Santa Croce Basilica
- Address: Piazza di Santa Croce, Florence
- Hours: Mon - Sat: 9:30am - 5pm, Sun and holidays of obligation: 1pm - 5pm
- Admission: Adults: € 5
ATTRACTION Keywords:
Cultural Experience,
Religious Experience,
Church / Cathedral,
Monument - Historical
Santa Croce Basilica Reviews
We've found 20 Santa Croce Basilica reviews from Viator.com travelers and members: what they loved, what they liked and what they think could be improved. It's all here to help you make the most of your next trip.
Review by Harish G, August 2011
Doing what: Florence Day Trip from Rome
Came across as a best alternative to check out Florence in a day.
3 hours drive with a stop over for bio-break, a visit to museum, basilica's, squares , try out some local dishes, personal space and personal time for shopping all under the guidance of a geo-friendly guide.
Review by Stein L, July 2011
Doing what: Florence Day Trip from Rome
A really wonderful day trip to a wonderful City! The coach was very comfortable, our courier excellent and very solicitous, also much impressed by the multi lingual skills of these people. In Florence we were met by an excellent local guide who took us through the essentials, David, the Duomo etc. Well worth doing. Our courier also directed us to a lovely leather shop in Piazza Santa Croce, well worth a visit; beautiful goods and really nice staff. The included lunch was wholesome and welcome, providing an opportunity to get to know other travellers. A really well organised day, and I can't begin to say how impressed I am with the care the Green Line company took in picking people up at the beginning of the day and delivering them back at the end. Very good indeed.
Review by Anonymous, August 2007
Doing what: Florence Half-Day or Full-Day Sightseeing Tour
My husband and I only had one day in Florence. We took the full day tour with lunch. It was amazing. We pretty much covered everything: Il Duomo, the Baptistery, the Accademia, the Uffizi, and Santa Croce, as well as a bus tour through Fiesole. Lunch was great because we met so many wonderful people. I would definitely recommend this tour.
Review by Lisa G, December 2011
Doing what: Florence Day Trip from Rome
The advertised price and what I was charged were different - I was charged more. The guide was wonderful, the bus ride nice, lunch was great and the museum tour was great. The tour should include the Rialto bridge but did not. Also, the St Croce church was listed on the tour itinerary, but once we arrived to the church, we were told - "here it is", if you want to go in - do it on your own and pay 5 euro. I didn't expect that. I would do this one again but would love to see the few details as mentioned to make it complete.
Review by Bernadette P, October 2011
Doing what: Florence Half-Day or Full-Day Sightseeing Tour
This was a really good tour. We opted for the full day. The Churches, Galleries, and sites were amazing. The tour guides were very informative and knowledgeable. the headsets the guides give you for your chosen language are very clear so you never miss out on anything. The guides bring you in so you are never caught up in long queues.
What did let down the full day tour for us was the lunch, it was a cheap and basic, we were given 45 mins to eat and had to remind the waiter of this several times as the service was slow, needless to say we had to take our dessert with us to eat on the coach!. I suggest you do this trip in two halfs and exclude the lunch. You are not given access to the Sante Croce Cathedral you only see the facade.
Review by Anonymous, July 2008
Doing what: Florence Half-Day or Full-Day Sightseeing Tour
The guides knowledge of art was superb, she really brought the Uffizi Gallery to life and exceeded my expectations. Would be nice to see inside Santa Croce as well as just the outside. Although this may extend the tour by half an hour I think it would prove worthwhile.
Review by Bryan H, USA, May 2007
Doing what: Florence Half-Day or Full-Day Sightseeing Tour
The tours were great, although the website needs to be updated. Our afternoon tour stated that we would be visiting the Franciscan Church of Santa Croce interior. This was not the case and we had to pay an extra 10 euro to go into the interior. Many in the group planned on going in and were unhappy when they found out that the website was wrong, therefore we agreed to pay the extra to go in.
On the other hand the lunch was outstanding and even included both red and white wine which was not stated on the website. Our afternoon tour guide was very passionate about the paintings in the Galleria del Uffizi and went into a bit too much detail.
Review by Anonymous, March 2007
Doing what: Florence Half-Day or Full-Day Sightseeing Tour
Great tour! Wish we had more time up on the hill and to enter the basilica.
