Florencetown

I would not suggest using this company. We used several other companies while we were in Italy and had wonderful experiences with all of them except this one. We bought a tour from them that we could never find and when we went back to tell them we spent an hour searching for the meeting spot they refused to reimburse us or reschedule us without purchasing a new tour. We were out 166.6 euros and got absolutely nothing in returns while they kept our money. With all the options out there I would use anyone else and not risk having your money stolen.

J’écris en français pour stimuler un peu les français de passage en Toscane et désireux de découvrir la région dans un cadre organisé, flexible et convivial. Essayez Florencetown !!!
Florencetown organise plein d’activités culturelles ou sportives allant d’une visite guidée des Offices à un cours de cuisine toscane en ville, ou encore une balade en vélo, à cheval dans le chianti. Allez donc jeter un oeil au site, il est très bien fait et vous trouverez forcément votre bonheur
. Bien sûr vous pouvez également découvrir la belle région du chianti à vespa pour une petite balade bien italienne… et aussi déguster du vin. TOUT est possible.
J’ai découvert Florencetown dans le cadre d’un évènement Unilocal organisé par la géniale Kristina (merci encore !) un dimanche, et nous avons eu la chance de faire plusieurs petits bouts de différents tours proposés pour nous donner un aperçu. Tout a commencé, comme il se doit, par un cours de cuisine. Le chef était hyper sympa, hyper précis, c’était vraiment un bon moment et puis on a appris la technique des pâtes fraiches de façon détaillée, je crois que je pourrai le refaire… Avec en intermittence, une dégustation de vin, expliquée par la sommelière, et de fromage et pain à l’huile de truffe.
On a réalisé avec un mini mini bout de pâte, quatre raviolis et des tagliatelles, c’était assez magique. Comment autant de bonne choses peuvent sortir d’une si petite boule de pâte ??
Ensuite, déjeuner à base de nos préparations. Les sauces (ragu et tomates) étaient très bonnes, et le vin (chianti riserva) vraiment pas mal.
Puis les choses se corsent: départ en vélo après avoir mangé tout ça… Les paysages sont magnifiques, c’est vallonné alors on peine (enfin moi qui suis particulièrement nulle à vélo) un peu mais ça vaut le coup tellement c’est beau de pédaler entre vignes et oliviers. Après cela, balade à cheval ou à vespa au choix. Cool !
Je recommande donc vraiment ces organisateurs car 1) ils sont charmants, souriant, sympa. 2) Les installations (du cours de cuisine, la salle de déjeuner) sont tops et vous pouvez aussi y acheter de bons produits (l’huile est délicieuse !). 3) ils sont sérieux: ils sont ponctuels et nous attendaient à l’heure pile, les équipements sont biens (vélos, casques) et ils veillent à ce que tout le monde ait un casque etc.
On a seulement eu un peu peur à cheval car il commençait à faire nuit et le long de la route avec les voitures, les chevaux ont pris peur. Je pense qu’une balade à cette heure là sans lumière n’est pas recommandée mais je crois que l’on s’est fait surprendre par le changement d’heure du week end. Evitez donc si vous voyez que la nuit tombe, cela peut être dangereux.

I took the tour Uffizi Gallery and Vasari Corridor in the afternoon. The museum was quite crowded, but our guide Giulia made the visit pleasant and gave some interesting information, not only about the artworks but also about the artists’ lives.
The visit to the Corridor was great. The views from the passage are lovely and I love the Portraits gallery where you cam admire some impressive self-​portraits of David, Balla and Fattori.
FlorenceTown is one of the few companies to have daily tours to Vasari Corridor that is not open to the public regularly.
I should say that our guide was nice and kind, but the museum’s staff wasn’t at all, being quite rude.
Things I liked about the tour: kindness, organization, given information.
Things I didn’t like: time was too short

Florence based tour agency that offers cultural and gastronomical tours, both in the city and the countryside.
I tried a mix of them with a group of Unilocalers, unfortunately we could not do the bike and boat tour due to bad weather conditions.
We started out with a pit-​stop at their cooking class place, a very home made experience, with a chef explaining how to make the famous salt schiacciata and pizza, tasting them and sipping red wine. We also tried the delicious tiramisu. Regular classes teach you how to make pasta and you’ll the one you made on the spot! Cool!
Afterwards, went to the Uffizi museum. Apart from the line, which there is no way of skipping because of the security check, we went across the isle and listened an intro of the exposed art pieces, history and gorgeous sights over the city. Then went to the Vasariano Corridor and explored the beautiful collection of the autoportraits.
The visit was beautiful, but the people working in the Uffizi were very rude, like they had enough of tourists! No way to go!
We ended our tour having a small refreshment a the Canottieri on the Arno river, which it’s a very rare place to see if you don’t know anyone inside. The overall experience was amazing and fun. Very much recommended!

