Wednesday, May 14, 2025

10 Florence Meals Excursions That Are Really Value It!

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In case you love meals and need to expertise a few of Italy’s greatest regional delicacies and wines, you must undoubtedly embody a Florence meals tour as a part of your itinerary. 

In spite of everything, a go to to Italy isn’t full with out sampling Tuscan cheese, sipping Chianti, munching on cantucci (also called biscotti) and exploring scrumptious regional dishes.  

Tuscan wine and cheese on a Florence Food Tour.Tuscan wine and cheese on a Florence Food Tour.
Get pleasure from Tuscan wine and cheese on a Florence Meals Tour. (Credit score: Michele Peterson)

Why Take a Meals Tour in Florence?

With its location within the fertile coronary heart of Italy, Tuscany is an unimaginable vacation spot for foodies. Its markets brim with the recent produce and meats that type the spine of Tuscany’s hearty delicacies.

And Florence makes the proper base to dive into the area’s flavours. It’s truly dwelling to the #1 Meals & Wine Tour in Italy on Journey Advisor and my favorite place in the case of meals!

I’ve taken cooking lessons within the Tuscan countryside, scoured the streets of Florence scouting out the most effective Florentine steak and damaged many a suitcase toting dwelling bottles of its treasured olive oil.    

Women in a cooking class in Italy.Women in a cooking class in Italy.
I attempt to grasp a couple of cooking abilities in Italy. (Credit score: Perception Holidays)

So when you’ve seen Michelangelo’s David on the Accademia Gallery (that is my fave Skip-the-Line Tour of the Accademia) and marvelled at masterpieces within the well-known Uffizi Gallery (cherished this Guided Uffizi Tour), it’ll be time to expertise Florence like a neighborhood. 

View of the Duomo in Florence Italy.View of the Duomo in Florence Italy.
Discover Florence throughout a guided meals tour.

And this implies meals! Pattern essentially the most well-known dishes of Florence. Prime must-try dishes embody bistecca alla Fiorentina, panzanella (the famend summer time salad with sun-ripened greens and chunks of bread) and lampredotto (cow abdomen).

Listed below are my picks of the most effective meals excursions in Florence so as to add to your Tuscan itinerary. 

1. Florence Dinner Tour: Truffle, Florentine Steak and Wine

Glass of Chianti wine and cheese with view of skyline in Florence. in ItalyGlass of Chianti wine and cheese with view of skyline in Florence. in Italy
Glass of purple wine with cheese with view of Florence.

Florence is filled with attraction. However it’s additionally stuffed with vacationer traps. If you need a very memorable night time out, skip the plastic menus and touristy eating places, and deal with your self to one thing particular.

This highly-rated Consuming Europe meals tour isn’t simply dinner. It’s a full-on Florentine meals expertise.

On this dinner tour, you’ll savour wealthy, handmade truffle pasta constructed from natural elements, take pleasure in a personal tasting of a few of Tuscany’s greatest wines in a centuries-old cellar, and sit right down to a correct Florentine steak, ready the way in which locals have cherished for generations.

This meals expertise additionally consists of stops at family-run outlets and bakeries, tastings of regional dishes like pappa al pomodoro and wild boar ravioli, and even a go to to Florence’s well-known wine home windows, a unusual custom you would possibly miss with no information. Prime all of it off with artisan gelato from one of many metropolis’s greatest gelaterias.

It’s indulgent, it’s native, and it’s crafted that can assist you join with Florence past the postcard model. All this, with out ever leaving the center of town.

Professional Tip: Scoring 10% off with our unique Subscriber Promo Code makes this an excellent higher deal!

2. Uncover the Different Facet of Florence in a Tour of Oltrarno 

Throughout the Different Facet of Florence Meals Tour, you’ll start your meals strolling tour close to the Carraia Bridge over the Arno River, exploring Oltrarno a bohemian neighbourhood with a wealthy artisanal heritage and up to date, hip vibe that’s away from the tour bus teams.

So, except you’re visiting Florence in winter, this meals tour is one of the simplest ways to keep away from the crowds of vacationers.

