We are traveling to Italy in September with our son and daughter and their spouses. Some of us have been to Italy before (for us in the days of the amazing Rick Steves' 21-day Italy tour.) We are concentrating our time with them in Venice and Florence. Has anyone used tour guides or tour companies in those cities? We've looked at Context and ArtViva online. Since there are six of us we thought a private tour might be more cost effective. We're looking at some general tours in the cities and maybe something in the Tuscan countryside. We would appreciate any suggestions.
Posted by
Indianapolis
291 posts
Susan,
I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for but I took a tour of Venice with Alessandro (www.schezzini.it). He is not a licensed tour guide so he won't take you into any big sights, however, he does a walking tour of the center of Venice. It is a casual tour that gives you an insight into the history of the city and where it is today. I also added on the "pub tour" which was the highlight of my visit.
Rick has more information about Alessandro's tours in his Italy book.
Sharon
Posted by
San Jose, CA
1994 posts
I've used both, and in my opinion there's no contest… I'd choose Context. I've used them many times in multiple cities, including Florence and Venice, and always had great experiences. Their major strengths are the qualifications of the guides, the ability to adapt tours to group interests, and small group size. The guides have superb academic qualifications, but are also engaging.
I used ArtViva in Florence a year ago to tour the Vasari Corridor and was disappointed. The guide was personable, but the quality of information was not very good. Also, it was targeted to the lowest common denominator (eg, standing before what is probably Lippi's finest Madonna and Child, her narration was about Lippi's sex life, which got laughs... but she said nothing about the painting). Finally, the group was large, probably 30 people in the main galleries, with about half choosing to tour the Corridor. A lot of time was spent waiting for the group to move around and re-gather.