library until 13:30 at €5 — Monday to Friday only, so a Monday is one of the five chances you get at Michelangelo's staircase. San Miniato al Monte is free, morning and late afternoon.

And the rest: Museo Galileo 09:30–18:00 at €14, Palazzo Medici Riccardi 09:00–19:00 at €15, Palazzo Strozzi 10:00–20:00 at €15 for a dated ticket, the Boboli Gardens on three Mondays in four, plus everything that never closes — Ponte Vecchio, Piazzale Michelangelo, Piazza della Signoria and Mercato Centrale until 23:00.

Built on the hours in the table, with walking times from the coordinates — the Duomo to Piazza della Signoria is about 9 minutes on foot, the Duomo to Santa Maria Novella about 10, and Santa Croce to Piazzale Michelangelo about 10 more.

08:30 — the dome. Book the first slot you can and enter at the Porta della Mandorla on the north side: 463 steps, no lift, about 45 minutes. It is the one climb in Florence that is easier before the day heats up, and Monday to Friday the last slot runs to 18:45 if you would rather do it at the end.

10:15 — the cathedral nave, free, straight across the piazza. Shoulders and knees covered, no flip-flops.

11:00 — San Lorenzo and the Laurentian Library, five minutes north. The library's monumental area closes at 13:30 and does not open at weekends at all, so a Monday morning is one of your few windows for Michelangelo's vestibule staircase.

12:30 — Mercato Centrale, next door, for lunch upstairs.

14:00 — Palazzo Vecchio, fifteen minutes south. The Hall of the Five Hundred and the Studiolo take about an hour and a half; the tower is a separate ticket and separate stairs. The entry with audioguide fixes the hour, and the secret passages tour is the version that gets you into the walls.

16:00 — Museo Galileo, four minutes on from the palace, open until 18:00. Galileo's telescopes, his finger in a glass egg, and almost nobody in the rooms.

17:30 — Santa Croce if you moved fast, since last entry is 17:00, or Palazzo Medici Riccardi until 19:00 if you did not. Then the Museo Novecento or Palazzo Strozzi until 20:00.

That is a full Monday with no state museum in it, which is the point. If your trip is longer, put this day where the Monday falls and shift the Uffizi and David to the other days: the two-day plan and the three-day plan both work that way, and the one-day route is what you would otherwise be doing.

Two calendar rules sit next to each other and pull in opposite directions.

The Boboli Gardens close on the first and last Monday of every month, plus 25 December, with a special opening on 1 January 2026. On any other Monday they are open from 08:15, closing anywhere between 16:30 in the winter months and 19:10 in June, July and August. So Boboli is the one state-run site that can rescue a Monday — except on the two Mondays when it cannot.

The first Sunday of the month is free at the state museums under the ministry's own scheme: the Uffizi, the Accademia, Pitti, Boboli, the Bargello, the Medici Chapels and Orsanmichele, at normal hours, with the ticket issued at the entrance and no reservation possible. The Accademia adds 25 April, 2 June and 4 November 2026; the Bargello and the Medici Chapels add 25 April and 4 November. The Vasari Corridor joins the free Sunday only when that Sunday is not a Monday closure, which is another way of saying it is open as the Uffizi is.

Put those two together and you get the weekend that ruins itself: a free Sunday followed by a Monday when every museum you did not reach is shut. If your dates include the first Sunday, do the state museums that day and accept the queue, then use the Monday plan above. And a free Sunday is not a free trip — the €30 Duomo pass is unaffected, since the Opera del Duomo runs its own gate.

Santa Croce keeps its own free list for 2026, unconnected to the state scheme: 15 August, 14 September, 26 and 27 September, 4 October, 8 November, 20 December and 26 December, with no online booking on those days and last entry at 16:30.

Museums are not the Sunday problem. The Uffizi runs 08:15–18:30, the Accademia to 18:50, Pitti, the Bargello, the Medici Chapels and Orsanmichele all keep normal hours, Palazzo Vecchio opens 09:00–19:00, Museo Galileo 09:30–18:00 and Palazzo Medici Riccardi 09:00–19:00. If you have one Sunday in Florence, it is a museum day.

The churches are where the day breaks. The cathedral nave is closed to visitors all Sunday and on religious celebrations, so the free walk-in you planned is a Monday-to-Saturday thing. San Lorenzo lists no Sunday visiting hours at all, and the Laurentian Library closes Saturday and Sunday both. Santa Croce does not open until 14:00, with last entry still at 17:00. Santa Maria Novella runs 13:00–17:00. The Brancacci Chapel opens 13:00–17:00 rather than 10:00.

Inside the Duomo complex the clocks move too. The dome runs 12:45–16:30 on Sundays and holidays, against a last slot of 18:45 on weekdays, so a Sunday climb has a four-hour window and no more. Santa Reparata opens 13:30–16:00. The Baptistery keeps 08:30–19:30, except on the first Sunday of the month, when it closes at 13:30. The ticket office on Piazza San Giovanni 7 works 10:15–17:45 on Sundays against 08:00–19:15 the rest of the week.

