Tours in Florence by Mariarty

You will refresh what you already knew about the city and hear plenty of new things. We talk about the Medici clan – the godfathers of the Italian Renaissance – the twists and turns of building Florence Cathedral, and why the whole of Italy speaks the language of Dante. We perform a few rituals said to bring good luck, and find out where to get the best sandwiches and ice cream.

The route runs through the Cathedral, the Baptistery and Giotto’s Bell Tower, Dante’s district, Piazza della Repubblica, Palazzo Vecchio, the Ponte Vecchio and Palazzo Pitti.

Good to know

• Extra costs: coffee or a snack. Paid museums are not part of the tour.
• The meeting point is agreed with your guide the day before.

Video and audio recording of the tour is not allowed: the tour is the author’s intellectual property, protected by EU copyright law. Thank you for understanding.

The tour is led by an English-speaking guide from our team. Extra time: €70 per hour.

In 1560 Cosimo I commissioned Giorgio Vasari to build administrative “offices” (uffizi). In 1737 the last of the Medici, Anna Maria Luisa, donated the whole collection to Florence on one condition: not a single item should ever leave the city. On the tour you will find out whether that promise was kept, which artefacts the banking family managed to collect, and why a fashion for ancient nudes suddenly arrived in a Christian city.

Good to know

• Gallery tickets are not included. Agree the date and time with us before buying tickets, so that your guide is available.
• Lunch, tea, coffee and snacks are not included.
• For larger groups, €20 is added for each additional guest.
• The date and time are booked with a partial prepayment, by whichever method suits you.

The tour is led by an English-speaking guide from our team. Extra time: €70 per hour.

Michelangelo lived almost 89 years, working now in Rome, now in Florence. We talk about his long life, his difficult relations with his family and the city, and even about his adventures after death.

The standard minimum programme includes the Medici Chapels, the Accademia and the outside of the Medici palace. The extended programme adds the Casa Buonarroti, the house Michelangelo left to his favourite nephew, with early works such as the Battle of the Centaurs and the Madonna of the Stairs, carved at the age of 17, and the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, where the Bandini Pietà – the master’s penultimate work – is kept. The Accademia is home to the original David, the most reproduced statue in the world: we discuss how it was made, the artist’s spiritual quest, and how statues meant for the Pope never reached their patron. If you are made of iron, Palazzo Vecchio can be added too.

Good to know

• Tickets, food and drinks are not included. Tickets are in your name and cannot be changed or refunded, so have photos of your documents with you.
• We can buy the tickets for you for a €20 fee per museum.
• The meeting point is agreed with your guide the day before.

Video and audio recording of the tour is not allowed: the tour is the author’s intellectual property, protected by EU copyright law. Thank you for understanding.

The tour is led by an English-speaking guide from our team. Extra time: €70 per hour.

Fast trains from Rome take only about 1.5 hours, so we can travel together, or simply meet in Florence on the agreed date. Our route starts almost at the main station and covers the most important and interesting places in Dante’s home town. We visit the Cathedral square with the city’s main church, and in Piazza della Signoria I explain why the government palace is built like a fortress and which scandals shook the city. I tell you about heresies, conspiracies and the occult leanings of the elites.

At the Uffizi, which was supposed to house the most beautiful office in human history, we talk about the fates of Renaissance geniuses, the brightest rulers of Florence, alchemists and esoterics. We take in colourful markets and churches, look at palaces and climb to viewpoints. From the bank of the Arno there is a view of Piazzale Michelangelo and the Oltrarno, where the city’s elite lives. The tour is private, so the route can be agreed with you; all organisational questions are settled at booking.

Good to know

• Meals are not included, and neither are museum and church tickets (optional).

We meet in Piazza Santa Croce, and the strangeness begins right here: why is there non-Christian symbolism on a Christian church? We recall the first Christians – few people remember that Florence was bustling with life long before the Renaissance. The route takes us into Dante’s district: Dante was one of the main esoterics of his time, and we talk about secret societies and ancient orders, some of which survive to this day. Esoteric symbols are left in plain sight, and one of our tasks is to learn to see them.