You’ll expertise Florence like a neighborhood whereas having fun with meals and wine tastings at eight totally different stops.

Pattern Tuscan cheeses similar to pecorino made with milk from native farms, utilizing centuries-old strategies and processes handed down over the centuries.

A tasty food stop during the Eating Europe tour of FlorenceA tasty food stop during the Eating Europe tour of Florence
A tasty meals cease in the course of the Consuming Europe meals tour of Florence.

Different treats embody finocchiona, a fennel-spiced salami and Italian cantucci (cookies). You’ll additionally take pleasure in a tutoured tasting Chianti, produced within the Chianti area of central Tuscany.

All Consuming Europe tour guides are locals who know and love meals. Additionally they know most of the households who’ve been producing the elements for and getting ready these regional dishes for generations. So that you get to listen to the tales behind the meals you’ll be tasting.

In contrast to different strolling excursions the place wine won’t be included, Consuming Europe’s meals excursions are all-inclusive which implies you don’t pay additional for wine and spirits featured of their excursions.

3. Discover Florence on a Sundown Meals Tour

Famous Ponte Vecchio with river Arno at sunset in Florence, Italy.Famous Ponte Vecchio with river Arno at sunset in Florence, Italy.
Experiencing Florence at sundown is particularly magical. 

Florence is completely magical when the solar begins to set and the crowds disappear. Sundown is the most effective time to see well-known sights such because the Ponte Vecchio, the medieval stone bridge over the river Arno. 

So, in case you’re in search of prime issues to see and do in Florence within the night you is perhaps excited by Consuming Europe’s  Florence Sundown Meals Tour.

This 3.5 hour meals tour begins at sundown and options the most effective eating places and wine bars in Florence. You’ll additionally learn to make a Negroni, Florence’s most well-known cocktail and nibble on artisanal truffle cheese and cured native meats.

An particularly memorable expertise is watching an illustration of the right way to prepare dinner the well-known Florentine steak, the Bistecca alla Fiorentina.

One other basic meals expertise in Florence is sipping vin santo together with biscotti. That is additionally included within the Florence Sundown Tour at no additional value.

In case you’re a solo traveller, a culinary strolling tour is among the greatest methods to expertise Florence if you wish to discover town and don’t need to eat or hand around in bars alone.

4. Take a Tour of San Lorenzo Market with a Wine Tasting 

Exploring a meals market is among the greatest methods to get to know a metropolis, and it’s even higher you probably have a neighborhood skilled to point out you all the most effective locations to eat.

This Florence Tour of San Lorenzo Market will allow you to style your means round San Lorenzo Market, Florence’s most well-known indoor and out of doors market.

Your information is aware of all of the distributors at San Lorenzo, they usually’ll introduce you to the households who maintain Tuscan meals historical past alive by way of their fabulous produce. You’ll take pleasure in regionally produced olive oils, artisanal cheeses, Tuscan cured meats, recent cantucci biscuits, and way more.

When you’ve completed grazing your means by way of the meals market, you’ll head to one in all Florence’s most historic wine outlets. There, you’ll spherical off your day with a personal wine tasting and specifically chosen meals pairings.

Including a meals strolling tour to your Florence itinerary is the best means to take in some native Tuscan flavour in a brief time frame.

Verify costs and availability of a Florence San Lorenzo Market Tour and Wine Tasting on Viator.com.

5. Uncover Tuscan Wines with Secret Meals Excursions   

Glasses of red and white wines for a wine tasting. Glasses of red and white wines for a wine tasting.
Pattern sangiovese-based purple wines together with Chianti on a wine tour of Florence.

Suppose Tuscan wines are all about Chianti? Tuscany is definitely the third highest producer of DOC and DOCG wines in Italy after Sicily and Puglia. You’ll get a style of the wide selection of Italian wines produced within the Tuscany area on this personal strolling tour provided by Secret Meals Excursions.

You’ll stroll by way of Florence’s historic zone studying about its wealthy heritage whereas visiting three enotecas (wine bars) to pattern six totally different wines. Your day will end with a sundown ‘Secret Sip’ in one in all Florence’s medieval squares.