San Miniato al Monte is the exception that rewards a Sunday: it opens earlier, 08:15–13:00, with masses at 08:30, 10:00, 11:30 and 17:30 and vespers sung in Latin at 18:30. Bus 12 from the station gets you up there. The churches page has service times church by church.

• Closed to visitors on Sunday: the cathedral nave, San Lorenzo, the Laurentian Library
• Open late on Sunday: Santa Croce from 14:00, Santa Maria Novella and Brancacci from 13:00, Santa Reparata from 13:30
• Shorter on Sunday: the dome, 12:45–16:30 only; the Baptistery to 13:30 on the first Sunday
• Unchanged on Sunday: every state and civic museum in the table

The mirror image of the Monday: museums early, churches after lunch.

08:15 — the Uffizi on the first slot, booked ahead. €25 at the door or €29 in advance, and on a Sunday the advance ticket is the sane choice. A reserved entry holds the hour and cancels free up to 24 hours before.

11:00 — the Bargello or the Medici Chapels, both eight minutes away, both shut tomorrow. The Bargello is €12 and Donatello, the Chapels €11 and Michelangelo; a reserved Chapel entry or a Bargello entry saves the desk queue on a busy Sunday.

12:45 — the dome, if you want it today: this is the only slot window Sunday offers, and it ends at 16:30.

14:00 — Santa Croce as it opens, or the Brancacci Chapel from 13:00 across the river. Santa Croce's last entry is 17:00 and the church is large enough to need most of that.

17:30 — bus 12 up to San Miniato al Monte for vespers at 18:30, with Piazzale Michelangelo on the way down for the view everybody comes for.

One warning about first Sundays. On those the state museums are free and unbookable, and the queue at the Uffizi starts before the doors open. If your Sunday is a first Sunday, either arrive before 08:00 at the ticket office door or spend the day on the paid sights — the Duomo pass, Santa Croce, Palazzo Vecchio — and take the free museums on another morning.

Monday and Sunday get the attention, but four other days carry a closure that has ruined an afternoon for somebody.

Tuesday: the Brancacci Chapel is closed, Museo Galileo shuts at 13:00 rather than 18:00 — with two exceptions in 2026, 2 June and 8 December, when it stays open to 18:00 — and the Opera del Duomo Museum closes on the first Tuesday of each month.

Wednesday: Palazzo Medici Riccardi is closed, and it is the only sight in the table that takes that day.

Thursday: the Museo Novecento is closed, Palazzo Vecchio and its tower shut at 14:00 instead of 19:00, Palazzo Strozzi stays open until 23:00, and the Laurentian Library runs a guided tour 15:00–17:00 at €9 — the only afternoon it is open at all.

Friday: Santa Maria Novella opens at 11:00 rather than 09:00, and the Vasari Corridor runs its evening opening 19:00–23:00 from 3 July to 20 November 2026, corridor only, at €20.

Saturday: the dome takes its last climbers at 16:30 rather than 18:45, the Laurentian Library is closed, and the traffic-restricted zone in the centre runs only until 16:00 instead of 20:00.

Three dates close nearly everything. The whole Duomo complex shuts on Easter Sunday, 25 December and 1 January; the Uffizi, Pitti, the Accademia and Museo Galileo close on 1 January and 25 December; Santa Maria Novella adds 6 January, 15 August, 1 November, 8 December and Easter; Santa Croce closes only on 25 December. If your trip lands on one of those, the free outdoor city — Piazzale Michelangelo, Ponte Vecchio, the piazzas — is what stays open.

Dated closures for 2026 to check against your ticket: the dome is closed 16 to 20 November, the bell tower 9 to 13 November, Casa Martelli until 31 December, and San Lorenzo with the Laurentian Library on 10 August — the night the Medici Chapels open late instead, 19:15–23:00.

• Tuesday: Brancacci closed; Galileo to 13:00; Duomo museum closed the first Tuesday
• Wednesday: Palazzo Medici Riccardi closed
• Thursday: Museo Novecento closed; Palazzo Vecchio to 14:00; Strozzi to 23:00
• Friday: Santa Maria Novella from 11:00; Vasari Corridor evenings in season
• Saturday: dome last slot 16:30; Laurentian Library closed

Retail hours are the one thing on this page we cannot source: no official page we fetched states general shop opening times for Florence, and the old habit of Italian shops closing on Monday mornings is not something we will assert on a page of checked facts. Ask your hotel, or plan the shopping for the afternoon.

What is verified: Mercato Centrale opens every day 09:00–23:00 on the first floor, where the food hall is; the ground-floor market's own hours are not stated. The Duomo ticket office at Piazza San Giovanni 7 works Monday to Saturday 08:00–19:15 and Sunday 10:15–17:45. The Laurentian Library's desk sells 10:00–13:00, Monday to Friday. And the Pitti ticket office in Piazza Pitti closes with the palace, which means Mondays — worth knowing if you were planning to buy a five-day gallery pass in person that day. The ticket index lists which shop sells what, so nothing depends on a desk being open.