We are just back from our trip to Italy and I wanted to share a few experiences in and around Florence that I thought were great. We spent most of our time outside of museums so you won’t see many of them listed. I put the viator name when the activity was a tour so maybe you can find them.
- Olive Oil Tasting at Villa Monteoriolo in Tuscany (near Florence)
- Tour : Florence Pizza or Pasta Class with Gelato Making at a Tuscan Farm
- School of Leather (Scuola del Cuoio)
- Tour : Florence Duomo: VIP After-Hours Dome Tour with Terrace Access
- Museo Dell'opera Del Duomo
- Tour : DAVID and Accademia Gallery Private Tour in Florence
- Il Gusto Pizza in the Oltrarno District
Missed : Secret Passages Tour - Palazzo Vecchio
- Olive Oil Tasting at Villa Monteoriolo in Tuscany (very near Florence)
Villa Monteoriolo is a family estate just south of Florence. We visited on our way driving out of Florence towards Orvieto, but it is close enough to Florence where I think you could take an uber/taxi there and back. It was a fantastic visit of a couple of hours with a very authentic family whose estate holds several thousand olive trees. They were extremely welcoming. I spoke to Eleonora and her son Tommaso via email and in person, and Tommaso spent the entire time there with us.
We saw the estate including the garden, the olive groves, the chapel inside the Villa, and their open air cellar where we did an Olive Oil tasting. We learned a lot about the process of creating olive oil and saw many of the implements which were traditionally used. Tommaso taught us how to taste olive oil which was fun. We enjoyed their olive oil with some fresh pecorino, bruschetta, olives, and wine. It was fantastic and our whole family really enjoyed the experience. Tommaso also brought out their family made version of Nutella - my teens loved it!
- Florence Pizza or Pasta Class with Gelato Making at a Tuscan Farm
This was my teens favorite activity in Florence. It was run by a business called Walkabout Florence Tours. We made both Pizza and Gelato. The three people running it were fantastic. A brother and sister taught the Pizza part and Maximillian did the Gelato. Max was an engineer in a former life. They made it fun for all. It was my first time throwing pizza dough in the air to spread it out. Fantastic experience. On the night we went, there were only 8 people so we had plenty of room and attention. The views of the countryside were amazing and it was a nice break from the city.
- School of Leather (Scuola del Cuoio)
The school of leather was started by a couple of brothers in conjunction with a monastery to teach orphans a trade after WWII. It is still in operation today and run by the same family. You can buy high quality leather products there and see the leather workers working just by showing up. I arranged a tour by contacting them. Beatrice gave us the tour. She is the granddaughter of one of the brothers. We met her mother and aunt as well. Her Aunt makes all sorts of purses in wild colors and designs - no two are the same. We saw how they stitched the leather and also embossed the leather with gold. It was fascinating. They sell a lot of high quality goods and will custom make anything you want with many types of leather. It could be a great opportunity to bring something home that you will keep for a long time or to just learn about how high quality leather goods are made.
To be continued...