Published on May, 2019
Having only a single day to spend in the city, our private tour filled the bill quite nicely. The major advantages, of course, are that you get to spend the allotted time with your guide as you want to. In our case, our guide, Gabriel, was the best part of the experience. He was professional, accommodating, funny, knowledgeable and genuinely enthusiastic about the subject matter. His English was also perfect, which sometimes can be an issue. He met us on time at the designated location and we used the " skip the line" line to get into the Accademia. Funny but there is actually a line ( about 15 minutes long ) of people with advanced reservations to " skip the line". The Accademia was quite interesting and David did not disappoint, especially when our personal guide was able to explain the fascinating background of Michelangelo. We then spent an hour walking past many of the highlights of the city with Gabriel explaining the related history. We had a rather long break for lunch and shopping ( more on that later ) and then rejoined Gabriel at the Uffizi. Again, having a private guide allowed us to customize our tour of this rather large facility, concentrating on what we wanted to see. My wife was so impressed by the information she learned that she downloaded a book on Michelangelo and Da Vinci to read during the rest of our trip! The only slight negative about the tour was the long break in between our time with our guide. We did have over 4 1/2 hours total as described but there was a 3 hour break in the middle of the two gallery tours. I believe this is due to the reservation times they are given for the Uffizi. We began the day at 10:30 AM and finished at 6:00 PM. We did enjoy a nice leisurely lunch and some shopping but it did turn out to be a longer day than we had planned. At the end of the day Gabriel called our hotel to arrange a shuttle back and then walked us to where we needed to be picked up. A nice extra which we appreciated. All in all, the day was perfect. You can save money by taking a group tour and receive a somewhat "canned" presentation or doing it on your own without the benefit of knowledge from a professional guide, but I would highly recommend that for a city as fascinating as Florence, and especially if you are short on time, it is well worth it to do it right by taking a private tour. Ours was great!!
