Start the day with visiting one of the most noteworthy museums of Florence – the Accademia Gallery, home to the original colossal statue of David by Michelangelo. Take a look at the David and you will understand why Giorgio Vasari said “Anyone who has seen Michelangelo’s David has no need to see anything else….” Hear the stories about the tormented genius and learn how much struggle he endured to bring the damaged block of marble to life – a seemingly impossible task that made him immortal. Take a small break to get a cup of coffee or buy a souvenir in Accademia’s giftshop and continue your experience with a walking tour in the heart of Florence.
Admire the exterior of the magnificent Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore which has a unique flower-shaped plan and the biggest masonry dome in the world – the marvel of the architect Filippo Brunelleschi. Even Michelangelo said “It would be difficult to equal…impossible to surpass.”
Learn the stories about the Baptistery of San Giovanni – the oldest building of the city with its splendid Gates of Paradise.
Stroll around Dante’s district and enter the 1,000-year old church where the father of Italian language met the love and muse of his life.
Visit Orsanmichele – the quintessential Florentine church, and learn why a market was transformed into a church.
Rub the snout of a little bronze boar in Loggia del Porcellino and make a wish to come back to Florence.
See Ponte Vecchio – the symbol of the city and the oldest bridge in town famous for its jewelers' shops hanging over the Arno River.
Finish the walking tour in the political centre of Florence – Piazza della Signoria – a museum under the open sky with many original sculptures created by Renaissance artists.
Olga was wonderful and full of knowledge on the history of Michelangelo’s work as well as the history of Florence. We will highly recommend the tour to friends traveling in the future.
The walking part of the tour was cancelled the night before our tour - however we were still able to participate in the tour of the Academia with Martina. This was excellent. Sh was an excellent communicator bring the prices that we viewed together to life. We were also fortunate to see the Musical part of the museum which happened to be open that day. Of course seeing the statue of David in person was the start of the tour. This was a great tour & I would highly recommend our tour guide Martina.
Booked a German-language city tour including a city walk and museum visit. At the meeting point, we were informed the tour was not available and were offered a different tour (short Accademia visit in English). This was not comparable in content, duration, or language, and we were not informed in advance. Partial refund was offered, but overall not an equivalent experience.
The tour was scheduled for Sunday at 9:15am. I got several confirmations the day before and morning of on where to meet. We got there and was told by another tour guide it was cancelled! We called Viator and they confirmed it was cancelled. At 10:58 almost 2 hours after the tour was supposed to start I got a cancellation notice. This was a horrible experience and very disappointing
Great tour! Knowledgeable tour guide. Would recommend this tours to others who want to see more of Florence history.
WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!!! Our guide was extremely knowledgeable and so passionate on this tour. She taught us how to look at things in a different perspective than we never would have thought to do. This tour went by really fast, and allowed us to see the beautiful art, sculptures and treasures that Florence has to offer.
The event was changed to a later time and only the academia by the company so what I booked I cannot really rate. Being at a later time there were more people. We did not have to wait for which I am grateful. The guide was good and informative. I learned some from what she was saying and the group size was manageable.
My sister-in-law and I traveled to Italy for work and added in several days for fun. We met with Leonardo and had an expert guide across the beautiful city, starting on a brisk and gorgeous Saturday morning in Piazza de Santa Croce. Leo was a true historian of art and Florence, and he helped us both connect many dots of the history of civilizations, Italian language and art, and their connections with the life and cultures of today's modern world. It was a breathtaking tour, private, personalized, and a highlight for both of us who are international travelers. We have had many great tour guides, but we agree - Leonardo was the best at making things make sense. Thank you for educating us while also making this experience so special and perfect!
Tour was cancelled and we weren’t able to get another one as everything was sold out. Duomo was very impressive
Viator canceled the tour at the last minute. No explanation given on the live chat. Ella tried to find out what happened. Technical difficulties was her answer.
Alfonso was a friendly and knowledgeable guide. Our family of five (parents and young adult children) all found that he gave us just the right amount of information during our tour of the Accademia Gallery as well as the Duomo (from the outside) and other important statues/landmarks within walking distance. Five stars!
Our guide Rossana was very nice and knew a lot about the David. She gave us great lunch recommendations, we would recommend this tour.
What an experience, to go with someone so knowledgeable with David and the city of Florence. Oksana was very in tune of what we wanted in a tour. Would recommend her to anyone.
Isabella was very knowledgeable and answered any questions that were asked. It was well organized and very enjoyable. We would recommend it
Our guide Gayla was very nice and informative. Luckily we were the only three in the group. This offset the late start and somewhat rushed tour. Having seen Florence before I did learn new things and appreciated Gayla's information.
Isabella was fun. Great tour around the David and a fun hour or so around Florence. Would have loved more time.
Our tour guide - Galya - was superb. On the most crowded day of the week (Tuesday) for walking tours, she managed the crowds and the audio very well. She had lots of extra information to respond to our many questions. She also had good humor. A varitable gem of a tour guide.
