50 Days of International Film in Florence

Florence will be host to a prestigious array of film festivals at the Odeon Cinema from October 29th - December 13th, 2009. The ArtViva office is conveniently located right around the corner from the Odeon Cinema.

Artviva is the only tour agency in Florence selling tickets to the film festivals with the added bonus of 10% off any tour purchased with tickets!

The event, promoted by Mediateca Toscana & the Tuscany Film Commission, will be showcasing documentary films from all over the world (with English & Italian subtitles), as well as organising 3 separate festivals dedicated respectively to contemporary French, Finnish and Indian cinema.

Check out the listing below and take your pick!

France Odeon French Film Festival October 29-31, 2009

Festival dei Popoli International Documentary Film Festival November 1-7, 2009

Florence International Film Festival November 12, 2009

Finnish Film Festival November 13-15, 2009

International Cinema and Women Film Festival November 17-22, 2009

Lo schermo dell'Arte/Contemporary Art Film Festival November 23-29, 2009

Florence Queer Festival November 27-December 3, 2009

River to River Florence Indian Film Festival December 4-10, 2009

New Italian Film December 11, 2009

Ethno-music Film Festival December 12-13, 2009

Please see The Florentine for bi-weekly listing of events in Florence & Tuscany. In the meantime, check out our blog for further events!

“Great way to get introduced to Florence”

"Wanting to avoid the huge lines at the Accademia we took Rick Steves advice and booked a walking tour of the museum with Art Viva (www.italy.artviva.com).

The tour we took was the Original David Tour, which concentrates on the statue of David within the Accademia.

Our guide was excellent and it was obvious to us that she was very passionate about art in general, and Florentine art and Michelangelo's David in particular. She provided some very unique insights into Michelangelo's style and the approachs he used to create this breathtaking statue.
I highly recommend Art Viva. They provide exceptional service and are professional in every way.

TravellerNanaimoB_C_ 1 contribution

Nanaimo B.C.

Oct 9, 2009

"All of the Florence in One Day tours were excellent! Good length and full of interesting information. Christine's sense of humor enhanced the Florence Walking Tour, Sarah brought Michelangelo to life when we visited the Accademia, and Paul made Renaissance art fascinating at the Uffizi. His passion for and knowledge of art was very evident."

CarolVol

Nashville, TN

Oct 9, 2009

ArtViva guides are among the best storytellers!

"I recently visited Florence and took an Uffizi Gallery tour with the company Artviva.

The guides are qualified art historians, therefore they are passionate, so the tour is not only informative, but interesting and personable.

I was so impressed I booked for the Original David Tour later that day ( as did most of the morning group). Having the knowledge and story behind the artworks you are looking at makes such a difference.

There are many tour companies in Florence so ensure you get the correct company - Artviva. You can look them up on the internet prior to arriving in Florence. www.italy.artviva.com

There any numerous other tours you can take with Artviva and they will bend over backwards to ensure your Florence experience is a memorable one.

I would highly reccommend you take at least one of the tours of Florence offered by Artviva. The highlight of my Florence visit!

Trip Advisor Review
Gina - gandvadventure
Australia
September 18, 2009

Italy, France, Greek Islands

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"Elisabetta was the most wonderful storyteller!

She brought the art to life with the explanations and made us wish the tour could cover all the museum!

Thanks!"

John & Theadora Browning
Washington D.C.
USA

The Brownings joined our Masterpieces of the Uffizi Tour & The Original David Tour on October 6th, 2009.

"Artviva Bike Tours - One of the most authentic experiences of the Tuscan countryside in the hills overlooking Florence..."

"We could not have been more pleased with our Bike Tour, everything about it was fabulous.

The winery was truly beautiful and if we should decide in the future to stay out of the city it will be tops on our list of places to stay. They also had the best white wine I’ve ever drank. The restaurant was great food and very attentive service. Of course, having the place all to ourselves was an added bonus.

