Guided Tours in Florence

General

Florence, the largest and most interesting of Tuscany's cities, is a beautiful and lively city, rich in glorious history, impressive buildings, squares, museums, and art, alongside markets, shops, cafes, and also wonderful food and high-quality wines.
It is easy to explore on foot. Most of the city's attractions are concentrated within a short walking distance of one another. Driving is prohibited in the historic center, which is essentially one large pedestrian zone where only service vehicles, public transportation, taxis, light motorcycles, bicycles, and residents of the historic center are permitted to drive.

 

 

Those arriving with a private car are advised to park near the central railway station in one of the public parking lots (private parking lots are several times more expensive). Opposite the railway station is the visitor center where you can pick up a city map and additional recommendations. 

Guided Tours in Florence

Vibrant Florence offers a selection of touring and entertainment options at your disposal. First, it is recommended to take a guided orientation tour for a good grasp of the city, and for this, there are various options including guided walking tours, guided bike tours, or guided Segway tours, each according to their preference. Afterward, you can take guided tours of the famous galleries which will save you waiting in line at the ticket counters and show you the most interesting things in a short time. Of course, it is also worth seeing and experiencing attractions around the city like a guided tour to San Gimignano, Siena, Pisa, and more, or a wine tour in Tuscany by car or bike, and for Italian food lovers: an authentic cooking class at a farmhouse.  Those who are also interested in shopping in luxury shopping centers will find such a full-day private tour here.

 

You can book all of these here from the successful Viator website:

Booking Recommended Tours within Florence:

  ♦ Guided electric scooter tour in Florence - E-Scooter: Panoramic tour of Florence
Lasts 2 hours.

♦ Guided bike tour in Florence - Florence Vintage City Bike Tour: Small Group Experience
Lasts 2 hours.

♦ Guided tour of the famous Uffizi Gallery

 Skip the Line: Florence Uffizi Gallery monolingual Small Group Tour
Saves waiting in line at the ticket counters, a 1.5-hour guided tour with the option to continue independently.

Tours Outside the City of Florence:

♦ Guided electric bike tour in Tuscany from Florence with lunch and wine tasting

- Tuscany E-Bike Tour: from Florence to Chianti with lunch and tastings
Lasts 6 hours. Includes a Tuscan meal, wine tasting, and winery visits.

♦ Trip to Pisa from Florence including admission ticket to the Leaning Tower - Lasts 6 hours.

 Pisa and the Leaning Tower Afternoon Tour from Florence

♦ Trip to San Gimignano, Siena and more with food and wine tasting - Lasts 11 hours.

San Gimignano, Siena, Monteriggioni, Chianti Day Trip with Lunch & Wine Tasting

♦ Chianti wine tasting tour outside Florence-

 Special Chianti afternoon Wine Tour from Florence
Lasts 7 hours. Includes transportation from Florence and tasting of local wines and typical foods.

♦ Cooking course at a farmhouse including lunch and grocery shopping at a local market :
Cooking Class and Lunch at a Tuscan Farmhouse with Local Market Tour from Florence
Lasts 7 hours. Includes a 4-course meal and four glasses of wine.

♦ Private shopping tour in luxury shopping centers  -

 Private Tour: Florence Shopping Tour to Gucci and Prada Outlet
Lasts 8 hours. Includes hotel pickup and drop-off at a central location in Florence.

 

Segway Tour

The most successful way to tour the city is on a guided Segway tour. Within three hours you will see the best of the old city with its famous buildings, alleys, and charming squares. To book a night tour:  Florence Segway Tour.

 

The tour begins in the center of the old city with a short driving practice near the company offices located between the Florence Duomo and Piazza della Republica. At every point you stop, you will be told practical and often piquant and humorous information about the city, its rich past, life there today, the famous rich families who lived there and built many of its magnificent buildings and the relationships between them, the greatest artists who lived and created there, led by Michelangelo, and life in the city today.

 

 

 You will ride through narrow alleys to the famous and impressive cathedral of Florence, considered the fifth largest cathedral in the world, Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, which looks from above like a giant flower.

 

You will ride around it, stop for views of it, its bell tower, and the adjacent baptistery, and continue to another church named Basilica di San Lorenzo.

