Tours in Venice and Florence

I will be in both cities in October also.
As this is my first solo trip, I can’t vouch for how great my tours are that I’ve signed up for but here are my selections:
Venice : 3 nights
Doges Palace, St Mark’s and Bridge of Sighs
Alessandro’s Walking & Cicchetti Tours (on a list as he needs X number of people to sign up)
Vivaldi Music Concert
I am buying a 3 day transportation pass so can visit the islands etc as I want)
Florence: 1 week
Tuscany Wine Tour to Chianti, Montalcino and Montepulciano (I want to see the countryside and visit the coppersmith in Montepulciano. Since I’m on foot a Tour is my best option)
I am buying a Firenze Card for museums etc.

My family, friends and I were in Venice and Florence in June. Here are the tours that we took that I would recommend:

Venice:

• Secret Passages Tour Doge’s Palace and St. Marks from Walks of Italy. You will have small group (less than 15) and you will visit the prison, see the bridge of sighs passage, and both Doge’s Palace and St. Marks. Our guide, Paola was amazing. She is native of Venice and has deep knowledge or history, art, and architecture. My friend is a contractor and she painstakingly went through the construction techniques, showing us some of the ways that St. Mark’s adjusts to the changing water levels. I loved this tour. Here is the url: https://www.walksofitaly.com/venice-tours/doges-palace-secret-passages-vip-tour?gclid=Cj0KCQjwn4ncBRCaARIsAFD5-gVOBi8J2RBvQe81dwziai1vRVWZfA-KlmoH8zVKtnG_Sx6nHUdoUrkaAicsEALw_wcB.
• Alessandro’s Bar Tour—it is more of a drinking tour than eating tour (our friends needed to go out to eat afterwords), but it was fun. My college-aged girls are still talking about this tour.

Florence: we toured Florence on our own with one exception, the Eating Italy Florence Sunset Tour. It is a great introduction to Tuscan/Florentine cuisine. A small group, you start with a visit to a local cheese & meat shop, have a lovely appertivo and then onto the hearty and delicious Florentine meal and dessert. We loved this tour so much, we signed up for the one in Rome. Here is the link: https://www.eatingeurope.com/florence-food-tours/florence-sunset-food-tour/.

Enjoy your trip,
Sandy

Last time I was in Venice I took this walking tour - the morning walk. It was excellent and I learned a lot - even though this was my 4th visit to the city. I would have taken their other tour but my visit was too short. You should book in advance. There's no penalty for no-shows, but if you just show up, there may not be space for you. A few years ago I took the Secret Itineraries tour at the Doge's Palace and enjoyed it a lot. Book the earliest tour available - it gets hot under the roof. Alessandro's cicchetti tour was fun and the wine was plentiful, but when it ended, we all we out for dinner. The Jewish Ghetto tour is very interesting as well.

I used Rick's free audio tours in both Venice and Florence. They are good, be sure to print out the maps. Some sights have audio guides.

We're also waitlisted for the cichetti tour in October - there are 6 of us and Alessandro said he still needs a couple more bookings to confirm.