Guidaly is a tour operator based in Florence, Italy, organizing guided tours and private excursions in the top Italian destinations.
The idea of creating Guidaly was a consequence of the recent EU regulations that, in our opinion, fails to preserve the Italian heritage.
Until 2013, Italian tourist guides were licensed for a restricted area, set by their region. In most cases, the license was limited to a province (Italy has 110 provinces) while, for small regions like Umbria, the license was valid for the entire region.
To obtain the license for a single province (or small region), the aspiring guide had to attend a long course (up to two years) aimed at providing a deep knowledge of the area in the fields of history, art, traditions, food. A final exam would further select who was ready to become a licensed tourist guide, ensuring a very high quality of the service. A guide willing to operate in another province or region had to attend another course and pass another exam.
The new EU regulation allows any tourist guide, licensed everywhere in the EU, to provide services across the entire European Union. This means that a guide licensed in Sweden who certainly has a deep knowledge of Stockholm, now can be your guide for the Colosseum in Rome.
This is a regulation that favors the large international tour operators: instead of hiring a tour leader for the duration of the trip and single tour guides for each destination, they can now just hire a guide doing the job in every city. We think this regulation, whose effects are not yet evident but will be in the coming years, will lead to a much lower quality of the tours.
This is why Guidaly was created: here you can find only “old school” tourist guides who live in the province where they operate and who worked hard to obtain their license. They know the local culture, art, history, traditions and food. They’re the only ones that can provide a high-quality local experience!
Our team – Tour planners
If you contact us, we will organize your tour. Our names are Andrea and Maria Carla.
Andrea has lived in many cities of Tuscany and Umbria and is a licensed tour guide of Florence since 2011. Maria Carla has lived in both Rome and Florence and is a licensed tourist guide since 1998. We have a deep knowledge of Italy, and a long experience as tourist guides that allows us to know all the issues tourists can experience during a guided tour.
Based on your preferences, we will assign you the best possible guide. We have been tour guides for a long time, and we firmly believe that the guide makes the difference between a nice tour and an exceptional tour. We are committed in organizing exceptional tours for you!
Our team – Local guides
We are very proud of our team of local guides. There are more guides than the ones you can see below, but these are the ones collaborating with us since the start. They have been selected carefully. Not only they have the “old” license, that they earned with hard work, studying for years to pass the exam. They also have a long experience, and they are fluent in English.