In case you’ve ever nervous {that a} wine tour is perhaps a bit of intimidating, this tour will probably be very best for you. It’s designed to offer a calming environment the place you may take pleasure in scrumptious wines while not having an -in-depth understanding of wine terminology.  

Gentle snacks will probably be offered alongside the wines. You can too improve your tour to incorporate a number of native Tuscan cheeses and cured meats.

6. Get Cooking with an Genuine Florence Residence-Cooking Class

Close-up of fresh pasta.Close-up of fresh pasta.
Grasp the secrets and techniques of constructing pasta! (Credit score: Michele Peterson)

This 4.5 hour  Florence Residence Cooking Class begins with searching for elements within the tiny outlets and markets of the bohemian neighbourhood of  Oltrarno.

Then, you’ll  have a hands-on cooking class in a neighborhood chef’s historic dwelling.

Throughout the class you’ll learn to make numerous sorts of pasta, you’ll pattern appetizers, sip wine after which craft your personal panna cotta dessert

Your foodie expertise will wrap up with a leisurely Tuscan lunch together with your group.

It’s an particularly useful tour in case you’re staying in one of many household pleasant inns in Florence as you may simply stroll to affix the expertise.

Like all different Consuming Italy excursions, this Florence cooking class is all-inclusive which implies you don’t pay additional for the wines loved with lunch.

Professional Tip: Bear in mind to subscribe to the A Style for Journey publication to get 10% off!

7. Get Out of City on a Tuscan Wine and Meals Tour Day Journey 

View of the hills in Tuscany. oking class in TuscanyView of the hills in Tuscany. oking class in Tuscany
Get pleasure from views of vineyards in Tuscany. (Credit score: Michele Peterson)

If in case you have time for a day journey from Florence, a full-day Tuscan Meals Tour with a neighborhood skilled is a good way to discover the area together with Siena, San Gimignano and Pisa.  

You’ll spend the morning exploring the medieval metropolis of Siena, together with the gothic cathedral, il Duomo di Siena, which is much more spectacular than Florence’s Duomo.

Then, within the afternoon, you’ll go to the hillside city of San Gimignano, a UNESCO World Heritage Web site well-known for its tower-houses.

However the spotlight of your tour is a hearty lunch at an natural wine property. You’ll take pleasure in home made pasta, prosciutto, and salami, along with native cheeses, fresh-baked biscotti and, in fact, beneficiant pours of the property’s wines.

You’ll have an opportunity to replenish on Tuscan wines together with Chianti, Merlot, and glowing Spumante Brut within the farm store earlier than you head in your means. And don’t overlook to take pictures of the beautiful views from the vineyard!

Verify costs and availability of a Full-Day Tuscan Wine Tour on Viator.com. 

8. Go Truffle Searching in Tuscany (with Lunch)  

A person holding white truffles in their hands.A person holding white truffles in their hands.
Find out about white truffles, go truffle looking and revel in them at lunch.

Truffles are one of many world’s most costly elements as a result of they’re onerous to search out, troublesome to develop, and scrumptious! So, going truffle looking in Italy is a good way to find out about this luxury regional specialty. 

On this Tuscan meals tour, you’ll discover a Tuscan oak forest close to San Miniato with an expert truffle hunter. They’ll train you all you might want to find out about white and black truffles whereas their intelligent canines set to work sniffing out truffles.

On the finish of your Tuscany truffle looking expertise, you’ll go to a neighborhood vineyard to style an array of regional wines together with Chianti and Tremendous Tuscan wine. Your 2-course lunch will function white truffles within the basic dish tagliolini al tartufo.

Verify costs and availability of a Truffle Searching Tour with Lunch on Viator.com. 

9. Delve into Italian Olive Oil with a VIP Olive Oil Tasting 

A woman pouring Italian olive oil into a cup. A woman pouring Italian olive oil into a cup.
Italian olive oil is understood for its barely inexperienced color. (Credit score: Michele Peterson)

Italian olive oil is taken into account among the many greatest on the planet when it comes to flavour and high quality. Whereas the Puglia area produces the vast majority of the nation’s olive oil, the oil of Tuscany is prized for its depth of flavour, slight bitterness and aromatic fruity notes. 