An agency with a thousand resources: bike and boat tours, guided visits to museums, food and wine experiences in and around Florence.
But above all: professionalism. And really good and pretty people.
You can see immediately when there is mastery in a situation and this is exactly the case. Good management even during bad weather and however smiling and highly trained.
In short, here you will find an atmosphere pleasant and fun, ideal to visit Florence at its best!

Have you ever tried looking at your own city with different eyes? all of a sudden the things that you have always had in front of yourself appear different and, in some kind of way, magical.
that is what happened to me yesterday during the visit to the Uffizi gallery and the Vasari corridor with Florencetown.
Amazing experience full of details and passion for the art and for the city of Florence. Unfortunately the museum was packed with people so we couldn’t experience it fully. what can I say about the Vasari Corridor? it’s been funny looking at the Ponte vecchio from a different perspective and also getting to know all the different stories about the Medici family who built it and also some anecdotes from more recent times.
Giulia, the guide, is definitely the most passionate and experienced guide I have ever met. in her words we can hear all of her love for the city, and I think this is definitely a winning point when it comes to guided tours.
the afternoon included also a visit to their cooking school in St. Lorenzo area, which I also found fun, where they organize cooking classes. we tasted some schiacciata and pizza made on the spots by the cooks. I think it’s definitely worth a try! pur visit was supposed to ebnd with a boat tour but unfortunately due to bad weather we couldn’t make it. we enjoyed an apéritif in the historical seat of «Canottieri Society» by the river.

My husband and I took the cooking class with Chef Alaine and Chef Daniel, and we made fresh tagliatelle, cheese ravioli, and tiramisu. I’m a vegetarian and we were able to modify the menu so that my tagliatelle was cooked with a cherry tomato sauce, while the rest of the class made a pork/​beef ragu. The one part of the class we weren’t able to do was go to the Central Market to buy the fresh ingredients with our chefs because the market is closed on Sundays (when we took the class). Nonetheless, our chefs bought the ingredients for us the day before. The class itself was the best 170 euros spent (for two people). I must say, the meal we cooked was probably the BEST food we had during our stay in Italy, and that is saying a lot because Florence is rife with amazing restaurants that serve fresh delicious Tuscan food. The chefs both come from a family of chefs; Alaine comes from a family of 28 chefs, and his grandfather is a famous Italian chef. Aside from learning how to make the food, we also learned safe chopping techniques, and the significance of certain ingredients in Italian food (i.e., truffles). This is a fun half day activity if you don’t mind spending your time with lots of retired couples and couples on their honeymoon. But even if you’re a sole traveler, you should still take this class — the meal at the end is truly worth it.

Went to their headquarters location instead of their service site, ended up running 15 – 20 minutes late. They refused to let us transfer our reservation to a later tour in the day, unless we wanted to pay an additional 30 €+ fee for the transfer.
In a city that is otherwise super inviting and complimentary to their cash cow tourist industry, the customer service here was lacking.
However, they did honor our free postcard included with the cost of the tour. So they have that going for them.

What an awesome time. We recently took a family vacation and the five of us decided to take a pizza and gelato making class. The chefs were great. My son (9) is an aspiring chef and he soaked it all up! Not only did we learn to make Italian pizza and gelato but the chefs gave us a lot of interesting backstory too and was really entertaining. They kept the wine flowing for the adults and the class was well paced. Not too fast and the help was at the right level for both my wife and I as well as our kids.

This was absolutely terrible — the company is irresponsible and unresponsive. Despite paying a hefty amount for a full-​day Chianti Wine Tour, we experienced a poorly executed half-​day tour in a hot van. The countryside was absolutely beautiful, but the heat of the van (whose air conditioning was faulty and soaked the seats of the passengers in the back) detracted from the experience. Avoid — you are much better off searching TripAdvisor and using top-​rated tours.