Gayla was a great guide. Very informative. We were very lucky to have just us and 2 others in the group for the academia, Gayla had a lot of info on more than just the statue of David. She was also very funny. Then the walking tour, it was just the 2 of us, so a very personal tour. This was also really good and she pointed out many places of interest for us to visit after the tour. Would highly recommend
Short, but perfect amount of time to hit so many major monuments in Florence. Our guide was so kind and so knowledgeable. Worth every penny!
It is easy to simply book a skip-the-line ticket but it is the skill of an accomplished guide that makes this tour so rewarding. Oksana was our guide and she was wonderful. Her passion and knowledge with which she spoke was contagious. I highly recommend this tour.
Tour guide was one of the best, knowledgeable, comfortable, intelligent, articulate and compassionate.
Rather a long time seeing David in the gallery. Would have liked more guided walking and other aspects of Florence.
Our tour guide was amazing and so knowledgable. Lucky for us others cancelled due to rain and it was just us 2 and the guide. She guided us all over, inside the academia, and also took photos of us together. Was a great morning despite the rain. Would recommend this to anyone who wants a synopsis of the city than likes to wander around after the tours!
Oxanne is very knowledgeable in art history! She explained to us the differences of each cultural period with emphasis on Renaissance. By the time we saw David, we knew what we were looking at. We were able to really understand the beauty and expression of Michelangelo's Renaissance art! Thank you, Oxane, for making our experience so informative!
Fabulous introduction to the delicious food that can be found in Florence. Went hungry and came home full.
We were able to skip hundreds of people already outside the museum and got right in to see Michelangelo’s David. Our guide Stefano was extremely cultured and knowledgeable of every corner of the statue as well as Michelangelo’s genius techniques. We then followed to take a walking tour to go over the Duomo, the Cathedral, some other points of interest, and ended at Palazzo Vecchio. It was a pleasant experience that left us a new understanding of Florence.
I would highly recommend this tour to anyone visiting Florence for a short amount of time. It was the perfect way to start the day and feel so educated about the city we were spending some time in. Our tour guide Galya was so sweet and super informative of art and culture history, knowing exactly the key things to point out in the museum. And before reaching the climax of seeing Michelangelo's David, she provided a rich history of the artist himself and his other works leading up to the masterpiece. After the museum tour, Galya led us on a walking tour of the city, again calling out the places and accents that hold rich history and unique stories to this wonderful city. Totally worth the money and so glad to have such a great guide!
Incredible experience with an incredible guide- Gloria was so informative and passionate about Florence and all of the sites we visited. We lucked out and were her only tour for the morning so we had her all to ourselves! Thank you Gloria for your expertise- you are a gem!
Incredible tour guide Gilya!! She was so knowledgeable & spent time giving us so much information! We walked Florence streets & saw things we would have missed! Highly recommend!!
Fantastic tour!! Galea was phenomenal!! So much info about Florence! Could have spent entire day with her!! Thank you for a wonderful tour
This was an amazing tour we booked last minute with an excellent tour guide Oxyana! She was very knowledgeable in the museum as well as when we walked outside and learned about the history of Florence and the buildings. Skipping the line to see the statue of David was a plus too! Highly recommend!
Great visit with Olga! Very passionate and very good story teller to embrace the life of Michelle Angelo.
My family of 4 adults did two fabulous tours with Julia - the Uffizi Gallery Skip-the-Line Guided Tour and then the following day the Skip-the-Line Accademia Visit and Florence Walking Tour. We were so lucky to have Julia as our guide on both days as she was a beautiful person and an interesting, informed and passionate guide. I would highly recommend the tours and Julia in particular to see these amazing sights in Florence.
So glad we decided to take this tour! Our lovely guide, JULIA, was very knowledgeable and generous with presenting facts, anecdotes and theories. Very professional and enthusiastic presentation throughout. Florence is a different city after this tour...we know so much more now and are even more excited to be here. Higly recommendable!
Julia was our tour guide for both the walking tour and the Academia tour. She was very, very knowledgeable and so very nice and personable. As someone who majored in art and studied the Renaissance period, I can say, she was spot on and knew more than I—that’s a major compliment! I highly recommend this company and especially Julia—well worth it!
We thoroughly enjoyed our tour of Florence with Stefano. He kept our attention throughout with great history of Florence history. Even helped us to book another tour of Uffizi Gallery. Highly recommend this tour!
We had the opportunity to visit the Accademia Gallery and did the walking tour with Stefano Materassi, We did not want the tour to end!! He is very knowledgable and made the tour super interesting and fun. This was certainly the highlight of our stay in Florence. Thank you so much Stefano and keep up the great work!!!!
We had Alda take us around the Uffizi museum while we were travelling around Florence.She was mesmerizing and made the art in the frames come alive. Was an absolute treat to have her take us around.Thanks Alda.
