Walking tours of Florence: the unespected city

When traveling to Florence, bring your walking shoes! Not only is driving in the historical center extremely restricted but it is also and extremely frustrating experience. Parking difficulties on par with Manhattan or San Francisco means that locals and tourists alike prefer walking to virtually any other method of transportation.

Everything in the center of the city is amazingly close together as well. In just 15 minutes you can walk from the Duomo to the Uffizi or the Ponte Vecchio to the Duomo or the Duomo to Santa Croce. And that is without a guide.

If you plan a couple days in advance you can find one of the walking tours in Florence. These are fantastic. The best way to see the city is on foot. From point A to point B in the city center you will find that it is actually faster in most cases to walk than to take a taxi. Besides, all the Florentines are walking too.

The benefits of having a guide to take you through the city are multiple. Even the best of map readers can become confused in Florence. The streets change names every two blocks, they curve in unexpected ways and each street has two separate sets of numbers, one for residences and one for businesses. If you are walking in Florence on your own you will need to keep a map out at all times. If your are doing a walking tour, you need only follow the voice and raised umbrella of your guide.

Companies that arrange walking tours generally have agreements with the major sights as well. What does this offer you? No lines. And if you have seen the lines that can form outside of the Duomo or Uffizi you understand how significant this is. Most people would prefer to not stand in a one to two hour line if it can be avoided and a walking tour in Florence can do just that. Especially appreciated by those that are here in the summer months.

But what is the biggest benefit of having a guided walking tour of Florence versus your own personal stroll through the city without a guide? Hands down, it is the golden little nuggets of little known stories, historical trivia and the (perhaps) apocryphal accounts related to many of the numerous historical figures that the cradle of the Renaissance boasts.

Many of these stories are much more entertaining than the typical dry thing you will find in any standard tour guide of the city. A wealthy and educated population in the city meant that a lot of these things were actually written and recorded. The juiciest bits were handed down verbally, and even if one or two of them are not 100% accurate, they do make for a colorful and entertaining addition to one's trivia knowledge.

Who doesn't want to know about the spat between Michelangelo and Da Vinci? Or perhaps you want to see Da Vinci's recently discovered Florence workshop, where it is thought he did his cadaver studies to yield the stunningly accurate anatomical work that characterized his paintings. With the right guide you will learn this and more, and have an unforgettable walking tour in Florence.

Alessia Franceschini works as professional tourist guide in Florence for http://www.walksinsideflorence.it, the leading organization which offers private and semi-private walking tours of Florence for small groups of people.