Florence for Kids: Exploring Symbols and Legends - Context Travel

Tour Details

About the Tour

Category: Family
Duration: 2 hours
Location: Florence

Photos & Highlights

Discover Florence's symbols using all your senses with interactive, family-friendly activities
Led by a local historian or expert with inquiry-based learning techniques and trained to work with children
Florence Duomo, Piazza della Repubblica, Piazza della Signoria, and Ponte Vecchio

Tour Description

Florence is a like cultural playground for kids, embedded with cherished symbols that pop up all over town, sometimes when least expected. During this 2-hour tour of Florence for kids we join a local historian specially trained in visual thinking strategies for an interactive scavenger hunt for the great symbols of Florence. During the walk we'll use these symbols—lilies, the Strozzi's moons, and many others—to understand the Renaissance and how art and imagery inscribed the city with meaning.

Florence for Kids

The path of the walk focuses on the historical center of the city, as every alley and street corner tells a different story. The expert leading this walk has been trained in an interactive, visual thinking strategies which, along with some helpful didactic materials, will encourage discussion and participation among the children in the family..

Florence Scavenger Hunt

Our guide will lead us through the city center pointing out key symbols of the city, including its famous lilies and the coats of arms of its most powerful families. Children, meanwhile, will need to keep their eyes out for examples. How many did they find? Did they see something else? Why do they think the city uses different symbols? We'll also encounter the beloved Porcellino (little pig), who stands guard at the town market and has become a veritable mascot of the city. No child visiting Florence can resist touching his golden snout at least once!

Looking for more family-friendly activities in Florence? Try our Florence Renaissance Tour for Kids or our Uffizi Tour for Kids.

This walk is an excellent way for families to build a knowledge base that will accompany them on their further explorations of the city. The city will become all the more familiar for everyone, after having been introduced to some of its most colorful characters and enduring legends.

Tell us about you

In order to plan the best possible experience for your children, it's helpful for us to have some background. Have they traveled to other countries in the past? If so, where? Have they studied any subjects in school that would relate to the walk? What are they most interested in? The more you can tell us, the better.

Due to the very interactive nature of this program and given the educational environment our expert aim to evoke, we adhere to a very strict maximum of 6 participants. Groups larger than 6 will need to book two separate walks that can run concurrently, but with different experts.

Where You'll Start

Tour Experts

Monica

Monica completed her Ph.D in 2009 in history of art and architecture from the University of Virginia, specializing in the Italian Renaissance period. As a writer, she is interested in the literary culture of Florence as well as the city's art and architecture. Before coming to Florence, Monica lived in Rome, Venice, New York City, and Charlottesville, Virginia.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth recently received her MA in Florentine Renaissance art from Syracuse University in Florence. Her interests include women's history and women artists, particularly by women in convents. In addition to leading walks, she also lectures at various universities and institutions in Florence.

Valerie

Valerie received her BA with distinction in Art History and Museology at the University of Florence, focusing on the Renaissance art market. Although German, Valerie was born and raised in Rome, making her eager to build bridges across different cultures. She also works for the educational department of the state museums in Florence, where her mission is to communicate art and culture as a means of understanding the visual signs that surround us.

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64 Reviews – (4.71)

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Molly was an exceptional guide. She was warm, friendly and adjusted the tour to our personalities.

Lonora marie

Dec. 28, 2019

Everything was great -- good communication, easy meeting point, excellent guide.

Melissa

Oct. 17, 2019

Lucia was great at keeping our 5 year old engaged on the scavenger hunt! It was amazing :)

Michael

Sep. 10, 2019