We will be in both cities for two and a half days each and would like to join a small group tour or hire a private guide in each city for a half day. I am thinking it would be best to have a guide for the major sites (duomo and accedemia in Florence and basilica and doges palace in Venice). Does anyone have experience with Liv Italy tours? Or would you recommend private guides, and if so do you have recommendations? LivItaly does 6 person tours but their rates seem high, like 120 euro pp. With two of us it seems we could hire a guide? Thank you!!
Posted by
Minnesota 🎒
16043 posts
Hi epersons1 -
As no one has responded yet....
Specifically for Florence, I really don't think you need a guide or tour for the Accademia and duomo. They're not difficult at all to do on your own with just a guidebook and some reading up in advance (our method.) Still, 120 euro pp for a 3 hour/half day tour isn't "high" depending on the size of the group. I think this is the Florence tour you're considering?
https://www.livitaly.com/tour/florence-small-group-walking-tour-with-david/
That one has a maximum group size of 6: not overpriced for that small a group. For comparison, Walks of Italy tours - very positively rated by many posters who have taken them - has a similar tour for $84 pp but group size could be up to 18.
https://www.walksofitaly.com/florence-tours/florence-walking-tour-david/
A benefit of either is that your timed-entry and fee for the Accademia are taken care of, as well as enjoying priority entry to the duomo (the interior of which is surprisingly austere.) If tour prices still are still higher than you are willing to fork out, Rick offers a free, self-guided audio tour of the Accademia that can be dowloaded to your own devices.
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/audio/audio-tours/italy
Posted by
Rural Georgia
2141 posts
Check Walks of Italy as an alternative. We did the walking tour in the morning and the Uffizi tour in the afternoon. Walks of Italy state there's a 15 guest limit, but there were 12 in the morning and only 6 of us for the Uffizi. Marco, who did both tours, was wonderful. He has a Master of Art History and was knowledgeable and very helpful.
We also did a Walks of Italy evening stroll in Rome that was delightful. As Kathy mentioned, the tours include entrance fees and you skip the line. We walked straight into the Accedemia and Uffizi. We felt our WOI tours were well worth the price.