Leonardo da Vinci museums in Florence: tickets, hours and which one to visit

The Leonardo Interactive Museum on Via de’ Servi

The museum is laid out in four themed sections, Earth, Water, Air and Fire, and you are encouraged to touch and operate almost everything.

What’s inside:

• Full-size and scale wooden reconstructions built from the drawings in Leonardo’s codices
• Flying machines: the ornithopter, a glider and the “aerial screw” helicopter design
• War machines: the armored tank, the scythed chariot, a bombard and a giant crossbow
• Civil and hydraulic machines: the Archimedes screw, a worm screw, a hydraulic saw, a printing press and lifting gear
• Workshop stations where you and your children can build Leonardo’s self-supporting bridge, domes and polyhedrons
• A mirror room on his studies of reflection and perspective
• A section on his anatomical studies
• A gallery of his best-known paintings, the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper among them, reproduced on backlit panels
• A bookshop with wooden model kits, books and souvenirs

Labels are in Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian. There is a smartphone audio guide; reviewers often mention that headphones are not provided, so bring your own.

Tickets: the museum sells tickets on its own site and has recently advertised large discounts for buying online, so check its ticket page for the current adult and reduced prices before you go; the figures on reseller sites do not agree with each other. If you prefer to book through a marketplace with free cancellation, the Leonardo Interactive Museum Entrance Ticket on Viator costs from $11 and is rated 4.4 from 632 reviews. The museum suggests the visit for children from about 7 or 8.

Hours: open every day of the year, 9.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m., last entry an hour before closing. The museum notes some exceptions on holidays, so check its site if you are going on one.

Do you need to book? Usually not. Queues here are short next to the Uffizi or the Accademia, and many visitors walk in. A queue can form at weekends and in school holidays, so buy online if your day is tight or you are with children who do not wait well.

The Museo Leonardo da Vinci on Via del Castellaccio

The Niccolai family has built Leonardo machines since the 1960s, and its museum, in Palazzo Sforza Almeni, spreads over two floors and calls itself the largest exhibition space devoted to Leonardo in Florence.

What’s inside:

• More than 50 wooden models on display, drawn from a family collection of over 250 reconstructions, made from period materials: wood, metal, rope and cloth
• Rooms by theme: civil machines (the largest room), flying machines, war machines and a newer set of anatomical models
• Many working models you can set in motion
• A big-screen documentary on Leonardo’s life and work
• A floor of educational workshops (“W Leonardo!”) for children and school groups, where they take scale models apart and rebuild them
• A bookshop with books and themed gifts
• Some machines shown in a room with 16th-century painted decoration

Tickets, from the official site:

The same museum sells through Viator as the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum Entrance Ticket, from $12 with free cancellation, rated 4.4 from 1,626 reviews; the listing’s meeting point is the Via del Castellaccio entrance.

Hours, daily:

Last entry is an hour before closing.

Getting there: about two minutes on foot from the Duomo toward Piazza Santissima Annunziata, and roughly ten from Santa Maria Novella station. Because the museum moved, use Via del Castellaccio 1/R in your map app, not the old Via Cavour address.

Are the Leonardo machine museums worth it?

Yes, for families and for anyone who likes engineering, as long as you go in knowing they are small.

Who enjoys them most:

• Families with children. This is the praise that comes up most in reviews of both museums. In a city where almost every museum says do not touch, children can pull levers, turn cranks and build bridges here, and parents often call it the stop their children liked best. The suggested age is about 7 or 8; toddlers lose interest quickly, and moving parts can pinch fingers.
• Engineering, science and history fans. The flying machines, the tank and the water devices are easier to understand as solid working objects than as sketches on a page.
• Anyone who needs a break from Renaissance painting. After the Uffizi and the Accademia, an hour of hands-on machines in quieter rooms is a change of pace.

The common complaints:

• They are small. Most visitors spend about an hour, some 30 to 45 minutes, families who try every station up to 90 minutes. It is not a half-day outing.
• The price for the size. A regular review comment is that admission feels high for how compact the rooms are, especially if you move through quickly.
• They are commercial. Both are private attractions, not state museums, and their online marketing is pushy.
• There is no original Leonardo work in either. Every machine is a modern reconstruction and every painting a reproduction. To stand in front of something Leonardo painted, you need the Uffizi.

If you have children, an interest in how things work or a rainy afternoon, one of these museums is an easy, inexpensive hour. If you love art and have little time in Florence, skip them and spend the hour in the Uffizi instead.

Where to see Leonardo’s own paintings: Uffizi room A35

The Leonardo paintings you can see in Florence hang together in room A35 on the Uffizi’s second floor (the old “Room 35”), close to the Michelangelo and Raphael room that ends the museum’s short route. Our room-by-room guide to the Uffizi shows where A35 falls on the way round.

