ultimate Florence vs highlights of Florence excursions on regent

[jschoch]

Has anyone done these excursions in Florence with Regent?. We are also in Florence on a Sunday and have read you may not see the churches.

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[GrJ Berkshire]

Florence on a Sunday will be a reduced experience because the churches and Domo if open will be restricted hours, so this may make them very crowded. Equally be aware how far Florence is from Livorno and therefore how much time is bussing to and from the port. This will leave little time in the city, it has always been my view that this is a location better served by staying in the city and avoiding the day trippers and peak times. The Ufficci and the Domo are a day's sightseeing alone !!

[GrJ Berkshire]

Spell checker has  changed DOURMO.......... sorry

[Hambagahle]

The Mercato Centrale is a great place to spend time and not far from San Lorenzo church which is a lot less crowded than the Duomo and full of history.  Medici chapel is well worth seeing.  And so is the Medici palace which is also close by.   

All this to say that IF Regent offers a Florence-on-your-own tour - do that.  Bus to and from Florence and then explore on your own.  SO much calmer and more interesting than a group tour.  Bus will probably take almost 2 hours to get to Florence with traffic and parking etc.  Same back...

[DeepFreeze63]

2 hours ago, Hambagahle said:

The Mercato Centrale is a great place to spend time and not far from San Lorenzo church which is a lot less crowded than the Duomo and full of history.  Medici chapel is well worth seeing.  And so is the Medici palace which is also close by.   

All this to say that IF Regent offers a Florence-on-your-own tour - do that.  Bus to and from Florence and then explore on your own.  SO much calmer and more interesting than a group tour.  Bus will probably take almost 2 hours to get to Florence with traffic and parking etc.  Same back...

Good advice! We were in Florence a few years ago on a Sunday excursion with Regent. Did "Florence on Your Own" tour and loved it. It was a beautiful day and there were some street fairs.

[Hambagahle]

We don't live all that far from Florence - 5+ hours by train - and have been going there off and on since the 1960s.  Most recently we were there for a weekend in November and we took a great "foodie" tour - organised by Florence for Foodies - and another walking tour set up by the tourist office called "Renaissance Tales".  We walked our feet off!  AND we found all the shops open on the Sunday which was quite a shock for two Swiss!

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I'm curious about the differences as well since I see both those excursions listed as possibles on our 2021 WC.  The one obvious difference is that the Ultimate does the Accademia, i.e., Michaelangelo's David, and it looks like this may be the only one that does?  The other is that this "Ultimate" is a Choice excursions, presumably a smaller group.  Funny the Choice excursions often include some food, but no mention of this. Who knows what they'd substitute on a Sunday?

 

I always swore I'd never do a cruise that had a day stop in Florence and/or Rome.  But we will have both.  Fortunately we've been both places, so we can please ourselves.  Lucca or Pisa if we don't want another 4 hours on buses by that point.

[poss]

Lucca is quite lovely, Wendy.    (You may've been there already and know that.)

[Wendy The Wanderer]

27 minutes ago, poss said:

Lucca is quite lovely, Wendy.    (You may've been there already and know that.)

 

No I don't, and we're considering that.  Part of the issue is that we can't just spend the whole day walking around these cobblestoned places, alas. We may spring for something involving vineyards or food.

Edited December 19, 2019 by Wendy The Wanderer

[GrJ Berkshire]

4 hours ago, poss said:

Lucca is quite lovely, Wendy.    (You may've been there already and know that.)

Totally agree has a lot to offer., Lucca was Puccini 's home and the walls are impressive along with the cathedral.

We also like Pisa and the Dourmo, Babtistry, have a lot to offer as well as the tower. If you can get away  from the tourists holding it up along the field of miracles it will help you enjoy the city more

[Belfast Taxman]

Last year we spent a whole week in Florence and didn’t see it all!

I agree with those who suggest a DIY tour is preferable to organised group tours, but they do require advance planning. For instance, any visit to the Uffizi gallery or the Accademia must be booked in advance with a specific entrance time. This is not difficult to do online, but yes the bus from Livorno is a good two hours (plus, if your bus stops at one of the leather shops on the way).

For a less demanding, travel wise, excursion I would recommend Pisa, although Lucca is lovely as well.

[Hambagahle]

Eating on Sunday in Florence is no different than any other day...all the restaurants, market, Eataly etc open.

 

Lucca - Wendy if you haven't been to Lucca you haven't lived!   The centre is not large and you can walk around all of it in an hour.  There are some great shops, nice cafés, some churches etc to see.  But the best part of Lucca are the walls which enclose the historic centre.  They are huge.  Were never under seige so never breached.  You cal walk up onto them - gentle slope up - rent a bike and ride around the city, seeing it all from "on high".  When I was young we actually drove our car around the walls, on the top of them, but that isn't allowed anymore.   I far prefer Lucca to Florence for "atmosphere" but Lucca doesn't even begin to compete for museums... which is normal.

 

Lucca is an hour or less from the coast.  if you don't want to take a Regent tour there are normal buses that run from Livorno to Lucca.

[jschoch]

Thanks for your comments! Looks like a lot of options to look into...

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Lucca sounds great.  One of our goals while we're (briefly) in Italy will be to have a nice meal or two--love that food!  No walking the walls for us, however, or biking around them.