 

From there, continue to visit one of the city's most impressive squares, the spacious "Republic Square" Piazza della Repubblica, home to the most expensive cafes in the city...

 

Another fun ride through Strozzi Square Piazza Strozzi, home to the Strozzi Palace Palazzo Strozzi, which was the residence of one of the city's richest families who went bankrupt while building their magnificent residence.

 

 

Near the building is located the only cinema in the city where movies are not dubbed. From there, continue to a viewpoint over the "Arno" River which separates the old city from the newer city and the many bridges connecting the parts of the city. Only one bridge survived World War II and it is the original bridge: the picturesque Ponte VECCHIO, featuring luxury jewelry shops. This bridge has become one of the city's symbols.

 

The next stop is at one of the most important squares in the city, "Signoria" Square Piazza della Signoria, where "The Old Palace" Palazzo Vecchio is located, today partly a museum and partly housing the city hall, in front of which stand several statues, the most famous of which is Michelangelo's David. In the distant past this was the original location of the sculptor, but today it is only a replica while the original statue is in the Accademia Gallery.

 

 

 

Nearby you will see from the outside the most famous and popular gallery in the city: the Uffizi Gallery Galleria degli Uffizi, outside of which a long line of visitors usually stretches.

For those interested, you can book here from the Viator website:

♦ Guided tour of the famous Uffizi Gallery

 Skip the Line: Florence Uffizi Gallery monolingual Small Group Tour
Saves waiting in line at the ticket counters, a 1.5-hour guided tour with the option to continue independently.

 

 

The next square you will visit is "Holy Cross" Square Piazza Santa Croce, where another important church is located, Basilica e Museo di Santa Croce, built by a Jew (who is even buried near its entrance) with a large blue Star of David on its facade. This church is of great importance because it houses the tombs of several famous residents of the city, including Michelangelo and Galileo Galilei.

 

 

In this square, a soccer game with different and strange rules, mostly violent, resembling more a combination of wrestling and football, takes place every year in June.

The last square you will stop at on the way back to the starting point is Gondi Square Piazza Gondi, which features a small market and is famous for the fact that in one of its buildings Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa.

Bike Tours

You can also go on bike tours in Florence and outside the city, in the Tuscan landscape along the wine route.

You can book these tours here from the Viator website:

♦ Guided bike tour in Florence - Florence Vintage City Bike Tour: Small Group Experience
Lasts 2 hours.

♦ Guided electric bike tour in Tuscany from Florence with lunch and wine tasting

- Tuscany E-Bike Tour: from Florence to Chianti with lunch and tastings
Lasts 6 hours. Includes a Tuscan meal, wine tasting, and winery visits.

Gastronomic Experiences

Florence is a city known for its fine food; it boasts olive oils, balsamic vinegars, quality cold cuts, and of course wonderful and diverse Tuscan wines. There is nothing like food tours or cooking courses in the city to complete the trip.

For those interested, you can book here from the Viator website:

♦ Chianti wine tasting tour outside Florence-

 Special Chianti afternoon Wine Tour from Florence
Lasts 7 hours. Includes transportation from Florence and tasting of local wines and typical foods.

♦ Cooking course at a farmhouse including lunch and grocery shopping at a local market :
Cooking Class and Lunch at a Tuscan Farmhouse with Local Market Tour from Florence
Lasts 7 hours. Includes a 4-course meal and four glasses of wine.

 

 

 

 

A successful food tour focusing on the city's central market "San Lorenzo Market" Mercato Centrale Di San Lorenzo and the alleys leading to it is by Taste Florence Food Tour.
The tour lasts about four hours, during which you will taste cold cuts, cookies, sandwiches, stuffed focaccia, wine, cheeses, high-quality sauces and oils, as well as pralines and gelato. A winning combination of sweet and savory, all in local and quality delicatessens and shops with typical food entirely from the region.
The starting point of the tour is at the Old Norcineria cold cuts shop at: Via Sant'Antonino #21. Outside the shop, the tour guide will be waiting for you, and inside, they will explain the popular cold cuts in Tuscany, the difference between Parma prosciutto and Tuscan prosciutto (which is also preserved with black pepper), the types of salami, and of course, you will taste all the varieties.

