Italy is known for its various types of delicious cuisines. From the famous Sicilian arancini to the seafood of Venice, there are so many different foods and wines available in this beautiful country and so many Italian food tours to explore it all. What might shine above them all, however, is the region of Tuscany.
Florence is renowned as the birthplace of the Renaissance, which means that food often comes second in people’s minds. However, this should most certainly not be the case.
Food tours are one of the best ways to explore the local cuisine of a region, and Florence is no different. That’s why we’re going to go over some of the best food tours of Florence today.
Whether these are street food tours of Florence or some of the best wine tours, we’re going to check out just where the best places are where you can learn about and experience Tuscan cuisine.
These tours also mean that it’s much easier to find the food highlights of the area and great Florence restaurants, rather than trying to hunt them down yourself. So with all of that out of the way, let’s hop right into our list of the best food tours in Florence, Italy!
Best Florence Food Tours – Explore The City And Its Delicious Cuisine
Dine Around Florence: An Authentic Evening Wine & Food Tour By Take Walks
Up first, we have a tour from Take Walks. It’s a lengthy name – Dine Around Florence: An Authentic Evening Wine & Food Tour. The good news about such a name is that it accurately describes as to why this is one of the best food tours in Florence. You will be part of a small group (of a maximum of 10 people) that travels around the city, tasting a variety of local meats, cheeses, olive oils, focaccia, and even Tuscan truffles.
This will be followed by a trip to the Piazza Santo Spirito to try out some of the region’s wines, all before traveling to a Florentine restaurant to finish the main courses. But even then you’re not done, as you finish off the evening with a round of gelato for dessert.
This is one of the best walking food tours in Florence because it exposes you to the history of the city while giving you a taste of that history. The guides are well-versed about how it evolved over time and what to expect from it. The tour cost includes all tastings and wine, so you won’t need to pay any extra for it. And obviously, this is only an evening affair, so no hotels or anything are needed.
Tastes and Traditions of Florence: Food Tour with Sant’Ambrogio Market Visit with Devour Tours
This Florence food tour takes you to explore the authentic Florentine life eating your way around the birthplace of the Renaissance. Your experience will begin with a proper Italian coffee and carry on at a local food market led by a local expert.
While witnessing how local butchers prepare the famous Florentine steak and how residents go about doing their daily grocery shopping, you will also enjoy plenty of food tastings and 3 glasses of wine.
You will discover lesser-known restaurants where locals eat regional delicacies such as pici pasta and lampredotto and, as a plus, you will be shown where to find traditional desserts and sweets such as cantucci biscuits and obviously gelato.
Oltrarno at Sunset: Florence Food & Wine Tour
With this Florence evening food tour, you will savor an important aspect of the Italian and Florentine way of life: how to enjoy dinner as a social occasion.
By visiting five family-run small businesses in the Oltrarno neighborhood, you will enjoy plenty of food tastings including cold cuts, cheese, bruschette toasted bread, and obviously the Florentine steak, as well as local wines.
From start to end, you will have gone through aperitif, dinner, and delicious dessert.
Florence Food Walking Tour By Get Your Guide
Another interesting experience is the Florence Food Walking Tour from Get Your Guide. In this tour, you will see how Italians start their day in local bars, with a cup of coffee and experience the roasting process. Then you’ll experience a true panino tartufato from Florentine tradition.
This will be followed by a trip to an Enoteca to taste wines, cheeses and cold cuts before finishing out once more with some delicious gelato. All the while, your tour guide will be informing you about the history of the food in Florence, like where people would gather to buy it and how it evolved.
Once again, a small group is used for this food tour in Florence, with a max of 14 people available for each. You will have an English-speaking guide that will take you out, rain or shine, so it’s important to account for the weather. For those that want to see the market open, they need to book the morning tour, as the market closes at night. The tour lasts about 3.5 hours, so it certainly won’t take the whole day.
Florence Sunset Food Tour By Eating Europe
Another experience that is focused on the evening experience in Florence, the Florence Sunset Food Tour by Eating Europe is one of the best food tours you’re going to find in Florence. Begin with an experience of aperitivo before meeting local deli owners and trying their meats and cheeses.
You will see how the Tuscan Negroni cocktail is made before experiencing some chianti wine and some starters. Then watch as Florentine beefsteak is made before trying it and another glass of wine, as you finish with some biscotti and vin santo.
While the tour is going on, your tour guide will explain the differences between Tuscan food and the rest of Italian culture, while the Oltrarno neighborhood will be your experience of the region.
The food tour starts in the Piazza Santo, and you can get there any way you want. Transport is not included in the cost, and the tour guides will give instructions on how to get back to where you desire. If you want a mature experience of Florentine cuisine, you should seriously consider this Florence food tour.
Authentic Florence Home-Cooking Class By Eating Europe
For those who are more interested in taking the secrets of Florence home with them rather than simply tasting it all, the Authentic Florence Home-Cooking Class by Eating Europe might just be for them. This is more of a cooking tour than an eating tour, though there is still plenty to taste. You’ll pick out your own ingredients at local shops and stalls before making a variety of pasta dishes from scratch.
Enjoy some antipasti before the meal, while you learn how to make some Florentine dessert after the main course is done. All the while, enjoy some of the best-paired wines that Tuscany has to offer with your dishes.
Perhaps the most valuable part of this Florence cooking tour is the tips and tricks that you’ll get from a veteran chef. They’ll let you know just what separates their food from the rest, which gives you the secret to making these delicious delicacies at your own home. For those who want to know the secrets of Florentine cooking as well as taste their own foods, this is going to be the tour for them.
The Other Side of Florence Food Tour By Eating Europe
Midway through our list of the best food and wine tours in Florence, we have The Other Side of Florence Food Tour by Eating Europe. This tour is focused on getting away from the pasta focus that so many tours take in order to focus on what Florentines really eat.
