Our family of five booked the Vespa tour, and it was absolutely amazing! None of us had any…read moreexperience riding Vespas, but our tour guides were incredibly patient, supportive, and encouraging from the very beginning. It was definitely a little intimidating at first, but they took the time to help us feel comfortable and confident, which made the entire experience so enjoyable. Chris and Antonio were fantastic guides and truly made the day special. Chris brought the region to life by stopping at breathtaking viewpoints and sharing fascinating cultural and historical insights along the way. The scenery was stunning, the food was delicious, and the whole experience exceeded our expectations. We highly recommend this tour to anyone visiting the area--it was one of the highlights of our trip!

Had a great Cinque Terre Walk About tour with our guides Naomi and Luca. Both brought their…read morepersonalities and knowledge of the area to the tour. You should be proud to have them as employees. Since they went the extra mile and smile, I have a little suggestion. It's best done to the Aerosmith song "Walk this Way". Enjoy... Walk About ( To the song Walk this Way by Aerosmith) Cinque Terre lovers There's a tour like no other Who can fill with your day with so much fun From the bus to the train Their always there to explain As you travel town to town in the sun Always with a smile They go the extra mile Naomi and Luca should really be praised For the hard work they do I have a suggestion for you How bout giving them both a raise Walk About We all shout Without doubt Don't cop out Just give them a raise Seaside villas Lined up and down the hillas Stretching up the Italian Coast With breath taking views So many we never knew An experience we all will boast Speaking for the rest These two really gave their best A credit to your industry by far So maybe tomorrow You can give them some more Euros And on Yelp I will give you 5 STARS Walk About We all shout Without doubt Don't cop out Just give them a raise

I absolutely LOVE Smart Trip! I took a bunch of trips with them during my time studying in Florence…read moreand Rome and loved all of them. The trips are cheeper than other companies but you do all of the same things if not more! I went to Prague, EuroTrip (Spain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium) and Budapest/Salzburg/Vienna Originally I had booked France instead of Prague, but unfortunately It was canceled due to low booking, but they offered me a bunch of different options and different weekends to travel. I decided to go to Prague after looking at the website and it was one of the best decisions I made during my study abroad time. Prague was and IS now one of my absolute favorite places to visit. The hotel we stayed in was super nice and clean, and super close to the city center. Smart Trip really makes sure that their accommodations are in the best possible spot for the quality and price. All of the hostels and hotels I stayed in with them on my trips were amazing and typically had super cool amenities or other attractions inside of them. Each of the locations that we went included a walking tour with a local guide which was also super enjoyable and all of the smart trip leaders were super nice and helpful! I would recommend Smart Trip to anyone studying abroad looking for a weekend getaway, or anyone visiting Italy looking for an affordable way to take trips. They do day trips, weekend trips, and long break trips, so there's something for wveryone

Smart Trips staff member had norovirus on the bus on the way to Croatia and got many students sick,…read moreincluding myself. I ended up in the hospital in Croatia the whole weekend and paid $400 for medical care. The doctors said this happens often with Smart Trips. No staff member could assist me to the hospital or checked in on me the whole weekend. All I got was a hope you feel better. I had booked $100 tour that I couldn't attend and was not reimbursed for. Because so many students got sick they cancelled all of the Sunday events and took us straight back to Florence. They forced all the sick students to sit in the back of the bus wearing masks for the 12 hour drive back. it was a miserable weekend. When we returned, I emailed Smart Trips my experience and tried to call them but they never responded. my roommates and others I spoke to didn't enjoy their trips they booked through them either. the bus rides are long and uncomfortable, the hostels are always far away from the cities/attractions you are visiting which ends up costing a lot of extra $ for transportation, and the extra activities aren't worth the price.

If you are reading this, cancel or rebook with another company!…read more Worst tour company in Florence. We've booked the tour via a third party agency (Chase bank and our friends booked with TripAdvisor) and the booking happened to be with this tour company, unfortunately. The day started with us joining a marble rock quarry tour (when we booked a "best of Tuscany" tour that includes Pisa, Siena, and wine tasting). We were later ushered on to a third rate bus to unknown destination with the tour guide yelling something along the line of "San formaggio tour better anyways" (where is this land of cheese?). We've missed Pisa completely. And arrived to join a terrible lunch with three slices of salami and a plate of sad, cold penne pasta with 2 sips of wine for "tasting," if we wanted more, it was 5€ out of pocket. Our tour guide later got us to Siena and told us to skip the walking tour because it was just about art and it wasn't good anyways. At which we had 4 free hours in Siena, exciting times... not. When we finally had dinner, our tour guide left long ago, and told us we need to wait for a separate bus to fit us. We waited hours, and then more hours... then the tour company agent called us hours past the original pick up location for us to walk to an unknown place in Siena (because we obviously have a guide with us at this hour to get us to that square). Hours went by before we were half asleep and made it back to Florence. We will never book a tour with this company and we hope this review will convince you to look else where. If you've booked a tour with this company through a third party, cancel or change it to another company. The highlight of the tour was unintentionally running into a dog friend.

