A three hour tour...a three hour tour.

Though my vision for my trip was more free-form, I'm finding the need to make some reservations to be as efficient with my time as possible. Though I wanted to wake up and let each day be its own...with a more general plan of all the things I want to do as potential choices...I've read about 3 hour waits at the popular museums during summer months. Early May sometimes is listed in the busy time and sometimes not. Last time I was there it was November, and I walked right into the Uffizi and Accademia in Florence, and the Borghese and Vatican in Rome (though at the Vatican I was part of a tour and we only waited a short time outside while our guide squared away our arrangements). I don't want to risk spending 2-3 hours I could be shopping, photo'ing or drinking in the sites and sounds waiting in a line - especially to see many things I've already seen just because I want to see them again.

So I booked times for the museums through the Italy Museum site. I feel really blocked in as I had to pick times down to 15 minute intervals in some cases. That makes it feel more like work than wandering...keeping to an arbitrary schedule that had to be created here from home rather than one that's created by the desire to devote attention for a sufficient period of time to things based on how I'm feeling when I'm there.

One plus is that I have reserved a 3 hour guided tour through the Uffizi and the Vasari Corridor which is only available a couple days a week and a couple of times each day. I likely would have missed that opportunity had I not done this advance planning.



On the minus side...for the most important place to be able to book and avoid lines - the Vatican - the site seems to have a malfunction. It requires me to check the choice of museum, only there's no checkbox and the Vatican is the only choice. FRUSTRATING.

And now I just got an email (a day later) for the Uffizi/Vasari tour and they'll only confirm when 7 more people register. So I'm beholden to fate for that one as well.