Rome to Florence tour in Italy
Typically you will be sharing your experiences with between 4-20 like minded travellers (depending on the trip, operator and how many others are booked on the trip) and you'll have a group leader with you. Whether you are travelling alone or with friends it's good value, and a great way to meet new people! While itineraries are pre-planned there is some flexibility and you'll have plenty of privacy. This trip will appeal to travellers of all ages who enjoy meeting new people as well as experiencing new cultures.
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
All the hotels we select are locally/Italian owned and managed. We have visited them, we know the people who manage them and they have proven their sense of style, a fondness to detail, and an elegance typical of the Italian character; at the same time they are very attentive to the quality of service and to sustainability principles. We only use small hotels that have a much lower impact on the environment. We prefer accommodations that formally adhere to the sustainable tourism principles or that can demonstrate efforts to reduce their environmental impact.
We have chosen to employ local guides: our small group formula allows us to give every group the support of more than one local guides, depending on the complexity of the itinerary. The local guide will be really capable to make the traveler understand not only the art, but the true culture of each place visited, making a much more in depth experience. Our local guides agree with our responsible tourism principles and will help the travelers to respect the environment while enjoying their visits (encourage travelers not to litter, by indicating the proper way to recycle waste, even in public areas, and encourage travelers to respect the places they visit: art pieces, architecture and environment.
Our office building is solar powered: 100% of the energy we use for our office operations is produced by solar panels. We strive to have a paperless office. We are very careful not to waste any paper for our prints (and we always use both sides of each paper sheet); we try to minimize the use of paper brochures. We recycle all our waste (paper, plastic, organic). We drink “filtered” tap water instead than bottled water, that allows us to reduce of 95% the use of plastic bottles.
Community
For all the meals we include in our tours we have chosen the traditional cuisine using local products: form the small typical “trattoria” to the elegant gourmet restaurant, they are all locally owned and they guarantee the use of the best local/Italian fresh products. In every tour we include one or more “Slow Food” Restaurants (Slow Food is an Italian Association, founder of the international “Slow Food” movement, whose aim is to combat fast-food globalization by promoting local products, traditional cuisines and ways of life).
This region is very reach in art and history and still preserves the local traditions and values. You will have time to visit it in depth, get in contact with local people, appreciate local food. You will visit gorgeous art cities but also beautiful little villages, recognized “Bandiera Arancione” by the Italian Touring Club. The Italian Touring club recognizes the “Orange Flag” to the villages that outstand for the quality of their services and the safe-guard of local resources. This initiative has been recognized by the WTO as “good practice for sustainable tourism.”
Most of the guided visits in the places included in our tours are “walking guided tours”; we think that is the best way to appreciate the architecture and the atmosphere of most of our cities centers and villages; furthermore, many of the historic Italian cities do not permit motorized vehicles in their centers and we strongly support these local government initiatives. We also plan our Tour calendar to coincide with local events and celebrations. Special events open windows into the local culture, and the money spent on food and crafts stays in the community.
We participate in local Chambers of Commerce Programs aimed to sustain the tradition and the work from small local artisans and in every Tour we include visits to local artisans workshops: this enables travellers to understand the tradition and buy true handmade crafts from local artisans; and enables artisans to show their talent and get a fair reward for their valuable work.
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