 

A few meters away, at the corner of the same street, you will enter a small bakery specializing in biscuits called "Cantuccio" Cantuccio, where you will taste two types of dry yet melt-in-your-mouth cookies: the classic almond flavor and the chocolate flavor.

The next tasting, a two-minute walk away, is at a bakery considered the oldest in Florence, where you will taste focaccia stuffed with minced sausages called "Stracchino" and sandwiches with mozzarella cheese and tomatoes called "Coccoli", both very typical of Tuscany and tasting wonderful!

From there you will enter the indoor central market, the short path to which passes through a large and popular leather goods market.

At the market, you will take a guided tour among the various stalls, among vegetable, meat, and various delicacy stalls, and you will taste a cooked meat sandwich in an amazing sauce at a market restaurant that has been operating since 1872, most of whose customers are locals.

After the meal, you will have free time to wander the market between the two floors and purchase various delicacies. On the first floor, which closes at 14:00, there are food stalls of all kinds at attractive prices, while the second floor is a "food court", meaning fast food stalls including pizzas, pastas, ice creams, cheeses, wines, coffee, and various pastries. The market is undoubtedly one of the successful and inexpensive places for an authentic lunch in the center of Florence and one of the best floors to purchase delicacies to take home and fruits and vegetables for the road.

And now it is sweet time again: at the corner of the nearby street, you will enter a well-kept bakery/cafe Pasticceria with fresh and fragrant pastries where you will receive a sweet and airy pastry called "Sfoglia" stuffed with vanilla cream, and additionally, you will closely examine the other typical pastries sold there.

And now it is time for wine tasting:
After your stomach is full and lunchtime has arrived, you will enter a small and upscale wine and delicacy shop named La Divina Enoteca where you will taste three local wines while receiving explanations about them from the award-winning owner. The wine tasting will of course be accompanied by cheese tasting with jams in various flavors. After the wines, you will taste various types of balsamic sauces and olive oil, all locally produced and of the highest quality. The tasting is of course accompanied by bread and cold cuts.

From here you will continue with a walk of about ten minutes in the alleys of the old city (you need some physical activity to speed up digestion...) to the final station of the tasting tour: a small and amazing shop specializing in chocolate (handmade pralines) and wonderful Italian gelato in a variety of flavors made in-house. A perfect dessert for a tasty, fun, and educational tour after which you will become experts in Tuscan food and what's for sure, you won't stay hungry...

Connoisseurs can join another tasting experience, this time entirely in one place: "Conti" Conti Tuscany Flavours delicatessen, which specializes in local Tuscan delicacies from small, high-quality farms, mostly organic.

The delicatessen has a very old stall in the central market at: Via Signa 300 Mercato Centrale Di San Lorenzo, but the tastings are held in the new shop, on a nearby street in the basement floor, an intimate and quiet place for tastings. It is recommended to book a place in advance by phone: 39 393 4696820 or by email:
 yvonne.contituscanyflavours@hotmail.com

Here you will taste various and strange types of olive oil and luxury traditional balsamic sauce, where the cost of each small bottle can reach many tens of euros. You will learn about the production method, aging, types of barrels, and learn to appreciate every drop and every nuance of flavor.

Afterwards, you will taste three types of wine while tasting cheeses, special spreads, cold cuts, olives, and amazing cookies. Everything you taste is a brand of the delicatessen, produced and packaged especially for it, and everything is also available for purchase on site. Do not plan to drive after these tastings because you will leave dizzy from the wine...

 

Guided Tours Outside Florence

The surroundings of Florence offer many attractions. It is recommended to stay in Florence for a few days and take star trips from it. As I mentioned earlier, you can take a guided tour to the special city of towers San Gimignano, to beautiful Siena, to Pisa, and more.

For lovers of the special Tuscan landscape, there are guided bike or car tours, some including visits to wineries and wine tastings or even an authentic cooking class at a farmhouse. For shopping enthusiasts, a full-day tour is offered among luxury designer outlets. To book these tours from the Viator website, return to the top of this page.

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