We can’t say enough nice things about our guide Giuseppe. He was very informative, had a terrific personality, and made us feel very comfortable. He went out of his way to accommodate us at our every request."

texassicialian
Dallas, Texas
Septe,ber 25, 2009

Trip Advisor Review: “What a wonderful Original Walking tour in Florence!”

"The Original Florence Walk tour was great!

It was wonderful to have our visit to Florence given such interesting context.

The story about the young woman in the Middle Ages & the Plague; the one about the attempted coup on the Medici brothers that took place in the Duomo.

I loved how carefully the guide pointed out to us the "redone" Piazza Republic (done over in the 19th century to be more "modern"), and the comments about the Strozzi Palace (where Strozzi ran out of money to complete it, and the purpose of the bench at the front), and all the other general architectural details on the buildings throughout the city (i.e., what those tiny windows were used for, or the hooks, or how the buildings tended to expand outwards, so bars were run through to strengthen them), comments about the Ponte Vecchio and Orsanmichele were great too. Tidbits about Donatello and other sculptors and artists were woven in nicely as well.


All in all, a lovely tour which helped us contextualize our visit to Florence. It was an especially good choice for my 16 year-old, whose patience with looking at just one painting and church after another had worn a touch thin at this point in the trip.

Just a great tour, I'd recommend it highly. The guide did an excellent job."

Traveller7Michigan
USA
Trip Advisor Review from 20th September

Florence In One Day Package - Let the art historians at ArtViva show you what makes Florence world-famous!

ArtViva's Florence In One Day Package is a great overview of Florence, it's people, history and art.

Immerse yourself in history on our Original Florence Walk and listen to medieval stories with a three hour stroll around Florence's essential sights. View the most famous sculpture, the David by Micheangelo with our entertaining art historians.

Hear our clients' Robert & Cathy Fowler's comments about our Florence In One Glorious Day Package they joined on September 22, 2009.

"Made Florence more endearing by learning so many interesting facts & different periods explained and pointed out in the city's architecture. Our Uffizi tour was made so much better by the tour's picking highlights to focus on "David" - was incredible & all of the information shared about Michelangelo made it so much better. Guides were well understood & very personable - we'll leave Florence with a much better because of these tours. "

ArtViva's Masterpieces of the Uffizi Gallery Tour will allow you to understand and enjoy the most important paintings of the Renaissance in this world famous museum! Rick Schwartz, who joined our Uffizi Tour on September 8th, 2009 says:

"Outstanding Tour. Elisabeth was articulate, interesting and injected personality and humour. She gave a "unified" story that really helped provide the bigger picture, not just details about each piece. This was the high point of our Firenze visit."

Reserve a tour with our art experts and make your vacation in Florence unforgettable! See our Best of Tuscany blog and hear more about about our most popular Tuscan tour that clients keep coming back to join!

Trip Advisor Review for Original Florence Walk and Masterpieces of the Uffizi Gallery Tour

Find out more about our Masterpieces of the Uffizi Gallery Tour and the Original Florence Walk from one of our happy clients!


TripAdvisor Original & Best Walking Tours Review:

"We truly enjoyed both the Original Florence Walk and Uffizi tours.

We booked via internet from home and everything went well. Good information was provided regarding the tours and meeting place which was easy to find.

Both guides were so passionate about Florence and able to share both their love of the city and their tremendous knowledge. We had fun, we learned a lot from them and our tours contributed to make our stay in Florence a very memorable experience.

During the walking tour, you really get a good sense of the city: its history, influent families, religion, politics, arts and so on.

The Uffizi museum is a "must see" but can be quite overwhelming on your own. Our guide was really good at selecting the best art pieces and information was so interesting!

I would strongly recommend Artviva!"

Johanne
ArwenQc
Quebec, Canada
August 2009

"Best of Tuscany and Florence - Just Do It!" - ArtViva TripAdvisor Review

Read further to hear what one of our recent clients have to say about our Best of Tuscany Tour, Tuscan Bike + Villa Swim Tour and Tuscan Wine Tour.

Did we mention they loved our Florence tours as well?

"We can not say enough about this very friendly company. Due to a mix up over setting our clocks-put it down to jet lag! and a problem with a bus strike we turned up late for our morning tour and Uffizi tour the next day.