Heading towards the cathedral we visit a hidden place that many locals do not know, and descend to an archaeological area at the level of Roman Florence. The huge Santa Maria del Fiore keeps the secrets of building the world’s largest brick dome and hides important relics at its very top. On the way to Piazza della Repubblica, where it all began 2,000 years ago, we step into another unusual building, linked to the plague that once ruined Florence. We finish in Piazza Santa Maria Novella, talking about the Dominicans (“the Lord’s dogs”), alchemy and Florentine mysticism, and seeing the place where the characters of Boccaccio’s Decameron met.

Good to know

• Extra costs: coffee and a ticket to one of the churches.
• The route can be extended: extra guide time is €70 per hour (team guides only).

Video and audio recording of the tour is not allowed: the tour is the author’s intellectual property, protected by EU copyright law. Thank you for understanding.

The plots of the book and film are interwoven with the real history of the city and its brightest figures: the Medici, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Botticelli. Our walk begins near the Pitti Palace and, while visiting Florence’s most iconic sights, we recall the plot of Dante’s Divine Comedy. From the monumental Palazzo Pitti, from where the heroes of Inferno reach the historic centre by the secret Vasari Corridor, we follow that corridor across the Ponte Vecchio and over the Arno to the building where all political decisions were made, intrigues were hatched and inconvenient public figures were removed.

With Professor Robert Langdon we look for symbols and try to understand what hides behind the mysterious phrase “seek and ye shall find”, and where Dante’s death mask actually is. The details of the route are kept secret, but it will certainly include Palazzo Pitti, Palazzo Vecchio – where the main events of the novel and film unfold – the Cathedral Square and the Baptistery. If you wish, the tour can be extended to additional closed places.

Good to know

• Extra costs: tickets to Palazzo Vecchio and optional additional sites, coffee.
• Optional extension: the Boboli Gardens and Palazzo Pitti (ticket plus reservation; minors enter free and pay only for the reservation).
• Palazzo Vecchio tickets are bought on the official site or in the live queue – we recommend online booking at weekends and on holidays. Tickets are named and cannot be changed or refunded, so keep photos of your documents. We can buy them for you: €20, regardless of the number of tickets.
• Meeting point agreed with your guide the day before.

Video and audio recording of the tour is not allowed: the tour is the author’s intellectual property, protected by EU copyright law. Thank you for understanding.

The tour is led by an English-speaking guide from our team. Extra time: €70 per hour.

The quest is designed for children and teenagers from 5 to 15, but the adults who come along will find it just as interesting – and parents are welcome to join in the tasks. Our mission is to track down real and mythical creatures on the streets of the Renaissance city, and each animal tells us its fate. We use orienteering skills, crossword-solving and finding our way around, and the smartest explorers win a small souvenir of Florence.

Good to know

• Not included: entrance tickets, drinks and food.
• The tour does not include churches or cathedrals. They can be added on request, keeping the same duration or for an extra fee.
• A coffee or snack break is possible.

The tour is led by an English-speaking guide from our team. Extra time: €70 per hour.

Many visitors to Italy are disappointed by the food, fooled by stereotypes of “pizza-pasta”, tiramisu, limoncello and tourist-trap restaurants. But you are in Tuscany – it would be a sin not to appreciate the tartness of Chianti, the texture of pecorino cheese and the crumbliness of cantuccini biscuits.

Like authentic locals, we head to the market to mingle with the traders and shoppers: the region’s best delicacies are bought here, from Florentine steaks to truffles. If you wish, we taste cheeses, seasonal fruit and vegetables and traditional tripe sandwiches (our videographer works only for those when he shoots in Florence). Then we stop at an old pastry shop for the cake loved by Catherine de’ Medici, Queen of France, famous cantuccini and the ice cream invented in 16th-century Florence for the Medici family. In the next street a wine shop with a huge choice of local wines awaits, with snacks to match, and we learn why sweet wine is called “holy wine” and discuss the finer points of winemaking.

Good to know

• Extra costs: food and wine, coffee or a snack. Paid museums are not part of the tour.
• The meeting point is agreed with your guide the day before.

Video and audio recording of the tour is not allowed: the tour is the author’s intellectual property, protected by EU copyright law. Thank you for understanding.

The tour is led by an English-speaking guide from our team. Extra time: €70 per hour.