Four people who, by interposing themselves between the rows of tourists, obstructed their access, attempting to sell, in the absence of authorization, tickets valid for entry to museums, with doubled fees compared to those ordinarily indicated by the Ministry of Culture, they were discovered by the soldiers of the provincial command of the financial police of Florence.
58 tickets valid for access to the Accademia Gallery seized, about to be sold at 25 euros each instead of the 16 euros expected, and 16 valid tickets for the Uffizi Gallery, at the price of 40 euros each instead of the 26 euros. The yellow flames, a note explains, have intensified controls aimed at repressing the illicit phenomenon of touting to access the Uffizi Gallery and the Accademia Gallery in Florence. The investigations made it possible to detect a series of websites attributable to various tour operators which, as an alternative to the official channels, allowed the booking and purchase of access tickets to city museums, at significantly increased prices and with the addition of the skip-the-line service.
The financiers found that the transgressors, foreigners with a regular residence permit, results employees of various travel agencies, including foreign ones, and/or part of online sales platforms not located in Italyhave applied an increase to the cost of the access ticket, sometimes even higher than 60% compared to the standard rate, justified by a series of ancillary services that were never actually provided.
Violators, after having been reported to the mayor as the competent authority for the imposition of administrative sanctions, they were invited to leave the aforementioned places for the next 48 hours (urban Daspo). Further administrative and fiscal investigations are underway aimed at reconstructing the chain of the illicit turnover.
