Best tour company

First of all, let me say that if you are just now booking trips for this coming September you will have a hard time finding any tour company with openings. Most tours and most flights will have been already booked. Also, since you are Asking your question on a Rick Steve’s tour forum, of course you will hear much from participants here praising the Rick Steves model of touring. That said , whatever tour company you decide to choose, there are some things you should pay close attention to. They are summarized in the article I have linked below. Read that as a baseline before you make any decision.

https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/the-most-value-for-your-money

As I understand your question, you are looking for tours to specific sites in each of your mentioned cities.

What sites do you want to see?

I suspect there is no tour operator that does not have a mix a of good and bad reviews.

No matter how hard a tour company may try, sometime $%^& happens

Viator and Expedia do not, themselves, operate any tours. They resell other tours.

You'll do better looking for specific companies. But as said above, you have to take a "preponderance of the evidence"; no company will have perfect reviews.

What kind of tours are you looking for? Some that have been mentioned on this board as being good are Dark Rome, Context Tours, and Walks of Italy (the latter two operate in multiple cities). Search for these on the Forum to see some reviews, and check out the companies to see if they offer tours (and prices) that you are looking for.

These are the following tour companies that my family/friends and I used on our trip to Italy in June. We had 6 people with two college-aged girls and two couples in 50s.

Venice:
- Walks of Italy—Secret Palace Tour: https://www.walksofitaly.com/venice-tours/doges-palace-secret-passages-vip-tour. Paola was our guide and she was amazing. She is a local and historian. She asked each of us our interest (group of about 15) and brought the art, architecture, and history to light. We say the Doge’s palace, prison, & basilica all in one trip.
- Allessandro’s Bar Tour: http://www.schezzini.it. This is a Rick Steve’s recommendation and we ran into tour when we attended. Great cicchetto (small bites) and local drinks. We all had a great time. Even my niece who is not a big wine fan, enjoyed the local wines.

Florence:

• Eating Italy Florence Sunset Food Tour: https://www.eatingitalyfoodtours.com/florence/tours/sunset-food-tour/. A great introduction to the Florence food scene. You start with an appertivo at a local bar (the girls even got to make their own cocktails) and then progressed through a dinner ending with dessert and vin santo on the steps of the church in a local square. Small group: 8 people.

Rome:

• Eating Italy Rome Trastevere Food Tour: https://www.eatingitalyfoodtours.com/rome/tours/twilight-trastevere/. Great fun with small group and some of the best food we had in Rome. Our only complaint is we wished we did this on the first day so we could go back to some of the shops before we left. Small group: 8 people.
• Miles & Miles: private tour of the Colosseum & Vatican in one Day. It was a long day and private tours can be pricey, but we had limited time and 6 people. Grace our guide was very knowledgeable and actually gave us an extra hour of her time to go over some of the papal history and specific artworks. She was a lifesaver to help us navigate the crowds. https://www.milesandmiles.net
• Galleria Borghese: http://galleriaborghese.beniculturali.it/it. Normally, I don’t take a docent led tour, but I am glad that I did so at the Borghese. Our docent was knowledgeable and passionate about the art.

I would also recommend that you check out Rick Steve’s audio guide. He has walks, tours of museums (we used this in Florence & Rome) and they are informative, especially the museum guides.

Have a great trip.
Sandy

Is Walks of Italy good?

Add to the list of tour operators. Therse are less expensive. Keep in mind, all guides need to pass the same tests for their categories.

https://theromanguy.com

https://www.getyourguide.com/s/?q=Rome&date_from=2018-09-03&date_to=2018-09-03&customerSearch=true

We took two full day walking tours in Tuscany with Walk about Italy. We loved our guide Gianni. You can look at the tours they offer here https://www.walkaboutitaly.com/ . They also offer multiple city/day itineraries. The walks are leisurely and he gauges it to your ability and desire. We didn't walk all day and stopped to have a coffee or lunch etc.