No problems for the smiling Artviva young ladies in Florence who graciously took our rambling family to meet the already departed guides.

Our guides caught us up in the break with what we missed. Florence is a fascinating city and our guides Christine and Silvia just made it come alive for us. We loved the smallest bar we have ever seen, a cupboard sized hole in a wall where we stopped for a snack.

The best for us was the Best of Tuscany tour with Stephen with the wine, the lunch, views. He convinced us to do the Villa Swim tour as well. As our parents are elderly -we biked, they opted to be transfered directly to the villa. All highly recommended for young and old alike.

Artviva never made us feel unwanted, our questions about parking, restaurants, changing money, rest rooms, where to get medical attention, wheel chair hire (Mother not feeling too well), post offices (you get the idea!) ... were answered with a sense of humor and patience as I'm sure they must have heard most of our queries a million times before.

Our guides always made sure my mother in her wheel chair for this part of out trip felt included in the tour. Thank you Artviva you made what could have been a difficult stay in Florence not just a memorable experience but one we will all treasure."

naxos66

Balmain

14 August 2009

"A Great Tour of the Uffizi Gallery with ArtViva"

What better way to understand the highlights of Renaissance art than with our expert guides!

Read the latest review from Trip Advisor about our Masterpieces of the Uffizi Gallery Tour!

“A Great tour of the Uffizi Gallery with Artviva”

"I had a really interesting and fun tour of the Uffizi gallery in Florence with a company called Artviva. We were escorted to the gallery by a young guide who is a native speaker of English and were able to gain entry without the usual interminable wait in the queue.

Having visited the gallery before, I know it is a vaste repository of wonderful paintings and sculpture. But you can wear out an awful lot of shoe leather trying to find the really good stuff and even then you might not realise what you are looking at. Our guide, on the other hand, knew just where to take us and was full of entertaining stories about the artists and their work.

There were some children in our group who were kept interested with questions to answer with a treasure hunt style quiz. They seemed to really enjoy the tour as much as the adults. After our tour we were free to keep exploring the gallery for as long as we wished, but I must admit my friend and I headed straight for the coffee shop."

Susieq056
Port Douglas
10 August 2009

For more details on this tour, please visit our website www.italy.artviva.com .

ArtViva Trip Advisor Review for the Uffizi and David Tours

"What a find Artviva was! We took the Uffizi and the David tours. The tickets were pre-reserved so we did not have to wait in any long lines. That in itself was great. It got better as the day went on.

Our guide was fabulous. Her knowledge base was unbelievable. She directed us to the certain masterpieces in the Uffizi that demonstrated the development of early to late renaissance styles with much added background information. The David Tour was great as well.

The staff at Artviva was very professional from the person who took our reservation to the guides. I will recommend Artviva to anyone I know who is traveling to Italy and will use them again next time I go."

Mya57
Brookline, Massachusetts
USA

Original Evening Walk offers you a glimpse into Florentine life, past and present, and treats you to a tasting of wine, olive oil & balsamic vinegar!

TripAdvisor ArtViva Review:

"We went on "The Original Evening Walk" in Florence and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Heather was our guide, an American who had been studying art restoration in Florence. She seemed to know everything, and her enthusiasm was contagious. My sister and I are now both anxious to read all all about the Medici's.

This tour is limited to between two to eight participants, however, we were the only two that night for the tour. We learned more in those two hours than the rest of the week put together!

We loved learning about the little details of the architecture that you would normally miss. And the best part was the second hour that is spent in an upscale wineshop in a back room for the tasting.

The wineshop provided us with several types of olive oil, balsamic vinegar (including the 20 year aged cherry variety), chocolate, vin santo, chianti and grappa. We spent more than an hour talking about the history and use of each.

We didn't call to book the tour until that morning (in March) from the hotel, and they booked the tour for us. And when it started hailing in the middle of the tour, Heather offered us her umbrella. What a classy operation!"

DelawarianFemale
USA
March 26, 2009