The Best Way to Have Fun in Italy

After spending an entire month in Florence, I’ve put together a great guide of the best day tours in Italy so you can get to know the region of Tuscany!

When Ryan and I travel abroad, we tend to plan our itineraries on our own and see things at our own pace. Taking public transportation, booking our own entrance tickets/times to museums, doing lots of research about where we are going/what we will be seeing, and finding our own accommodations are all ways that we have saved money while traveling and stuck to our budget. "DIY traveling," as I like to call it, definitely lends an adventuresome vibe to your travels as you "self-discover" your favorite sites, sounds, foods, and shops when abroad.

While the "DIY" style of traveling will continue to be the way we do things for the foreseeable future, there's a lot to be said for the convenience and relaxation that comes with signing up for day tour while traveling. This really lets you kick back and just enjoy being along for the ride. We've always made a point to book two day tours on each of trips abroad, and I have to say, these days are the ones that stand out as some of our best days of travel!

Feel free to check out other Italy posts from past trips before we get started.

• Guide to Rome
• Guide to Florence
• My Favorite Restaurant in Florence
• Gelato 101
• Best Day Trips from Florence

Why You Should Take a Day Tour

Booking a day tour (or two) while you travel really gives you the best of both worlds - you still get the adventure of finding your own way and discovering things on your own, but get the chance to rest and soak up scenery without worrying about the logistics of when to be where and how to get there. Other benefits that I've come to discover include:

• The ability to travel to locations that public transportation can't get you - all of the day tours we have taken involve taking comfortable, clean, and air-conditioned buses that go places trains and bus routes never access. It would cost a fortune to hire a private driver each time you want to get "off the beaten path," so a day tour is a perfect chance to see things in less touristy areas.
• Knowledge of the tour guides and hosts along the tour - there have been so many instances in Europe where we've seen breathtaking buildings, artwork, scenery, and more yet had no idea what we are really looking at! Can you relate? There is so much history to be unpacked, and having a knowledgeable tour guide can add so much depth to what you experience and really make it meaningful.
• A chance to meet some {really cool!} new people - one of the best things about booking a day tour is meeting folks from, literally, all over the world! We've had some great conversations with people we met on tours, learned about their home cultures, and had some fun laughs. This type of experience creates the best types of memories that you will look back on for years to come!

The Best Italy Day Tour Company

I've been to Florence three times now, and can't recommend it enough as a base location for exploring Italy for a first-time visit. It's small enough to feel charming and inviting, but large enough to have the amenities of a big city. Each time I've visited Florence, I've booked a tour with Walkabout Tours. I originally learned about them through TripAdivsor, and had such a good experience on the first tour that I've kept coming back and referring them to as many people as I can!

The tours are the most affordable I have found in Italy, but the knowledge, quality, and hospitality you experience are unreal and always blow me away. I literally have no affiliation with them and am not getting paid for this post in any way - I really just want you to know about them in case you ever travel to Italy! Below you will find a brief description of the tours I've taken with Walkabout, as well as some photos from each trip:

My Favorite Tours in Italy

Cooking Class at a Farmhouse in Tuscany - Ryan and I took this class back during our 2015 Italy visit, and had the time of our lives! This truly was our favorite day of the entire Italy trip. It started with a walking tour of the area of the Mercato Centrale in Florence, where we were treated to coffee at a local cafe, had a tour of the market where we purchased ingredients for the class, and then were taken on a tour bus to a farmhouse in the countryside. We made wood-fired pizza, roasted pork, bolognese sauce, fresh pasta, and tiramisu! The entire tour lasted about 10 hours, and we were fed two generous meals along with drinks, coffee, and dessert. It was such an amazing day, and the food quality and hospitality we experienced were top-notch!

The Best of Tuscany Tour - I brought my mom along for this 12-hour day trip this past trip in May of 2018, and we had the best time! It started off with a trip to Siena and 1-hour tour of the town and free time to wander. We were so taken with the medieval charm of Siena and loved learning all the details of the annual Palio horse race that is so iconic.

Next, we proceeded to Chianti to tour a gorgeous organic farm that produced olive oil, balsamic vinegar, wine, produce, and Chiana beef. We were treated to a feast for lunch at the farmhouse that included bruschetta, pasta bolognese, fresh salads, Italian meats and Pecorino cheese, and biscotti with Vin Santo for dessert! We moved along to the small village of San Gimignano, where we got to try award-winning gelato and explore at our own pace.

The day wrapped up with a trip to see the leaning tower of Pisa, where there was an option to climb the tower or just linger and take as many pictures as we wanted! It was a full day for sure, but it was so nice to kick back on the bus and just enjoy the ride. Luvenia was our tour guide, and she was honestly just the best! She was so kind, knowledgeable, and fun to be around. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone visiting Tuscany!

Pizza and Gelato Cooking Class - I also booked this ½ day tour for our May 2018 trip and loved every minute of it. The class takes place at the same farmhouse location of the all-day tour/class. For this one, you are treated to an in-depth demonstration of Italian Neapolitan pizza-making techniques. We had such a fun and lively experience with our pizza chefs - Lucca and Rico - that made the class extremely entertaining with no shortage of laughs!

Everyone got the chance to make their own dough, top their pizza, and fire it in the wood oven. We then were split into pairs and got to pick a flavor of gelato completely from scratch. Our instructor was Max, The Gelato Alcremist, who gave a fascinating lecture on the food science behind making gelato and a demonstration of freezing it with liquid nitrogen!

We had the opportunity to pick toppings and other gelato ingredients from the organic farm prior to making the dessert, and we all got to try each flavor that was made with a gelato sundae bar at the end of the class. My mom and I both agreed that the gelato was the best we had tasted on our trip - we were truly in "foodie heaven" throughout this entire class!

To sum all of this up, Walkabout Tours in Florence has made some of my best experiences in Italy possible and I cannot recommend them enough! Have you ever been to Italy or are you planning a trip in the future? I'd love to know about it, so please leave a comment below!

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