Review by FRANK G, October 2012
Doing what: Florence Day Trip from Rome
Picked up @ our hotel promptly, made 5 or 6 stops before setting out to Florence (35 minutes) later. Guide, Christina, pointed out things along the way thru Umbria and Tuscany. Rest stop was a mob sceen, lucky to use the facilities in the 20 minutes we had; although it was a Saturday and I guess the additional weekend crowds are to be expected. Our bus driver, Mariano, was terrific. 1st stop in Florence, Piazza Michaelangelo high over the city was very nice for photo stops. Had to wait a good 30 minutes at Museum Accademia before entry. Our tour guide in Florence, Giuliana, was also very knowledgeable and sweet. By the time we had lunch (which was terrible): we were all famished! Would have appreciated the 60 minutes to feed ourselves since many options were available along our walking route. We did not appreciate at Piazza Santa Croce gold/leather store (being NYers we felt like we were in the lower east side); where are all Florentine salespeople? Overall, glad we got to see Florence and felt safe.
Review by Howard S, September 2011
Doing what: Florence Day Trip from Rome
The Good ; I was able to take a day trip from Rome to Florence and see the main sights quickly which I would not have been able to do on my own Like Michaelangelo David, Duomo and Ponte Vecchio.
The Bad : The Bus took longer than it should have like a 20 min rest stop. The restaurant chosen stunk. It wasnt real Italian food at all, The Sauce tasted like it came from a can and watermelon was served for dessert. How about REAL Italian Sauce with a REAL italian dessert like Gelato.
Also they did not take us into Basilica of Santa Croce even though we were right in front of it. Luckily the guide recommeded it otherwise I would have missed it
Review by John R, April 2011
Doing what: Florence Half-Day or Full-Day Sightseeing Tour
Overall we enjoyed the tour but were disapointed in the bus trip as we didn't stop for a photo oportunity at the top nor on the way down. It would have been good to have visited Piazzale Michelangelo and Santa Croce Basilica. We seem to have enough time. Overall I was dis apointed in you Florence Tours and guides.
Review by Ian P, November 2012
Doing what: Florence Day Trip from Rome
Coach trip too long and slow and trafficy each way - take train with a map would have been better in hindsight but actual Florence section was fine. Too many languages on one bus made for uncomfortable travel. Guides on bus and local were excellent however. Lunch average. Love the Basilica:)
Review by Mannie, September 2012
Doing what: Florence Day Trip from Rome
This tour was sponsored through Green Line tours and I would not recommend. They basically drop you off and expect you to find your way. The basilica in Florence was part of the tour, but we were told the lines were too long and we could do it on our own. Florence was beautiful, but if you are seeking a guided tour as described make sure it is not with Green Line Tours.
Review by Urszula M, June 2012
Doing what: Florence Half-Day or Full-Day Sightseeing Tour
We chosen the afternoon tour. First part was in a coach and it wasn't too bad, the views were stunning and one of the guides gave us an interesting talk about architecture and culture of Tuscany. Although, we didn't visit the Church of Santa Croce, we barely seen it in the distance and we were only allowed to get off the coach literally for 2 min to take a picture of the panorama. Second part was a walking tour and they split all people in two groups. We were unlucky, our guide turned out to be terrible, she was more interested in telling unfunny jokes and anegdotes about Italian government than interesting facts about things we could see. Quite few people decided to quit as they found some mistakes in what the guide was talking about. When we got to Uffizi Gallery things got even worse, the guide was repetitive and sound like she's really making things up, we decided to continue on our own.
Review by hskergrl91, September 2011
Doing what: Florence Day Trip from Rome
The countryside on the way to Florence is beautiful. The actual tour could have been more organized. Our guide didn't seem to have a clear plan when we arrived in Florence,before handing us off to the local guide. The local guide was very friendly and knowledgeable.
Before that we were taken to the "leather school" which was actually a shop. What a joke. They would let us watch them emboss our initials on a piece if we purchased it first. This part of the trip was not as promised in my opinion. The only saving grace was the free time we had to visit other shops, where the staff were much nicer, and the prices were more affordable.
Seeing David in person was worth the discomfort and letdown. But it would have been nice to go inside the Cathedral or Santa Croce, after all most of the most amazing parts of churches are on the inside. We also arrived while some huge scaffold was being erected in a square, it was impossible to get any decent photos of Santa Croce.
The hotel drop off was also a joke in my opinion, we were dropped off blocks from our hotel and told it was just around the corner. We were actually dropped off across the street from Termini station...lucky for us we knew how to reach our hotel from there, I wonder if others who didn't know their way around were as fortunate.
