Florence - Train to Livorno vs. RCI Florence on your own or Taste of Florence tour

[Travelalot2]

I have been doing a lot of research on this site about Florence. However, I cannot find much on the RCI tours "Florence on your own" and "Taste of Florence". I am trying to decide between doing one of those tours or taking the train (20e/pp?) and hiring a private walking tour on the side (for 25e/pp). Is it worth the hassle of doing it on your own?

 

The "Taste Of Florence" tour says it includes a 2 1/2 hour walking tour. Has anyone taken it? How was it? This would be $82/pp ($164 for us).

 

If I take the "Florence on your own" tour, do they give you any information on the bus on your way to Florence, and, what time do you arrive/leave from Florence? This would be $65/pp ($130 for us).

[Susan-M]

Travelalot - we are going in 2 weeks and taking Celebrity's Florence on Your Own trip. Our original plan was to take the train so that we could do a quick stop at Pisa on our way back, but one of Italy's notorious strikes is scheduled for the day that we are there. I also debated the independent walking tour in Florence, but the one I looked at started at 9:30 and I wasn't sure we could get there that quickly.

 

According to Celebrity's shore excursion guide, the bus ride is approx. 90 minutes, leaves at 8:15 a.m. (our docking time in Livorno is 7 a.m.) - 6 hours on your own in Florence, which should have us leaving Florence at around 4 p.m. After talking to friends who have been there, reading these posts and checking various guide books, I think we'll find it interesting doing it on our own. Everything that we want to see is within walking distance. I also prebooked a time at the Accademia to see David.

 

This site gives great travel info: http://www.frommers.com/destinations/florence/0051010001.html (the index on the left panel will link you to lots of detailed info, and the maps are easy to read.)

[goldenprincess53]

We too will be doing the RCCL bus to Florence and touring on our own. Have pre-booked tickets as well to see David. They also have a bus with on/off stops that takes you around the city. I have an excellent hand map with the streets and sites. We may use the bus to go to the Piazza Michaelangelo to see the views of Florence, otherwise we will just walk from site to site. Have a look at this site (they have a free download):

 

earth.google.com

 

search Florence (or any city for that matter). It's amazing at the arial views you can get and easy to approximte walking distances or get a feel of where things are in a city. We are doing this for Rome as well as I also have good maps for there too.