We had a great tour with a very knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide Francesca. I felt it was just the right length to give a good overview plus interesting details, but not overly long, especially considering it was extremely hot that day. Well worth the money.

Political intrigue and so much Medici history! You can’t visit Florence without learning about the Medici family and the Palazzo Vecchio is a key location in the family’s history, and the history of the city as well. Our guide Fabio was terrific! We enjoyed it so much we came back the next day and did the Secret Passageways Tour.

We walked off this tour today. DNF - did not finish…and we paid $65 per person. I have been on 30+ tours in 13 different countries, and this was the first one I have ever walked off from. Our tour guide was terrible. He could not keep time/pacing; he did not follow the his own tour company’s expectations; and we paid for an English tour, and it was not fully in English. I admire our tour guide - he is much smarter than I am for being able to speak multiple languages. However, the job requires a guide to be able to have a deep enough understanding of a language to communicate the story and history in an effective and engaging way. And sadly, I felt he did not have a deep enough grasp. He kept switching to heavy, full Italian sentences at times. It was a real struggle to try to follow the story. I love history - especially the Medici history. I have taken full college class work on the Medici women. It is really hard to bore me with history - I was so bored and could follow the story, and I even knew a decent amount to begin with!!! Our guide was also very disrespectful with the timing of the tour. It was made very clear by our pre-tour instructions that the start time was 5:15pm and anyone late would not be accommodated. Accordingly, we arrived early. In addition, our guide made it clear that we were the last tour through the palace, which closed at 6:30pm. He emphasized we would need to be efficient. He did not follow his own rule. We waited another 5 minutes for one more family to show up. It is now 5:20pm. And then, the tour guide spent 15 minutes talking outside the palace by the Neptune fountain. Now -5:35pm. Less than a hour to see the palace. We walked to the front of the plaza, and spent another 10 talking outside the palace. 5:45pm!! We paid to tour inside the palace, not sit outside in the plaza. We finally made it inside 25 minutes later. We made it to just the great room and now the tour guide was rambling. We made it another 10 minutes before we decided to the leave tour at 5: 55pm. I wanted to see the palace that we paid entrance into, and our tour guide was still going on in the first room. At this rate, we were concerned we would not get to see the entire palace. We left the tour guide and continued touring the palace on our own. The palace was beautiful. I recommend the experience, just not this tour guide. At one point we were in a walkway that overlooked into the great room. At 6:05pm - the tour had still not made it out of that room!! Luckily, we walked out at 6:31 and we had seen all the rooms. I am not sure if our other tour mates were so lucky. Im glad we walked off - at least we got to see everything! However, this experience was the biggest waste of money. I think you’re better off just buying your own entry ticket and taking your time reading the interpretive pieces. I am going to reach out to the company and ask they refund at least part of our tour. However- it did say nonrefundable. But, this wasn’t us arriving late. This was poor customer service and a bad product. We shall see what happens.

My guide was incredible and her local knowledge and expertise made the tour unforgettable. Must do in Florence.