Can't say enough positive things about Easy Touring and its owner operator Wolfgang. We met…read moreWolfgang by chance as he was our transfer arranged by a restaurant in 2013. Since then we have traveled with him for custom tours to Chianti, Bolgheri, montecarlo, and Montalcino as well as for many train station and airport transfers. He's the best. Professional, knowledgable, kind and very good at helping you coordinate your tour or transfer needs. A valuable resource for your trip in tuscany! He even planned transportation for our wedding, getting 75 guests to a hillside church outside of Lucca!

From the owner: I am a private-hire in Tuscany and can take you from your hotel to the airport for example but also…read morespend the day on a tour of your choice. I am fluent in English, German and Italian and like culture, history, good food and wines!

We loved using Smile and Ride! They were the nicest people we met in Pisa and they helped…read moreaccommodate us in every way possible. I would highly recommend using them for all your biking needs. Such an amazing ride to the coast and the bikes were comfortable. So easy to use and made our trip awesome.

Elena and Marco are great. They were very efficient and informative. We did the By The Sea tour…read morewith a great bike path through farmland ending up on the coast where we had a fantastic lunch. Then we used google maps to navigate to the Leaning Tower of Pisa! We rented E-bikes that were in excellent condition - the regular bikes looked well maintained too.

The price tag is a big hefty, but a wine tour with Tuscany Private Tours is oh so worth it…read more I was staying in the Castellina area of Chianti and was having a lot of trouble finding a company that would provide a private transfer to and from the hotel. Most tours leave from the Florence / Siena area, or have you meet them right at the winery. My feeling was that if I was spending a few days in Tuscany I wanted at least one day of not having to worry about driving to and from wineries. Thankfully we found Tuscany Private Tours and all was good. It is an extra 40 euro to add pick up and drop off at the hotel. But if you are going to all the trouble to arrange a private tour it would be the worst to have to drive 15-20 minutes to actually get to the tour. So again, you can really alleviate all driving with this if you want to. We took the 'Safari Tour' -- basically like a regular wine tour, except you get to cruise around in a super cool land rover. Our guide Paolo was awesome. He was super friendly and knowledgeable of wine and the area, and was overall just a really cool person to spend the day with. You visit three different wineries, tastings included at each and also have an included homemade winery lunch at your last stop. I liked that all three wineries have very different vibes. Our guide also mentioned that he chooses to do this on purpose. First stop -- a big commercial winery. Very cool to tour their production facility and then compare that to a production facility at a much smaller winery. Second Stop -- more of an urban experience. We visited a tasting room on the main street in Castellina. Paolo explained that he purposely takes people to this winery because it is one of the oldest in the area. After visiting several wineries in the rolling hills it was cool to also check one out in more of an industrial setting. Third Stop -- by far the best! Paolo took us to a very small winery. So small, that you'd probably only be able to find them if you have a tour guide that is friends with their family (ahem, Paolo). The grounds were absolutely gorgeous -- insane views of the Tuscan hills and gorgeous plants and greenery everywhere. We enjoyed a fantastic multi-course lunch -- pasta (of course), assorted crostinis, cheeses, meats and dessert. Because it's lunch (and maybe because it's the last stop?) we also had way more wine than just a taste. I'm here for it. If you want to try all wines before deciding which bottle to buy, they have every bottle available at the Tuscany Private Tour office. Tips for the tastings are included, but tips for your guide aren't, so be sure to bring some cash. Long review, but in short -- if you are not staying in the city and want to wine tour without worrying about driving then just do this. It's pricey but worth it for an incredible day. We will truly remember it forever.

Awesome wine tour! We had the best tour guide/driver GAIA! She was so sweet and we had the best…read moretime at all 3 wineries. We tasted a good mix of Chianti, Rosé, White blends, vin Santo (dessert wine), and a new fav Vermentino wines which you definitely can't find in the states! Ended the tour at a family farm house/ winery. We had a delicious farm to table lunch with limoncello and tiramisu to top it off. At the end of the tour you can "make your own box" of wines from each winery and ship it right to your house! Overall, excellent experience with the best views of Toscana, would def recommend to anyone looking for a private wine tour!

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.

Best culinary experience of my life!…read more I don't take this review lightly and I mean every word of this title. I first met Paulo in Oct 2021. My wife and I were looking for an 'authentic' wine tasting experience near Florence (something close enough for my wife and I to ride a moped through Florence). Paulo didn't have the most reviews online but every review I saw was 5 stars. This piqued my interest..."there's something here". We find ourselves walking in the front door of an old mom and pop shop bodega/general store. Paulo greets us warmly and we walk down some stairs to his basement. We're greeted by a pre set up tasting table that just looks fantastic. Paulo goes on to teach us about the components of the tongue and how the various fruit, nut, cheese, combinations hit the senses that just so happen to pair perfectly with his Rose wine--and that was just the beginning. To this day we continue to recommend him without reservation to all of our friends (with 10+ friends being able to experience his tasting, and each agreeing this was one of their best memories in Italy). We also continue to order his wine and olive oil direct to the US and his wine currently occupies the top shelf on our wine rack. Paulo, you're awesome!!

Went into this wine tasting blind with a party of 12 and was quickly amazed by the owner Paolo and…read morehis shop/ tasting room. The tasting ( in my experience) was much more than wine tasting but a combination of cheeses, jams, mortadella, prosciutto, and of course wines which he makes. The first course included a rosé style wine and a few different cheese all of which were different ages, topped with different jams including a truffle blackberry jam and cashews which were absolutely incredible! I will not spoil the rest of the experience but if you're looking to go wine tasting in true Tuscany with generations of experience look no further. I can't wait to go back