Julia kept my family of 5 captivated throughout the entire tour. She is highly knowledgable and is very energetic and passionate about the incredible history and beauty of Florence. Julia has exclellent presentation skills and she kept our entire group of 15 totaly engaged as she clearly presented and showcased so many fascinating details throughout. My family is planning to return again next May and we hope that we can book Juila for another tour!
As it turned out, we were fortunate to have a personal tour with our guide Stefano Materassi. What a wonderful experience, his knowledge and casual demeanour opened up the history and secrets of this most amazing city. A thoroughly enjoyable experience that exceeded our expectations.
Julia was a vivacious, warm and knowledgable tour guide, I could tell that she really loves her job and has such an appreciation for art history. I have never really been drawn to art history myself, so I found it amazing that she got me interested in all the fun facts and stories around Michaelangelo's life and work. She has a special way of telling stories that keeps you engaged and focused on her. I highly recommend anyone visiting the Accademia Gallery to take their tour with Julia - she's really great and you will leave the museum with new-found appreciation for sculptors and the arts.
My tour did not include Accademia Gallery, but just a city walking tour. My guide Stefano was smiling nice guy with sufficient energy and enthusiasm. Weather was helping as well. Nice 60s sunny day. Thanks.
We thoroughly enjoyed our walking tour of Florence and Accademia with Julia. She is extremely knowledgeable and personable and made our tour relaxed and informative. We would definitely recommend this tour to anyone getting to know Florence!
Had the pleasure of doing the walking tour with Julia and loved every bit of it. It's really hard to keep my attention when visiting places of historic value but Julia had us glued from the very beginning. We decided to skip the academia and David because it was our last evening in Florence and we wanted to visit the Piazalle Michelangelo at sunset. It was a tough choice to make because we were so tempted to stay and hear more from Julia who can really pack in history interestingly and eloquently. I'd recommend this tour to anybody who loves history and who would like to know more about Florence.
My mom and I were lucky enough to have a private tour (in January: when there are the fewest tourists) of Florence and the Academia Gallery with the most amazing tour guide.. request Irina if you want to have an amazing experience as well :) She was not only knowledgable about the history, art, architecture, and any questions we had, but additionally, her passion shined through while she explained to us the context of historical artifacts that without her guidance we would've only seen their physical beauty and missed out on the opportunity to understand the deeper meaning that they had. She was charismatic in a manner that made us feel like we were instant friends, adding to the splendid day we shared. Our tour with Irina enhanced our Florentine experience and we could not recommend this experience more!
Wow! Our guide, Irina, was fantastic! She made Florence come alive for us. Her knowledge, passion, and detailed and delightful explanations had us craving to have her do all of our tours! Meeting David was the highlight of our trip! We were blessed to do the Uffizi tour with her too. I highly recommend her tours if you want to feel the inspiration and passion of the beauty of the treasures in Florence. She was poised, cared about her participants, and was generous with her gifts. Her English was excellent! Irina, thank you, thank you, thank you. Florence would not have been the same experience without your precious explanations and stories. You are truly amazing! Sue and Emmy from Denver, Colorado
Our guide Irina was very knowledgeable and gave us many laughs along the way. She was also extremely generous with her time and we were at the Accademia until closing time where she gave us so much information and history. It was such a pleasurable afternoon.
My tour guide, Julia, was excellent. She was very knowledgeable about all of Michaelangelo's life and work. Julia shared interesting facts and stories about his work and technique that lead up to the masterpiece, David. Julia's tour was captivating and efficient. Although it was just one hour, she packed the session with tons of interesting information. I now have a great understanding of Michaelangelo and appreciate David in a way I never would have had I toured on my own or with just an audio guide. I was also able to skip the line and she provided head sets so we could easily hear her over other tourists' conversation. It's a great tour and I would definitely recommend it to anyone!
For this tour our guide was Eleonora, my father and I took the tour in Spanish but since there weren't a lot of Spanish speakers it was only the two of us with Eleonora who I can definitely say was the best guide we have ever taken a tour with. She was very nice, highly passionate about culture, history and art, we could tell from the moment the tour began that she knew a lot and she kept us very interested the whole duration of the tour. Since we were only two, any guide could have put a lot less effort in it but she didn't, I absolutely fell more in love with Florence and its history through her words and knowledge, through her passion and enthusiasm, we didn't even notice the tiredness of walking or the sun on our faces because she kept us very attentive to every detail and every explanation, to each fact about the places that we visited or just walked by. Thank you Eleonora!! If you have the chance of visiting Florence and taking a walking tour I highly reccomend booking with Visit Europa Today!
We took the tour of Accademia Gallery in Florence to see The David. Our tour guide was Lori. She was very informative concerning the making of The David. We had seen The David several years prior, but she gave us a full history from the time the concept of The David was formed through the several sculptor the started on him until his completion and his location from time of completion to date. If anyone goes to see The David, they should definitely go with this tour to fully appreciate the sculpture. We highly recommend Lori to be their guide. She was genuinely interested in the sculpture and had done her research.
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