[poss]

Wendy, those walls are wide and flat, easily as comfortable as walking in town.    With plenty of benches for relaxing and taking in the handsome vistas.   It's like a promenade, not at all like walking on something narrow or wobbly.    The drive to Lucca is handsome too (bus goes right past Pisa).

[Wendy The Wanderer]

1 hour ago, poss said:

Wendy, those walls are wide and flat, easily as comfortable as walking in town.    With plenty of benches for relaxing and taking in the handsome vistas.   It's like a promenade, not at all like walking on something narrow or wobbly.    The drive to Lucca is handsome too (bus goes right past Pisa).

 

Thanks poss.  You've used your favorite word twice, high praise!  (Handsome.)

[SWFLAOK]

On 12/19/2019 at 2:15 AM, jschoch said:

Has anyone done these excursions in Florence with Regent?. We are also in Florence on a Sunday and have read you may not see the churches.

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We did the Ultimate Florence tour last July, and we loved it. Our tour guide was the best we had on any of our excursions. She was originally from Florence but now lives in Livorno. Her father is from Florence, and her mother from Germany.  It's a long bus ride, but she had many things to tell us on the way to Florence, and since no one needed an emergency bathroom stop, we first stopped at a scenic overlook just across the river from the historic area. Shopping stalls, cafes, and bathrooms were available, at short photo stop. After the bus dropped us off on the other side of the river, we walked to the plaza in front of the Basilica of Santa Croce. While a tour of that Basilica wasn't included, our guide told us this plaza was our meeting point at the end of the tour and we could visit on our own (which we did and loved it - beautiful and no big crowds). She had also arranged for a large store on the plaza to allow us access to bathrooms and AC throughout the day. In exchange we had to start with a 5 minute presentation on their jewelry making process and leather making. Since it was 95 outside, the AC was well worth the 5 minutes.

Other than going inside the Accademia  to see the real statue of David, and the other artwork inside, the rest of the tour is outside only. She bought us all ice cream, and 6 of the 16 on our tour asked to return to the ship due to the heat. The guide arranged for a van to pick them up and return them at their expense. With a few hours remaining, we had the chance to enter the Duomo, but the line was long and we all decided to return to the original plaza with our guide. She pointed out a restaurant where 6 of us decided to have lunch. The food was good and very reasonably priced. After that, we went our own ways (some of us visiting Santa Croce, and others just shopping), and all met back at the store before going back to the bus and returning to the ship.

Unless the tour description says you will go inside, assume you will not. Those who took the Highlight tour said they did not see the real David statue, just a replica in a plaza.

[Hambagahle]

The David is an extraordinary sculpture and while the replica is good it is not nearly as impressive.  (If you want to settle for that, it is in the Piazza della Signoria which is about a 10mns walk from the Piazza Sta. Croce).

 

IF you take this tour and want a good lunch there is a small restaurant in a street which parallels the piazza Sta. Croce -  Da Que Ganzi on the via Ghibellina.  Maybe 3-4 mns if that from the Sta. Croce.   I have eaten there a few times and heard the staff speaking English to customers.  Food is great and prices reasonable.

[Belfast Taxman]

Thank you for your description of your Florence tour. It sounds almost exactly the same as one we did with Celebrity many years ago. There is so much in Florence that is worth seeing, but if there is time at the end of the tour and the tour buses are nearby, obviously a popular spot for them, then I would particularly recommend the Basilica of Santa Croce, some of the  wall paintings are simply amazing. There are also some interesting tombs.

[jschoch]

Thanks for your comments! Looks like a lot of options to look into...I am leaning towards the ultimate tour but the small group Florence and Pisa tour looks good too. The small amount of people of the small group Florence and Pisa appealed to me but you said on the ultimate tour there was only 16 on yours   I have heard mixed feeling on stopping in Pisa. Some say it’s more than just the leaning tower. I guess I have to decide between seeing the David and seeing Pisa.  

[jschoch]

SWFLAOK did you have a timed skip the line ticket for the David statue?

[Hambagahle]

It is practically essential to have a timed-entrance ticket if you want to guarantee you will get in to the Accademia.  That is, if you are on your own.  If you are in a tour group the guide will take care of getting it IF going inside the Accademia is included in the tour.   BTW they also have "dynamic pricing" for entrance fees which varies according to how many people they are expecting and it can be expensive...

 

Pisa - is a very nice town.  The immediate area around the leaning tower is interesting - piazza dei Miracoli - and the town itself is pretty BUT Lucca is a lot more interesting mostly because of the walls.  The Leaning Tower was wonderful when you could walk to the top but you cannot do that now.

 

 

[jschoch]

Thanks for everyone’s comments. I booked the ultimate tour...very excited for this cruise 

[Wendy The Wanderer]

 

I'd pick the Accademia every time.  The statue of David is indeed extraordinary.  The square where the replica is located is fun, lots of other statues there too, but the real thing is spell-binding.

[Hambagahle]

We spent an hour in front of the David last month with our private guide.  We didn't bother with anything else in the museum and the focus on this fabulous piece of art was intense.   I am so glad we did!  Especially because in the fifty-plus years that we have been going to Florence we had never set foot in the Accademia before (shameful but true!)  Uffici, Pitti etc etc yes.  But this was a first and we loved every minute.