Wander around the Oltrarno neighborhood in order to see cantucci freshly made (right before you eat it) and try other Tuscan cheeses and salami. Taste traditional stews and soups before trying the legendary Florentine lampredotto sandwich. Once again, finish it all off with another taste of sweet gelato.
This tour does include an extra Premium Drink Package option that will allow 3 extra drinks on the tour: one local house wine with the lampredotto, one Vin Santo, and a taste of the difference between Chianti and Super Tuscan wine. Once again, the tour guide will be giving bits of history about the city and cuisine as you pass by and try each piece. The tour can make accommodations for vegans, vegetarians or those who are gluten-free, which is always nice to see.
Florence: Street Food Tour By Get Your Guide
The Florence: Street Food Tour by Get Your Guide is one of the best street food tours in Florence (in case you couldn’t judge from the name). It is focused quite a bit more on the food aspect than any drinks, as there are no drinks included in the package. However, they make up for this by including plenty of local foods.
You will have the opportunity to try out local delicacies like schiacciata with balsamic vinegar, cantuccini, fresh homemade pasta, traditional pappa al pomodoro, and even more. Over the 2.5 hours you’re out and about, your tour guide will be giving you the history of the foods, how they rose to fame and their own thoughts on the best foods in town. You will also visit a market in order to see where the locals pick up their own foods and ingredients.
The tours are limited to a maximum of 14 people, so it will be a fairly small experience. Since it is so short of a tour, don’t expect a huge amount of sitting down or waiting around, so you’ll want to make sure the shoes you are wearing are comfortable enough for such a movement.
Florence: San Lorenzo Food, Wine, and Sightseeing Tour By Get Your Guide
Another tour from Get Your Guide, this Florence food and wine tour includes exploring some of the most iconic parts of the city along with the local delicacies you’ll experience. You’ll taste street foods like panini and more sophisticated foods like truffles. Then there will be everything from salty hams, to sweet fried breads, from fresh made raviolis to the traditional peasant soups ribollita and pappa al pomodoro.
All of these will be paired with the appropriate wines in order to get the full experience of Florence in all its glory. Once the eating is done, your tour guide shall take you to the magnificent Santa Croce Square, the resting place of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, the poet Foscolo, the philosopher Gentile, and the composer Rossini.
It is a longer tour, lasting 4 hours. Your English-speaking tour guide will explain the foods that you’ll be consuming, as well as some facts about the famous Medici family who controlled Florence for so long. Experience both the sights and tastes of Florence with one of the best food tours in Florence.
Tuscany Truffle Hunt By Eating Europe
This is a more focused tour than some of the other Florence food tours. As you might be able to tell, the focus is on the mighty truffle. Instead of exploring the streets of Florence, you shall travel outside the city and into the Tuscan countryside. There, you will follow along with a pack of dogs that will sniff out the truffles you are looking for.
Once you find them, you’ll head off for a meal at a local Tuscan fattoria (or farm). Here, you’ll experience local meats, cheeses and marmalade, all with the appropriate wines alongside. Of course, the main meal will be a dish of pasta fixed with the same truffles that you were hunting for earlier. Once that meal is done, you shall be sent off after enjoying a delicious Tuscan dessert.
Travel is included in this tour, as you need to get out to the countryside somehow. However, travel to the meeting point is not. There is a guarantee to find truffles on this tour, so even if you don’t find them yourself, the dogs will be able to acquire them for your meal. For a look outside of Florence and into the Tuscan countryside, you won’t find a better food tour.
Florence: 5.5-Hour Italian Food Market & Cooking Experience By Get Your Guide
A 5.5-hour-long cooking and eating experience awaits you with this tour By Get Your Guide. You start off by going to a local market in order to get the ingredients for your cooking adventure. The chefs will guide you on how to pick out the best ingredients before you head to a professional kitchen in order to start your creation.
You’ll learn how to prepare Tuscan-style bruschetta, fresh pasta and whatever the seasonal main course happens to be at the time. All of these will be accompanied by the appropriate Chianti wine. It’s one of the best Florence cooking tours, as it takes the time to allow you to learn about what you are doing as you experience the taste of the food.
The only real thing that this tour doesn’t include is pickups and dropoffs to and from your Florence hotel. Otherwise, you get a market tour, tastings, wine with lunch, a cooking class and even a graduation certificate upon completion. Once again, if you are one of those people who want to take a piece of concrete knowledge about Tuscany and Florence home with you, this tour aims for that.
From Florence: Cooking Class & Lunch at Tuscan Farmhouse By Get Your Guide
We’re going to end with another cooking class from Get Your Guide. This time, the journey takes you outside of Florence proper to a local farmhouse. Before you leave, however, you will hunt down the best ingredients from the local markets and stalls. Once you are out at the farmhouse, your cooking instruction will start.
You will help make pasta and meat sauce by hand. Prepare traditional bruschetta and enjoy it with a glass of Chianti wine alongside. But you’re not done, as you prepare Tuscan pork and roast potatoes before finishing with some of the region’s famous tiramisù.
It is a longer tour, taking 6 hours. However, with every moment dedicated to preparing, producing and enjoying the delicious fruits (as well as pasta and meats) of your own labor, it feels like it’s gone by in a flash. You get a walking tour, transport to the farm, a cooking lesson and wines with lunch and round it all off with a certificate letting you show off your new skills.
And that rounds out our list of the best food tours of Florence. It’s truly hard to pick out a winner or loser here, as they all offer terrific choices of the Tuscan region. It really just depends on how long a tour you want and what sort of food experience you are looking for. You cannot go wrong with one of these tours, whether you are in Florence for a day or more, and also if you are joining any other cultural Florence tours.
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