We really enjoyed the Tuscany by Vespa while on a tour of Italy. It gave us a chance to see Tuscany and escape the crowds of Florence.
We met the tour group at a location close to the Duomo where we were driven in a van about 30 minutes to a farmhouse in Chianti. We had signed up for 1 driver and 1 passenger to share a vespa. The drivers were allowed to practice around the farmhouse for 10 minutes or so to get a hang of it. Unfortunately for a few in our group, driving the vespa was too difficult, so they either rode in the van with a guide or as a passenger of another person in their party. We drove around the countryside in a line of vespas for about an hour and a half before stopping to take in some views and learn about winemaking. We then went to a beautiful old winery where were able to see the winemaking process. We then all rode on our vespas back to the farmhouse where we were able to sample wine and enjoy a classic tuscan lunch. We were allowed to linger and were taken back by van to Florence. The guides were extremely friendly and knowledgeable about wine and made us feel comfortable from start to finish.

We did the 3pm sunset bike tour toward the end of October. We forgot the name of our guide, but she was young with shoulder length brown hair. She was a lot of fun and full of energy. Our group was about 8 people and we rode through Florence on these bicycles that had comfortable wide seats and a basket in front. We stopped at several locations on our tour and had opportunity to take pictures. We really enjoyed our tour and thought it was worthwhile and fun to fly through the town by bicycle. The tour also includes a stop at a gelateria as well.

We chose to tour the Uffizi & Academia in Firenze with a guide from FlorenceTown. Elisabetta was extremely knowledgeable, personable, and very engaging. She made our enjoyment & appreciation of the art & history especially rewarding.
Additionally we agreed to a wine tasting tour with FlorenceTown. Again, our guide Matteo was a sommelier with deep knowledge of wine and especially the Tuscan region. Our day was a unique enjoyment of sightseeing, wine tasting, and food.
Bravo, Bravo!

While on our honeymoon, My wife and I booked two wonderful tours with Florencetown. We greatly enjoyed both.
The first:
TUSCANY WINE TRAIL
€ 120.00 (about $ 160.00)
I highly recommend this trip. A half day tour with about a dozen other people split between two minivans. We visited two vineyards, learned a lot about Chianti and the wine produced in the region, and had a wonderful lunch and pair of wine tastings. I loved the whole thing from start to finish (It probably didn’t hurt that I was a little buzzed at the finish).
The second:
CINQUE TERRE DISCOVERY
€ 150.00 (about $ 200.00)
This was more of a ride to the Cinque Terre, then taking boats and trains to different towns of the region. The guide gave a little bit of information, but really it was a ride, lunch and a snack, plus some free time for picture taking and shopping. Still, it was quite a memorable day.

My daughter and I took the «Cooking Class in Florence» with chef Giovanni. We made a memorable Italian meal: Pappardelle with bolognese sauce, ricotta and parmesan ravioli with butter and green sage sauce (Mouthwatering!), and tiramis u’ (Mascarpone just doesn’t taste like that in the states). It was probably the best meal I had in Italy and it was pulled together by a class that was mostly Americans — under Chef Giovanni’s watchful supervision of course.
We began the class with an entertaining and instructional tour at the Central Market. The market was filled with delicacies from Tuscany, all my senses were stimulated. I learned a lot about the various vinegars, olive oil, and cheeses and how to make selections and pairings. The truffle honey was delicious! We purchased the ingredients for our meal and then walked to the Food & Wine Academy to prepare it.
The set up at the academy is perfect for instruction. Over the course of three hours we prepared our meal, which we feasted on at the end of class with plenty of wine and good conversation. Chef Giovanni and his assistant, David, were both thorough, helpful and patient.
I have big plans to master making those raviolis — the best I’ve ever tasted.
I would give five stars, but… We were instructed to arrive at 9:45 for the 10:00 class, which we did. It was freezing, windy and raining and we had to wait outside for our class until 10:00. Also, Chef Giovanni’s angle for teaching us was first to point out (with satisfaction) how Americans prepare Italian food wrong, then he’d demonstrate the proper way, the Italian way. Trust me, I get it. Most of the Italian food in the US is a far cry from authentic; that’s why I paid to experience the real deal in Firenze. I didn’t think it was necessary for him to continually mention how we have it wrong. I was starting to feel like I needed to apologize for all Italian food made in the US. Just teach us the joy of Italian cooking, forget about how Americans approach it.