Three works fill the room:

• The Annunciation (about 1472 to 1475). An early painting made while Leonardo was still in Verrocchio’s workshop. Gabriel’s wings are painted like a real bird’s, and the hazy background already looks ahead to the soft landscapes he became known for.
• The Adoration of the Magi (1481). Left unfinished when Leonardo moved to Milan in 1482. What remains is mostly underdrawing in brown, a crowd and rearing horses swirling round the Madonna, so you can see how he built a picture.
• The Baptism of Christ (1470s). A painting from Verrocchio’s workshop. Vasari tells the story that the young Leonardo painted the angel on the far left so well that Verrocchio gave up painting; look at that angel next to the one beside it and you can see why the story stuck.

The Uffizi’s own ticket is €25 on the day or €29 booked ahead; from 4 p.m. an afternoon ticket costs €16, or €20 booked ahead. Our Uffizi tickets page compares the official ticket with the reseller and guided options, and the Uffizi and Accademia in one day guide plans a day around both galleries.

Michelangelo’s original David is in the Accademia on Via Ricasoli, a few minutes’ walk from both machine museums; our Accademia and David tickets page covers the timed tickets.

Day trip to Vinci, where Leonardo was born

For keen Leonardo fans, the trip to make is to Vinci, the Tuscan hill town about 35 km west of Florence where he was born in 1452.

The Museo Leonardiano di Vinci is a public museum, spread across Palazzina Uzielli and the Castle of the Counts Guidi in the village, with historical models, projections and digital animations. A separate “Leonardo e la Pittura” section shows life-size high-definition reproductions of his paintings, and his birthplace, the Casa Natale di Leonardo, stands in the countryside at Anchiano, outside the village.

Tickets, from the official site:

Reduced tickets are for ages 6 to 18, visitors over 67, university students up to 25 with a student card, and groups of 15 or more; children under 6 go free. The museum is open every day from 9.30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and the birthplace from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Book on the official site, museoleonardiano.it.

Getting there from Florence: about an hour by car, or a train from Santa Maria Novella to Empoli and a bus on to Vinci.

Fitting a Leonardo museum into a Florence day

Both machine museums sit between the Duomo and the Accademia, so they slot easily into a day in the center:

• From the Duomo: two to five minutes on foot to either museum.
• From the Accademia: three to five minutes. The Accademia and both museums are within a few streets of each other around Via Ricasoli, Via Cavour and Via de’ Servi.

A family half-day: see David at the Accademia first, on a timed ticket because the queue can be long and nothing can be touched, then walk a few minutes to a machine museum where the children can finally get their hands on something. Finish with gelato.

With the Duomo: the cathedral is a few minutes away, so a dome climb pairs well with a Leonardo museum in the same morning or afternoon. Our Florence Duomo tickets guide explains the three passes and which one includes the climb.

With the Uffizi: the Uffizi is about 15 minutes’ walk south toward the Arno. One full day that works: a machine museum or the Accademia in the morning, lunch, then the €16 afternoon Uffizi ticket from 4 p.m. to see the real paintings in A35.

Booking: the Uffizi and the Accademia need booking ahead in high season and can sell out. The machine museums rarely sell out and usually take walk-ins, so book them online only for a timed slot or an online discount.

Frequently asked questions

Are there real Leonardo da Vinci paintings in Florence?

Yes, in the Uffizi Gallery, room A35: the Annunciation, the unfinished Adoration of the Magi and the Baptism of Christ, painted with his master Verrocchio. The two Leonardo museums near the Duomo hold reconstructed machines and reproductions only.

How much are Leonardo da Vinci Museum tickets?

The Museo Leonardo da Vinci on Via del Castellaccio charges €10 for an adult, €9 reduced and €36 for a family of two adults and two children, with children under 4 free. The Leonardo Interactive Museum on Via de’ Servi sells its tickets on its own site, often with an online discount, so check the current price there. The Uffizi, where the real paintings are, is €25 on the day or €29 booked ahead.

How long does the Leonardo da Vinci Museum take?

About an hour for most visitors. You can see it in 30 to 45 minutes, or stay up to 90 minutes with children who want to try every station.

Is the Leonardo da Vinci Museum good for kids?

Yes. It is one of the best stops in Florence for children because they can touch and work the machines. The suggested age is about 7 or 8; younger children can go but may lose interest, and moving parts can pinch fingers.

Do you need to book the Leonardo da Vinci Museum in advance?

Usually not. Both machine museums rarely sell out and take walk-ins. Booking online gets you a timed slot and sometimes a lower price. The Uffizi and the Accademia are different: book those ahead in high season.

Related reading

• What to see in the Uffizi Gallery
• Florence Duomo tickets and passes
• Uffizi and Accademia in one day