0 stars. I am…read moreunbelievably disappointed and irritated with this company. My cousins and I had booked this through Expedia. It's called "Treasures of Florence: Skip the line Uffizi & Accademia". The paperwork confirmation had requested we arrive no later than 10:45am to check in for the Accademia Tour. We arrived to the meeting spot at the designated time, and nobody showed up by 11:00am for our scheduled tour time. We asked the guards at the museum gate if they had seen our guide, and they assured us they hadn't seen the tour company reps yet and that they had a tendency to run late compared to the other companies. We were slightly irritated as we had ensured to arrive earlier so there would be no issue. Shortly after, the tour company called us and advised that the tour guide, Alberto, had shown up to the wrong meeting spot and was running late. We were turned off by the tardiness and the fact that the tour guide showed up to the "wrong spot" - That just seemed like an excuse as to why they weren't there on time. So the tour guide arrives at 11:15 am, 15 minutes LATER than when the tour was originally supposed to start; that means we waited out there for them for 30 minutes. Furthermore, the tour that was originally supposed to last until 12:15 according to the paperwork, and it lasted only until 11:51. Not only did the tour guide show up late, but he also left us early! Instead of a 1 hour 15 minute tour, we received one that was approximately 35 minutes - that's not even half the advertised time! The tour was brief and Alberto left us feeling like the company was lazy and didn't care about customer service - there was definitely more in the museum to see that our tour guide didn't even touch upon! Supposedly between tours, we were to take our own lunch break and then meet at another spot at a designated time for the Ufizzi tour. We ate a quick lunch to ensure we would be at the meeting spot early again. The paperwork had asked us to arrive no later than 1:40pm outside a cafe. We got there at 1:30pm and waited, and waited, and waited some more. The tour guide never showed up. It was now again 30 minutes past the time they had said we arrive "no later than" and no tour guide was to be found and no phone call to us was made. We waited for another 25 minutes before giving up. That's right, we waited almost a total of an hour for a guide who never showed up. The whole experience was frustrating. We only had limited time in Florence, and it was further shortened by the time we stood around doing nothing and not getting what was advertised or what we had paid for. We didn't even get to see Uffizi, which was something we were all really looking forward to. This definitely ruined our itinerary as this was almost a full day ticketed event that we didn't make alternative plans for as we knew we would be touring almost all day. Even the Academia guards knew the My Tour Company had a reputation for tardiness. We will not be booking with them or recommending their services again to anybody. We emailed Expedia seeking a full refund from My Tour as they failed to provide the services we were promised, and My Tour denied the refund request due to "their policy". It has nothing to do with policy. For obvious reasons, we deserve our money back for the tour you did not perform or show up for. We are surprised that Expedia would be selling tickets for a company that was so disorganized and unprofessional.

We did two tours with this company. One was very good, the other so-so. On the so-so tour we did…read morenot receive the guided portion of the tour in English as advertised and I had to request a refund 5 times to get it. We also had a meal on this tour. One of our party was vegetarian. We were told this wasn't a problem. It was. The food for the vegetarian came out minutes before our group had to leave, not with the other meals. There was not enough time for this meal to be eaten nor was there any refund for it. Kind of disappointing.

I don't know what you all were expecting from a tourism group but they do what they can and usually…read morea bit more. You're an outsider in a strange place most likely. And guess what? In a different country too! Unless you know Tuscany yourself, sit back and enjoy the rides. Okay so the bus ride wasn't the most comfortable, as Americans need HUGE seats with power ports, etc. and cart service with snacks. Fun fact: they're driving manual transmission buses. OOOOORRRRR you can try to blend and deal with the hour or two long bus ride without plugging in your devices. It's not that bad.

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!

