We had so much fun on our gelato & pizza making tour in Florence! The walkabout tours staff member…read moregreeting us at the meeting point was a bit harsh, did not seem like she wanted to be working in customer service of any kind, and made it a rough start to our tour. After the rude greeting, the experience itself went smoothly - the farm has great views and the chefs did a nice job shuffling us between rooms for maximum efficiency as we prepared our meal. It was a bit of a bummer to not be able to choose our own gelato flavor to make (the were 30ish people total so they wanted us to divvy up flavors). We also had to wait a while to make our pizza since there were so many people in our group, but there was wine and good company for the wait! They were running out of some of the pizza toppings by the time we got to making ours at the end, but they still turned out delicious! The chefs were so entertaining and the food tasted great - it was nice to learn the process to make such a delicious Italian dinner. I can't wait to receive the recipes to make this meal all over again!! Thank you for a lovely experience!

In the short time I had in Firenze, I knew I wanted to see as many sights as I could - knowing I…read moreneeded to sacrifice some due to only being in the city for a few days. That being said, I attempted to balance guided tours with my own explorations. I did not want to be part of a guided tour all day every day, so when one of my colleagues recommended Walkabout I inquired to see what they had to offer. I noticed that they had a 3-hour tour of the Piazza del Duomo which included a climb to the top of Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore Duomo di Firenze. This sounded perfect, so we decided to book it for our first full day in Firenze. Prior to my arrival in Firenze, I received correspondence from Walkabout with details about my tour. Via email and Whatsapp, I was given my start time as well as where to meet and who my tour guide will be. I booked a private tour, and I assume that's why they asked me where I was staying since my meeting point was about a 3-minute walk from my hotel. We met up with Lisa at the designated time, who gave us a quick rundown of the tour and shortly after that we got started. We began the tour in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo - we spent a good amount of time here looking at each of the exhibits, and Lisa did an excellent job going through all the details and history not only of the pieces but of the history of Firenze that shaped what we saw. The museum is noteworthy that it contains many of the original artifacts of the cathedral itself (they have been replaced by replicas in order to preserve the originals). The original doors of the Baptistery are also here, as well as a scale replica of the first three stories of the Cathedral in its original form. After some time in the museum, we made our way to the Cathedral to begin the climb. It's not the easiest climb I'll admit, as it's 400+ steps and there are points in the ascent that are tight with steep steps - but I would say it's totally worth it as the views up top are magnificent. You get panoramic views of the city so my camera was constantly clicking. While the climb concluded our tour, our tickets did include access to the Bell Tower and Baptistry which were valid over the next couple of days which I thought was a nice perk. Overall my experience with Walkabout was excellent - Lisa did an awesome job guiding us through the exhibits; she's very knowledgable, engaging, and really made this tour amazing. I would have no qualms booking a tour with them next time I'm in Florence.

