Florence/Pisa Private Tours

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Phamer

Guest
Hello everyone. I'll be going on the Brilliance Of The Seas in May 2004 and I'm looking for recommendations regarding private tours. Is there a particular private tour you thought was outstanding via the Livorno port? I'd like to see both Florence and Pisa and I think a private tour would be more fun and cheaper (we have 6 adults and two young children in our group). If you have recommendations for Rome I'd be interested in those too.
 
W

wwinfl91

Guest
Hi,

My wife and I were on the Golden Princess this summer and did a private tour with 3 other couples with a very good guide, Paola Migliorini. She met us at the ship in a new clean van with good A/C. We asked to see both the highlights of Florence as well as Pisa and she managed to work both in during our 8+ hours we spent with her.

Her email address is:

info@florencetour.com

Website URL:

www.florencetour.com

Paola did an excellent job of arranging ahead of time tickets so we could see Michangelo's David without spending an hour in line. We were able to get a chance to see many of the major sites in Florence as well as seeing the Leaning Tower of Pisa on our way back to the ship. She allowed us an option for lunch that gave different members of the group an opportunity to see or do a variety of things which I felt was an advantage over a more formal lunch arrangement.

Paola lives in the old town section of Florence so she can get her van very close to attractions as opposed to the bigger tour buses that have to park at the parking lots on the edge of town and walk in.

One of our tour members wanted to do a wine tasting and Paola was able to arrange that event while allowing others who didn't feel like wine some additional free time on their own.

All in all it was an excellent tour and Paola did an excellent job as our guide. Your group sounds like exactly the right size group for the van she uses.

Enjoy your cruise.
 
P

Phamer

Guest
Thanks for the information. I've e-mailed her for a quote and more information. I'll let you know if we decide to go with her.
 
W

wwinfl91

Guest
I believe the cost when we did the tour was 600 euros for the van for up to 8 people. That worked out to 75 euros per person which was a much better deal the all day Florence Pisa ship tour which was I think around $135 a person even with the exchange rate.

As I said in my earlier post Paola did an excellent job of telling us what we were going to be seeing on our trip from Livorno to Florence and then guiding us through the various sites as we explored them.

I will say that one day is definitely not enough time to actually see all of Florence let alone try to do as we did both Florence and Pisa. My wife and I have both decided in some future vacation to go to Italy and spend 4 or 5 days in northern Italy, Florence, Genoa, Pisa, etc and then spend another 4 or 5 days around Rome and central Italy and then finish with 4 or 5 days in southern Italy, Naples, Capri, Amalfi coast and a longer visit at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Now all we need to do is find the money to do it. But we probably won't try it until the euro to dollar exchange rate gets a little better than it is now.

Enjoy your cruise and I hope you find good private guides for all your ports. We did two ship tours and 4 private guides and enjoy both types but I definitely felt we got more for our money in the private guides over the ship tours.

Happy cruising.
 
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