The Galleria dell'Accademia is a small museum built around one enormous draw: Michelangelo's David, the 5.17-metre marble statue carved between 1501 and 1504. Photos don't prepare most visitors for the scale, or for the effect of the approach — a long hallway lined with Michelangelo's unfinished "Prisoners" (Prigioni) sculptures, figures seemingly still trapped in the marble, leading up to the David under its own domed skylight.
Booking
Like the Uffizi, the Accademia uses timed-entry tickets and regularly sells out in high season — book as early as your dates allow. The museum is small enough that even a booked slot can mean a short wait at busy times, but nothing like the hours-long queues that form for walk-up tickets in peak months.
What else is there
Beyond the David and the Prisoners, the Accademia holds a collection of Florentine Gothic paintings and a small but interesting musical instrument collection (several original Stradivari instruments among them) — worth a look if you have time, though most visitors reasonably treat the David as the main event.
How much time to allow
45 minutes to an hour is enough for a satisfying visit unless you want to linger over the plaster cast gallery and paintings — this is one of the shorter major-museum visits in Florence, which makes it easy to pair with the nearby San Lorenzo market or Medici Chapels on the same morning.