One of the simplest ways to be taught in regards to the delicate nuances of Tuscan olive oil is to take an tour to the olive groves of Fattoria di Maiano, simply 20 minutes away from Florence by automotive. Right here, greater than 20,000 olive timber line the  hills of Fiesole, overlooking Florence.

You’ll must lease a automotive to get to Fattoria di Maiano.

We lease our automobiles on Discovercars.com. It’s a web-based automotive rental reserving web site that compares charges from a number of corporations to search out the most effective deal.

On this four-hour Tuscany meals tour, you’ll start with a guided tour of the villa’s verdant gardens. These have been opened by Queen Victoria and as soon as performed host to famend artists like Michelangelo, Boccaccio, and da Vinci.

After you have explored the villa’s gardens, orchards, and farm, you’ll go to the Mill to see how Fattoria di Maiano creates its natural, extra-virgin olive oil. There’ll even be a possibility to style the oils, accompanied by different Tuscan delights like prosciutto, Pecorino cheese, and a glass of native purple wine.

10. Be taught How one can Make Pizza and Gelato in a Cooking Class 

Basket of fresh produce in Tuscany ItalyBasket of fresh produce in Tuscany Italy
Basket of recent produce able to be remodeled into pasta sauce in Italy

Whereas pasta is usually on the menu of cooking lessons in Florence, an equally fashionable foodie expertise is to be taught to grasp the artwork of constructing pizza. Today journey contains a Tuscan Pizza and Gelato Cooking Class in a historic Tuscan farmhouse.   

Not solely will you learn to make pizza in a enjoyable hands-on cooking class hosted by an expert Italian chef however you’ll benefit from the fruits of your labours in a 3-course feast accompanied by regional wine and beer. 

This Florence day journey even consists of transportation which implies you don’t should lease a automotive. 

Verify costs and availability of a Tuscan Pizza and Gelato Cooking Class on Viator.com. 

Save with our Unique 10% Consuming Europe Low cost Code

Consuming Europe has generously provided a ten% Consuming Europe Meals Excursions Low cost Code for subscribers to A Style for Journey.

You need to use the ten% low cost on any of the Consuming Italy Florence Excursions. Use your 10% low cost code (tastefortravel) right here:

Consuming Italy Food Excursions

In case you’re in Rome, you may simply add a meals tour in Florence on a day journey from Rome.

FAQs

What Meals Excursions in Florence are good for avoiding crowds?

One of the best meals tour for avoiding crowds in Florence is the ‘Different Facet of Florence Tour’ provided by Consuming Europe because it focuses on the Oltrarno neighbourhood throughout the Arno River. One other good possibility is to take a Florence Sundown Tour as a lot of the day-tripping vacationers may have left town centre by early night. Or, take a wine tasting or olive oil meals tour within the Tuscan countryside.

What’s the most well-known meals in Florence?

Indubitably, essentially the most well-known meals in Florence is bistecca alla fiorentina. This particular reduce of meat is a specialty of Tuscany and contains a porterhouse steak, from the traditional Tuscan breed of Chianina cattle, grilled over sizzling coals.

Is a meals tour definitely worth the cash?

Sipping distinctive wines, searching markets and chatting with producers and store house owners throughout a meals tour provides a tasty immersion right into a metropolis’s tradition, historical past and native life. Meals excursions supply alternatives to expertise a vacation spot in methods you often can’t organize by yourself.

Extra Journey Guides to the Finest Meals in Italy

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Enjoy regional dishes and Tuscan wine during eight stops on the new Eating Italy Food Tour of Florence Italy. get a promo code for a discount too!Enjoy regional dishes and Tuscan wine during eight stops on the new Eating Italy Food Tour of Florence Italy. get a promo code for a discount too!

This submit was initially revealed in 2017 however was up to date with new analysis in 2025.

 

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