Florence is fantastic. Starting our visit with the Viator guide opened up the entire city. It would have been hard to comprehend all the the Accademia Gallary and Uffizi Gallery had to offer without a knowledgeable guide. On top of that, the guide helped us to understand the other treasures of Florence that we could explore on our on. I promise you that you will leave the tour in absolute amazement of the knowledge the guides are going to share.

Everyone said the Uffizi would be good. In fact my teenage children and I found it utterly amazing. As the gallery is huge and hosts exhibits of various periods of artistic expression, our guide thoughtfully limited the tour to Renaissance works, because, after all, we were in Florence. She explained the historical significance of the 'offices', the walkway from the Pitti Palace of the Medicis across the Ponte Vecchio, and the influence of the Medicis that resulted in the legacy of architecture and the Renaissance art before our eyes. She selected particular pieces and explained the human story behind them, at times seriously, at other times humorously in anecdotes. We were interested and enthralled. And we were humbled. Some of these artists were also architects and sculptors or scientists. The Uffizi collection was properly portrayed by our guide as a demonstration of the genius of some people. I recommend this tour for all. It is a must for those who do not like to wait in queues and for those who love to understand art and the context in which it was created. My teenagers who are maths/science/history students but previously not at all captured by art, found this tour sensational. Thank you guide, thank you Viator.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable tour and one of the highlights of our week in Florence. We had never been to the Uffizi Gallery before and knew little about its contents. We would have been lost (literally), confused and unable to make sense of what we were looking at if we had been on our own. The fact that the tour was enjoyable and illuminating was due entirely to our guide who was blessed with a fund of information, a dry wit and, above all, a genuine enthusiasm for the topic. She was also very skilled at creating space for her group around the pictures that she wanted to talk about. This is essential in such a crowded setting as the Gallery. The guide made clear that the tour could examine only a few of the many exhibits and that her selection was based on her particular understanding of the historical development of western art but this gave us a context in which to relate the exhibits to each other. It was particularly interesting to see how changes in the styles and topics of art reflected political and economic developments. The guide was also concerned about the welfare of her group to the point of seeking me out when I had wandered off after accidentally attaching myself to another group of visitors to the Gallery (easy to do). Above all, the tour made us enthusiastic to revisit the Gallery.This tour was excellent value and I would strongly recommend it to any visitor to Florence.