We did the Great Synagogue of Florence & Jewish Museum tour and Francesco was our guide for this private tour. He was exceptional in sharing the history and passing along his knowledge. He also did a great job of engaging our kids. We also added a tour of the ghetto and as we walked Francesco shared terrific insights which really made the tour memorable

Artviva was an exceptional company from the start! They were easy to work with, incredibly accommodating, and a good price! Francesco was everything we could've asked for in a guide. He was kind, engaging, and knowledgeable. We are so grateful we went with them!1

Our family really enjoyed our tour of Michelangelo’s David with our wonderfully knowledgeable and engaging tour guide, Alessandro. We learned so much that we would not have found out on our own. Alessandro is one of the most experienced and expert art guides we have ever worked with. I highly recommend this fun and educational tour. Bravo to Alessandro and the entire ArtViva team!

Marissa was knowledgeable & friendly. She went out of her way to give us the most from our experience. We visited 5 artisan workshops (leather; goldsmith/jewelry; paper marbleizing; printmaking & mosaics) adding in the mosaic stop so we could visit this unique workshop. This was a highlight of our time in Florence.

We just areivws in Florence and that evening my husband and I had a private walking tour with Marisa. She was absolutely amazing! She was a wealth of knowledge and kindness! Being with her on our first night of our first time in Italy was exactly what was needed to to launch a perfect holiday!

Laura was amazing! She shared her knowledge and experience with us in such a fun way. She helped us begin a painting that will be a wonderful memory of our vacation. This was such a unique experience to do in Florence, a place famous for so many paintings!

Per Rick Steve’s recommendation from his Italy guidebook , we hired a guide through Artviva for “The Original Florence Walk” as a private tour for our group. Fantastic! Exceeded our expectations! Three hours spent together made the history, art and architecture of Florence come alive (and as a side benefit, we never felt lost during the rest of our stay, using all the landmarks pointed out in our tour.) If you are on the fence about tours, just do it! Otherwise you’ll be walking past important history without even noticing it!

Tuscany is famous for its steak; the quality of the beef is unmatched. The beef cattle in Tuscany have an ancient lineage; they are quite distinctive. Florentine cattle are usually a cream color, they grow strongly, and the rich steak is full of flavor. The ribeye cuts require possessing a strong appetite. The steak makes magnificent feasts.Tuscany

Laura was AMAZING. Learned so much from her. She kept everyone in our party of nine (ages 6 to 79) engaged and entertained. If I ever get back to Florence, I will book a tour with her again. Answered every question and then some. Cannot recommend her highly enough. GREAT value.

It was a splurge for us to book a private tour, but it was so worth it! Our guide, a native Florentine with perfect English, took the time to ask us about what we'd like to see, then tailored our time together to our interests. She was SO knowledgeable and enthusiastically answered our questions. We saw things we never would have found on our own, plus, she gave us insiders' tips on what to see on our own, when to visit specific museums and where to eat. It was the perfect preview for our visit. Highly recommend!

If you do nothing else, do this tour! This was my second time doing it, and I would do it again. Our tour guide, Alessandro was fantastic. His knowledge was amazing! Our driver Louiggi was the best! This was the highlight of our 10 day stay throughout Italy-and, we did a lot!

This was truly an enjoyable and informative experience. Our guide, Caterina, was a winsome fount of knowledge! She made us want to do a History of Art degree :) She answered our questions patiently and helpfully. Her passion for her native city is infectious. Three hours (and a bit!) passed incredibly quickly. We couldn't recommend her highly enough.

Francesco was an excellent guide. He was personable and included an incredible amount of detail about all the monuments, people and historical events. We opted to not use the earphones as we were just 6 people in the group and this worked well. The way to tell it was a great day is that the time absolutely flew by. Our guide was happy to answer all the extra questions we had as well. I would definitely recommend this tour and Francesco!

We did two tours walking tour of Florence with Michelangelo's David and the uffizi tour. We asked them to do it kid friendly but it was perfect for most adults with only so much attention span. We had Martina as our guide. She was one of the best guides we had in Italy. Her English was very good and she was very funny and engaging. She was able to hold and recapture our kids attention 9,12,15 even in the Uffizi by asking them questions and always trying to engage them. It was an amazing tour by a wonderful guide. I highly recommend

A tour is only as good as the tour guide, and ArtViva's Alessandro is as good as they get. We did the Uffizi Gallery tour as well as the Florence walking tour (on two consecutive days), and Alessandro was entertaining, thoughtful, and unbelievably knowledgable. Seriously, if we were walking along, and I pointed to random building in Florence that caught my eye and asked about it, he would know when it was built and who originally owned it, and tie that information in with the larger picture he painted of life in 12th century Florence. He's quite brilliant. During our tour of the Ulffizi Gallery, we all learned more about art than we'd ever known, and we're dedicated museum-goers. What Alessandro taught me will inform my appreciation of art for the rest of my life. In general, ArtViva was wonderful to deal with, and their representative, Faezeh, was incredibly helpful in our emails leading up to the tours. Having learned that I'm hearing disabled and use hearing aids, she suggested ideas to cope with the radios and earbuds used prevalently in tours throughout Italy, and they helped, not only with the ArtViva tours we booked, but with the rest of our two week vacation in Italy. Don't hesitate to go with this company, and definitely ask for Alessandro if he's available.