The Tours of Florence

We scheduled three walking tours with ArtViva which was recommended as THE best touring company in Florence. After having gone with them on these tours we have to agree:)

The first tour - The Original Florence Walk - started at 9:30am in front of their office. We did not sleep well the night before. Steve had a migraine in the middle of the night and Kinga slept only 3hrs. So it was very hard to wake up, eat breakfast and walk to the meeting place. But we did it. We found out right away that the tours are very well organized. They divide everybody into small groups....no more than 22 people. Each person gets a receiver and headphones. The tour guide speaks into a small headphone and you can hear them really well as you walk around. So off we went with our lively and very knowledgable guide. She was half Italian and half American and could navigate both coultures and languages very well. We learned a lot during this tour. It was a great history lesson and it also offered a great perspective tying together art, architecture, history and even religion.

Here are some things we saw on our first tour.

 

Our guide (on the right) was really great :)

 

 

Charming Old - World style Florentine shop.

 

We finally got to see the inside of the cathedral. It is massive but not very decorated inside. Unlike so many other churches we have seen.

The dome is decorated with beautiful frescos. It was designed by Brunelleschi.

 

Our first tour ended around 12:30pm and we had an hour in between. So we took a break for lunch :) Our second tour started at 1:45 and this time we went to the Uffizi Gallery. We saw many beautiful and famous paintings and sculptures but could not take pictures as they were not allowed! Again, our guide was excellent and it was so much easier for both of us to appreciate these great works of art by having someone explain to us the background and history.

Our final tour started at 4:45pm and it was called "The Original David Tour - The Accademia Museum Visit". We have seen many copies of Michaelangelo's famous David statue in different places in Florence but nothing compares to the original one which stands in The Accademia Museum. When it was first carved it was suppose to be placed on top of the Florence Cathedral - as one of many statues there. BUT the church authorities had a problem with a naked statue adorning their church. The Italian people did not have the same problem and fell in love with the statue right away. It is easy to see why. The statue is impressive, much larger then we imagined and just.......perfect!!

Again, the pictures were not allowed but......I just couldn't help myself and had to sneak these two :)

After our last tour of the day we had to hurry back to our hotel and get our luggage. We called a taxi to take us to Hertz car rental. We had to hurry as the tour ended late. We arrived there with 15 minutes to spare and got our car. This little Ford Fiesta will take us through Tuscany and all the way to Rome :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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