ArtViva has really great ratings here and on that other travel review site, but our experience was…read moreunderwhelming. I found their pre-tour communication really unprofessional. I had reached out asking about a few different tours and inquiring whether we could bring our 4 year old. They responded promptly that we could, and offered us 10% off if we booked three or more tours. I responded yes, that sounds great, we want to book these three tours on such and such date. No response. I followed up, no response. Followed up again, no response. It was getting pretty close to our trip and I was nervous about things filling up, so I decided to just book online. It annoyed me that I couldn't get the discount they'd offered with an online booking, so I decided to only book two tours with ArtViva and get the third tour from someone else. So I booked the two tours online, choosing from their available dates and times, which seemed to track with reality (i.e., tours for museums weren't sold on Mondays when museums are closed). I almost immediately got an email that the date I had selected for our gelato making class wouldn't work and they would have to move it to some other date. Um, why did you sell us that date, then? I responded with some dates that worked and said we could also possibly do Monday if necessary. Of course they rescheduled us for Monday. Ok, fine, we moved some things around. Then right before we left for our trip they emailed us that actually it would have to be at 9 am on Monday. I was a little wary about that since it was our first full day and I thought we might be jetlagged and starting a tour that early wasn't a good plan. When I asked if we could keep the later time, they said they could keep our original date and time (Friday at 10 am). So much drama just to keep the times we had originally booked! I also asked them multiple times what the meeting point for the gelato class was, because I needed to know if we needed a stroller to get there. Our hotel was in central Florence, no more than a 15 minute walk from all major tourist attractions, so this was the only thing we would possibly need a stroller for. It was like pulling teeth to get a response. I think I had to email them three times before I finally got a response with the address, and it was indeed quite far from our hotel. The tours themselves were ok. We did a tour of the David and a gelato making class with ArtViva. In hindsight, we did not need a tour of the David. The tour only lasted about 30 minutes and cost about four times what museum skip-the-line tickets did, and while the David is amazing, but it's also impossible to miss. (A tour is much more important at the Uffizi, which has a much larger collection.) But I don't know that I can really fault ArtViva for that, it was kind of poor planning on my part. The gelato class was advertised by ArtViva as kid friendly and it is not. We did an actually kid friendly pasta making class at an agriturismo and the difference between them was like night and day. I knew it was not going to go well when we showed up and they told us they didn't have kid-sized aprons so my 4 year old just wouldn't get one (that went over like a lead balloon, as I'm sure anyone who has ever had a 4 year old can imagine). ArtViva had specifically requested our favorite gelato flavors in advance, and although we'd told them our favorite flavor was chocolate, the gelato chef had chosen to make a flavor that had wine, honey, mascarpone and orange extract as ingredients...not exactly kid-friendly. I'm also not sure what the purpose of asking your favorite flavor is if they totally ignore it? Fortunately they had some chocolate and caramel gelato in the freezer they kindly let us sample. The gelato chef was nice, and tried to roll with the situation, but it was clear she was not prepared for a kid and didn't have much if any experience cooking with kids. They really need to make it clearer this class is not set up for young kids. I know things are weird with Covid now, and I'm trying to cut them some slack, but I feel like the communication issues are not really related to Covid. Also I was mostly communicating with the owner, who is British, so this is not a language barrier issue at all. I would not rule out booking with ArtViva again if they had a tour I couldn't get anywhere else, but I would definitely not seek them out.

We had three tours in one day... which is enough to wear one down. Artviva's team made each tour…read moreinteresting, fun and their lively attitude's made for a wonderful day. Our first tour was a walking tour with Florimda. We walked through down town to review the architecture and history of the city. The second tour was to the Uffizi, which included a fantastic review of the statues outside the Uffizi and the art within it's walls. (Or maybe the walking tour included the statues... either way, one of the tours did!) The Uffizi tour was good, and I recommend allowing yourself time after the tour to go through the museum on your own in case you want to see something again... for an art lover, this tour could be considered too short. Our last tour was with Angelo to see Michelangelo's David. Angelo is VERY charismatic and the tour included a good amount information about the statue itself. I'm not sure that a tour is needed for the University, as long as you have the information you want on the art. I felt that what I learned from Angelo was definitely worthwhile, and I probably would not have taken the time to learn it on my own.

I love love love booking these free walking tours…read more Elisabetta was our tour guide and she was beyond amazing. She was fun, and funny, and knowledgable and witty. Super cute! We went for the morning tour and learned a lot about Florence and the history of the city. She gives recommendations of places to visit and places to eat for the best of the best. I would have loved to come back for an evening tour bc you see an entirely different area in Florence. But time constraints prevented this. I highly recommend this walking tour to kill a few hours and learn. So much fun!

Thank you the Guide Daniele! Your passion for history and the story of Florence made this tour one…read moreof the highlights on my holiday in Florence. I recommend this tour at all the people that don't know anything about the city and it history...

We were a group of 10 visiting Florence. We were very lucky to meet up with Francesca from…read moreFantastic Florence! I found her through a recommendation from a friend. She was very flexible with our schedule and Mother Nature raining on our tour day. We were able to go a few days later. We did a three hour late afternoon tour. Francesca is friendly and knowledgeable. She arranged a boat tour that was incredible! The highlight of the tour! We also walked over to see David. Ask her anything and she knows the answer! Highly recommend!

Francesca was amazing. Her morning tour for our family was perfect! She is very knowledgeable…read moreabout the history of Florence. We had a fun and enjoyable morning tour with her and then she connected us with a pasta cooking class with Chef Vary.. it was a perfect combo and one of the best parts of our trip to Italy!

