Curated Experiences in Florence & Tuscany

Private and small-group tours, hands-on workshops and carefully chosen experiences — selected personally, recommended with confidence.

Young people eating and drinking wine with bread fruit and cheese at a Tuscan countryside table

Shutterstock Image.

As an independent media guide, I don't run mass-market tours. Instead, I curate a small circle of experiences I genuinely trust — art history walks, artisan visits, wine tours, cooking classes and hands-on workshops led by people whose knowledge and passion I can personally vouch for. Start here to find what fits you, then click through for full details or reader-only perks.

Art History Tours

Florence is one of the most remarkable cities in the world — but to truly feel it, to understand what you are looking at and why it matters, there is nothing quite like walking through it with a real art historian. Not a tour guide with a script, but someone who lives and breathes Florence, who has spent years studying its art, its politics and its contradictions, and who can make a fresco or a sculpture feel like it was made yesterday.

The private tours I recommend are small, intimate and entirely conversation-based — shaped around your interests and pace rather than a fixed itinerary. These are the historians and scholars I trust personally.

Uffizi & Renaissance Essentials — a focused private tour of Florence's greatest art treasury, led by an expert art historian
Private Duomo & Historic Centre Walk — the architecture, engineering and stories behind Florence's most iconic monuments
Medici Florence — power, patronage and the families who shaped the Renaissance

See all private art history tours →

We are currently researching the best small-group art history tours in Florence — a carefully vetted selection will be added here once we have found the ones we are confident recommending. Watch this space.

Workshops, Masterclasses & Artist Studios

Florence has always been a city of makers, and a handful of its finest are willing to open their doors. These are private experiences — just you and the artist, in a real working studio or palazzo. A sculptor who has spent his life working with marble in a 16th-century building will tell you things about the craft that no museum panel ever could. A university professor and practicing artist will guide you through fresco painting from the very first brushstroke. A drawing class here is simply different from a drawing class anywhere else.

No prior experience is needed for any of these. Just curiosity.

Private Sculptor's Studio Visit & Tour
Private Fresco Painting Masterclass
Private Drawing Class in Florence

If you are venturing into the Chianti countryside, we also offer a coat of arms masterclass — a uniquely Tuscan experience rooted in the region's Renaissance heraldic tradition.

See all private workshops & masterclasses →

See all private artisan tours →

Florence sculptor working on marble sculpture in his studio

Sculptor's studio in Florence.

Wine Tours & Countryside Experiences

Some of the most memorable days in Tuscany happen when you leave the city behind. Join a small group or go privately to visit family-run wineries in Chianti or Montalcino — the kind of places that do not advertise, where the owner pours the wine and tells you the story behind it. Stop at a local cheese farm. Or make a detour to one of Tuscany's most legendary butchers for a bistecca alla Fiorentina that will ruin all future steaks for you.

Grape Tours wine tasting group outside Renaissance villa garden in Tuscany with guide explaining wines

Grape Tours Image.

These are unhurried, genuinely local days — far from the coach tour circuit and much closer to how Tuscans actually live.

Chianti Wine Tour — family wineries, tastings and a long lunch in the hills, available privately or in a small group

Montalcino & Brunello — Italy's most age-worthy wine, tasted at source in the hilltop town that gave it its name

Carmignano & the Medici — a historic DOCG region where Cabernet has been grown since the Renaissance, on estates dating back to the Medici family

Olive Oil & Wine — an acclaimed olive press, exceptional extra-virgin oils, local wines and a farm-to-table Tuscan lunch

Super Chianti — organic wineries, cheese and olive oil tastings, and a grand finale lunch at Dario Cecchini's legendary butcher's table in Panzano

Browse our wine tour partner Grape Tours → Use code GrapeAna for exclusive access to our Florence Shopping and Restaurant Maps.

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Grape Tours wine cellar tasting in Tuscany with brick walls barrels and owner pouring wine

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Food Tours & Market Experiences

Florence's markets and food culture tell a story that no restaurant menu can fully capture. Join a local foodie guide for a morning at the market — taste cured meats, aged cheeses, fresh bread and street food, meet the vendors who have been here for generations, and learn the history and tradition behind what you are eating. The best way to understand a city is through what it feeds you.

Florence Market Food Tour — a guided tasting walk through the city's best markets and food stops, with a knowledgeable local guide who knows every vendor by name

Street Food & Hidden Tastings — lampredotto, schiacciata, ribollita and the foods that define everyday Florentine life, eaten where locals eat them

Sant'Ambrogio Market Experience — the city's most authentic food market, explored with a guide who can tell you exactly what to buy and why

See all food tours and market experiences →

Florence food market Mercato Centrale stall with cured meat and cheese and locals talking to the vendor

Ana's Secret Guide Image.

Cooking Classes

Food is at the heart of Italian culture — and one of the most rewarding ways to truly immerse yourself in it is to learn how to cook it. Imagine going home and making fresh pasta from scratch, a fragrant pesto, a tiramisu that actually tastes like the one you had in Florence. There is no better place to learn than during your trip to Italy.

Some of these experiences start at the market — shop alongside a local chef, meet the producers, choose what is fresh that morning, then head back to the kitchen and learn to turn it into a meal. Others focus on a single technique or dish, done properly and without rush. The classes I recommend cover everything from handmade pasta and regional sauces to pizza, tiramisu and gelato — taught by local chefs and home cooks in real kitchens, with small groups and plenty of time to eat what you make.

Mama Florence — small group cooking classes in the heart of Florence, covering pasta, sauces, pizza, tiramisu and more. One of the most popular and consistently well-reviewed options in the city.

Use code AnasSecret for an exclusive reader discount → Book Mama Florence cooking classes.

This link is an affiliate link. If you book through it I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Mama Florence pasta making cooking class Florence with group rolling dough in fun atmosphere

Mama Florence Image.

Private Cooking Classes in a Renaissance Palazzo in Florence — for those who want something more intimate and fancy, I offer access to private classes with real Florentine chefs, held in a stunning Renaissance palazzo. Private groups, exceptional food, an unforgettable setting.

Book your private cooking class in Florence →

Private cooking class Florence in Renaissance palazzo with vaulted ceiling and professional kitchen

Private cooking class in Florence.

Netta's Kitchen in Cortona — Antonietta opens her home and her heart to teach you the recipes of her grandmother, passed down through generations of Tuscan cooking. Warm, personal and entirely unlike a standard cooking class. If you are visiting Cortona — or would like to — she can also arrange a guided tour of this beautiful hilltop town. Learn more and book your cooking class with Netta →

Group making pasta at Netta's Kitchen near Cortona Tuscany

Netta's Kitchen in Cortona.

Antonietta at Netta's Kitchen Tuscany with visitors in aprons smiling in the kitchen

Netta's Kitchen in Cortona.

Audio Guides

For those who prefer to explore independently, I have created a series of audio guides in collaboration with some of the world's leading experts — art historians, scholars and specialists whose voices bring the city's art and history to life.

Designed to give you the depth of a private tour at a fraction of the price, at your own pace.

David & the Accademia — the story behind the sculpture before you arrive

The Uffizi Essentials — context for the works that matter most

Piazza della Signoria — the political theatre of Florence's greatest public space

Access all audio guides →

Looking for exclusive reader discounts and promo codes? All current reader perks, partner offers and promo codes are collected in one place.

AppyGuide audio guide.

Not Sure Which Experience Is Right for You?

Join our Facebook community — Ana's Secret Guide to Florence and Tuscany — where 95,000 fellow travellers share recommendations, answer questions and help each other plan the perfect trip. It is the best place to ask, and someone will almost always have been there.

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