Tours & Shore Excursions

If your ship calls at Livorno, La Spezia or Marina di Carrara, you have one day to see Tuscany — and you want to spend it in Tuscany, not in a queue or on a coach with fifty strangers. That’s exactly what I do: private day tours and shore excursions, planned around your ship and your interests, with one licensed guide and driver from the pier and back.

How a private shore excursion works

It’s simple, and it’s built around the clock. I meet you at the pier when you disembark, we drive straight to the places you’ve chosen, and I bring you back to the ship with time to spare. Everything in between is yours: a fresco you want a few extra minutes with, a viewpoint, a coffee in a quiet square. Because the day is private, there’s no waiting for a group to reassemble and no fixed turnaround time except the one your ship sets.

• Back on board, guaranteed. Return to port before your ship sails is always guaranteed. I watch your ship’s schedule all day and plan the route with a safety margin — and you decide the return time.
• Small and comfortable. Never more than eight people, in a new-generation Mercedes minivan with air conditioning, Wi-Fi and space for luggage.
• A real guide, not just a driver. I hold a tour-guide licence, so I can take you inside the museums and churches and explain them — not wait outside.
• Private, always. You never share the van, and I never route the day through commission-paying shops.

Where I can take you

From the coast, a comfortable day reaches Florence (the Duomo, the Uffizi, Ponte Vecchio), Pisa and its Leaning Tower, Lucca inside its walls, Siena and San Gimignano, the Chianti wine roads for a tasting, or the Cinque Terre from La Spezia. From Marina di Carrara you’re closest of all to the Cinque Terre and to the marble quarries above Carrara. We choose one or two of these together — enough to see properly, not so many that the day becomes a race.

If you already know your port, see the dedicated page: Livorno, La Spezia or Marina di Carrara.

What’s included, and what to expect

The car, the fuel, the driving and my guiding are part of the tour. Entrance tickets and meals are agreed in advance so there are no surprises — when we plan the day I’ll tell you exactly what to expect and what to pre-book. Lunch is always your choice; I’m happy to suggest an honest trattoria rather than a tourist stop.

How to book

There are two ways, depending on what you want:

• A ready-made shore excursion — use the booking system on the shore excursions page: choose your port, date and ship, and you’ll see the available tours with their prices, handled through the Share Shore Excursions platform.
• A tailor-made day — write to me directly with your port, date, ship and what you’d like to see, and I’ll build a plan around exactly that. There’s no fixed price for a custom day because there’s no fixed day: it depends on where you want to go and how long you have, so I quote it for you.

I usually reply within a few hours on weekdays. Book 48–72 hours ahead (1–2 weeks in peak season, April–October); no deposit is needed to confirm, and payment is in cash or by bank transfer, usually at the end of the tour — for cruise excursions we can arrange an advance transfer.

Not sure yet what fits your hours in port? Read the frequently asked questions — they answer the practical worries most cruise guests have — or read my story and then simply tell me what you’d like to see.