Mano was our tour guide during our stay in Florence. It was well-organized, and filled with so many…read morehistorical and fun stops along the way. We started early around 7AM, grabbing a bite to eat at the train station where we met up, before embarking on our adventures. Our first stop was at Pisa where we spent about an hour taking pictures of the leaning tower, as well as the Duomo cathedral. Next stop was the Cinque Terre, which we got to visit and see 3 out of 5 islands since 2 of them were closed off. The tour did not include lunch, but there was an option to prepay for our lunch or to venture on our own. We opted for the prepaid one since we knew we were limited on time, so that Mano could put in our order for us. Cinque Terre was breath-taking, and words could not sum up the feeling when you come there. It is crowded for sure, but take a moment to be still and look around you. All of the colorful houses were unique and quirky, which made for great background in photos. There is enough time to shop around for souvenirs, and eat gelato (omg, the best)! I only wished we booked lodging here so we could spend more time to explore, but until next time. This tour was amazing, and the group of people we were with were engaging and chill. We each did our own thing, and only met up at each designated spot when it came time. We ended the tour around 8PM, so it was well spent to say the least! Highly recommended!!

We didn't know much about this tour when we booked it but it ended up being a great because we went…read moreto a great winery that didn't disappoint (Tenuta Torciano).

Linda was an excellent guide and had an excellent personality and attitude that quickly had us…read moreopening up about all our culinary adventures over the past 2 weeks of European honeymooning. She gave us excellent tips to finding the best of what we loved. My personal highlight of the trip was tasting the best truffle fois gras of my life! Great samples of Prosecco and Chianti as well as authentic Italian snacks and a store that had an amazingly diverse and splendid selection of wines and hard alcohols under one roof, and owned by a family. Little bits of history and shared experiences from other lands all added to the experience and the fact that it ended up being a personal instead of group tour for the same rate was an amazing bonus. A great way to spend 2.5-3 hours and learn about some future favorites in cuisine.

Absolutely amazing tour! We got Linda, the manager and did the Apertivo: Tour of Florence…read more Wonderful experience. Linda has such a great sense of humor, lots of knowledge and experience. It felt like I was meeting up with a friend who knew all the hidden gems (and not so hidden) lol. Such a great time. We ended up having a private tour so it was a lot of fun. Linda is great! Will meet up again if ever back back in Firenze (Florence). Thank you so much Linda for the memorable experience.

Since today was a free day for me, I worked with my hotel to book two tours. The first one was at…read more10 and it was a walking tour of Florence. It was great, there were 14 of us and we all got to know each other while we were walking. The history and the knowledge of these guides are amazing. I would recommend you give them a try. We finished our tour with gelato! I took an afternoon class on cooking -pasta and gelato. The class was hands on and it was fun and delicious! Thank you Tommaso and Serena!

Had gone here for a vespa class and it was the best experience I ever had. Fantastic teachers that…read moreactually try to teach you how to ride, and then they take you on an amaizng trail on the country side of tuscany. Afterwards, you get to go to a very local gelato shop that was honestly so amazing we lined up twice for their gelato, followed by two wineries and a nice group dinner. Afterwards, I decided to book their pizza and gelato cooking class for my family, and again we had a wonderful experience. The teachers were very professional and gave us tips on how to adjust our pizza and gelato making at home with different ingredients and equipment. Would recommend any of their tours!

Memorable tours both in Firenze and Paris Heard Versailles…read morewas great from friends Fantastic experience Great tour guides

It was a rough morning. I had just gotten over some stomach issues, and if I recall correctly, I'm…read morepretty sure my husband and I got into a small fight right before. On top of that, I have a deathly fear of riding bikes because of past trauma. But for my new husband, anything. Despite how dreary the situation was set up to be, this bike tour with Fat Tire was one of my favorite memories on our honeymoon. We arrived for our 10 AM tour after thinking we were going to be late, but the staff was very accommodating towards everyone. Our tour guide was Raquel, and I grew attached to her. Apparently she's from Florence, and the passion for her city was inspiring. I was enamored by the history lessons. We biked around for about an hour and a half, and she never made me feel like I couldn't keep up. My husband and I saw beautiful landmarks with the rest of our small tour group and went back to visit some of them later on. Though there were parts of the tour where I needed to walk my bike or stop myself from "capsizing" the positive experience helped me overcome my fear!