TL;DR - this tour is a delight to those who truly care about the entire winemaking process,…read morehistory, and culture. My wife and I planned our dream vacation to Italy with a focus on food and wine. Our time in the Florence area mandated the intentional trip to my (and now OUR) favorite winemaking area - Montalcino. We spent months planning and researching and came across this wonderful local company - "Italy & Wine Tours." Upon review of their website we were captivated by their intentionality to have the time be an intimate and thoughtfully curated all day adventure from Florence through the Chianti region, into the romantic hills of Val d'Orcia, and onto the hillside of Montalcino. To our delight - on the day of the trip we found that we were the only couple who signed up to go that day. Our tour guide Nicolò (who was INCREDIBLE and has formal WSET training/certification) was joined by the delightful daughter (Ippolita) of the company's owner. It was the best experience traveling with them. From the moment we were introduced to the moment we were dropped off at the end of the day we never stopped talking, laughing, sharing stories, and learning more about our favorite shared passion - Italian wine. Now onto the WINE! I won't spoil your trip with too many specifics, but our tour began from the beginning - how did Brunello di Montalcino come to be? We toured the streets of Montalcino and immersed ourselves in local history, tradition, etc. following the city, we were off to the first winery. The first winery focus was on the (traditional) aspects of Brunello. The centuries old family fortress made it abundantly clear. It was an idyllic location through the cellars, learning about the soil, property history for pilgrimages, ancient Rome, and crusades. We sampled 4 wines produced by the site which trended towards elegant, refined, and approachable. During the tasting we were blessed with a delicious and traditional private Italian lunch. Afterwards we went to the second winery which was slightly more modern (in winemaking style) but nonetheless a delight. We dove deeper into soil composition, weather, aging conditions, and micro-factors. The wine at the second location was big, bold, wonderfully complex and personally my preferred style. We concluded our time thanking our hosts and guides over and over again with multiple bottles in hand to bring home and shared with our family. We sincerely hope you (the reader) get to experience Italy and Montalcino in the same way we did. Personal highlights / Why choose this company: - historic, locally/generational owned wineries - not large corporate productions. - 2 production styles helped compare/contrast the same type of wine helping me choose future bottles more accurately. - The tour guides / owners. They care about you, and hospitality is so genuine. Please support companies like this. Thank you so much Nicolò and Ippolita. You are forever in our hearts and we hope our paths cross again in the future!! *David & Kenzie (Seattle, WA)

Our Montepulciano wine tour was one of the highlights of our trip to Italy, and much of that was…read morethanks to Niccolò. From the moment we left Florence, he transformed what could have been a simple drive into a fascinating journey through Tuscany. We spent the day discussing Italian history, culture, education, and different perspectives on life, which added tremendous depth and meaning to the experience. Niccolò is knowledgeable, engaging, and genuinely passionate about sharing his country with visitors. By the end of the day, he felt more like a friend than a guide. The wineries themselves were equally impressive. We especially appreciated visiting family-owned vineyards where generations of winemakers have preserved traditions while producing exceptional wines. The hospitality was warm and authentic, and each winery offered a unique glimpse into the rich heritage of the Montepulciano region. The wine tastings were outstanding, but it was the stories, family histories, and personal connections that made the experience truly memorable. This tour provided far more than wine tasting--it offered an opportunity to experience the culture, people, and traditions of Tuscany in a meaningful way. If you are considering a wine tour from Florence, I highly recommend this experience, and if you are fortunate enough to have Niccolò as your guide, you are in for a remarkable day. Thank you, Niccolò, for making our day so special and for sharing your knowledge, insight, and enthusiasm with us. We will remember this experience long after the last bottle of wine is gone.

Every single travel experience with Anna and her team at FlorenceForFun has been a memorable and…read morefulfilling experience. Anna goes out of her way to educate guests of the new cities they are visiting and provides tons of free ways to visit and experience a new city. The entire company is fun and goes above and beyond to make your experience as fun and memorable as they possibly can. The other companies based out of Florence are huge and do not provide to you the dedicated service that FlorenceForFun offers. There were a few other trips that I wanted to do but FFF unfortunately did not offer. Anna made an effort to plan a trip for me (including my transportation) without me having to lift a single finger. She made my abroad experience 10x better by being so approachable and doing anything and everything she could for us. I would ALWAYS recommend FlorenceForFun to individuals going abroad.

Florence for fun is without a doubt the worst travel agency in florence, maybe the world. I booked…read moretwo separate trips over 4 months in advance. AND BOTH got cancelled the week before they were supposed to depart. Use any other service, as florence for fun will not follow through, and chances are your trip will not depart on time or at all! also, their customer service was horrible and now I will have to file a complaint with my bank in order to get my money back. DON'T USE FLORENCE FOR FUN.