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The toughest temporary we get from company organisers is the second go to.

The primary go to temporary is simple. The group has by no means been to Florence. You’re taking them to the Duomo, you prepare a guided Uffizi, you guide a candlelit dinner with a view of the Arno, and also you hand them a listing of three or 4 good neighbourhood lunches. Everybody goes residence happy.

The second go to temporary is the one which makes you sweat. The group has carried out the Uffizi. They’ve stood within the Piazza del Duomo. They’ve purchased leather-based at San Lorenzo, walked the Ponte Vecchio at sundown, and posted the compulsory images of the David. They’re coming again, for an offsite, a companions’ retreat, an government journey, a milestone celebration, and the request from the senior individual within the room is a few model of: present us what we missed.

That is what they missed.

The precept: cease making an attempt to compete with the plain

The error is to attempt to discover a extra spectacular Duomo, a extra unique Uffizi, a extra secret rooftop. Florence has spent a thousand years constructing its centre and you aren’t going to beat it by itself phrases. What you do as a substitute, when the group is on its second or third go to, is transfer exterior the central circuit totally. The dinners go up the hill. The day journeys exit into Chianti. The night expertise goes inside a non-public kitchen tour, a working cellar, or a household palazzo. The entire geography of the journey shifts.

There are three classes of expertise that constantly land for company teams, plus a small handful of premium tables inside the town that justify the worth tag for a milestone night time. Beneath is what we’d construct an actual second go to Florence journey round.

Up the hill: dinner in Fiesole

Fiesole is a small Etruscan city on the hillside above Florence, fifteen minutes from the town centre by automobile. From its fundamental piazza you look down on your complete skyline. The Duomo dome at eye stage within the center distance, the Arno catching the final mild, the cypress hills falling away on both aspect. Florentines have been arising right here for dinner for 200 years, the way in which New Yorkers go to the Hudson Valley.

For a company group on a second go to, Fiesole at dinner is the journey. The drive up is fifteen minutes. The view is probably the most photographed in Tuscany. The eating places are virtually totally household run trattorie which have been there for generations. The type that shut at 11pm as a result of the proprietor goes residence to mattress, not as a result of the kitchen has run out of power. La Reggia degli Etruschi, slightly below the principle sq., has the well-known terrace. Smaller locations tucked into the aspect streets feed the locals on a Tuesday night time.

The framing for the group: that is what Florentines do for a particular dinner. You’re not consuming the place the vacationers eat. You’re consuming the place the individuals who personal the eating places the vacationers eat at go on their break day.

Out of the town: a Chianti day journey that earns the day

The Chianti countryside south of Florence is a 35 minute drive that takes a company group from the centre of a stupendous metropolis to the centre of a wine area that matches it. For a gaggle on a second go to, a full day in Chianti is the cleanest single resolution you may make concerning the itinerary. Three stops, so as:

Greve in Chianti for the morning. The piazza is the guts of the city, surrounded by a colonnaded loggia. Antica Macelleria Falorni has been a butcher on this sq. since 1729, eight generations, and its salami room (cured meats, wine tastings, charcuterie boards) is a company group dream. The wine shelling out machine in the back of the store, the place you purchase a card and pour your individual tastes from forty bottles, is extra entertaining than it has any proper to be. Enable ninety minutes.

Lunch at Solociccia or Officina della Bistecca in Panzano. Each are operated by Dario Cecchini, probably the most well-known butcher in Italy and a small scale Tuscan celeb. The lunches are theatrical, ample, and meat heavy: a hard and fast menu of 4 or 5 programs, communal seating, no selections. For an government group it’s the best “memorable lunch” resolution you’ll make all 12 months. Ebook six weeks forward. (Vegetarian teams ought to select a unique Chianti lunch. Cecchini’s is a meat expertise.)

Cantine di Verrazzano for the afternoon. A working vineyard and one of many oldest estates within the area, with a guided tour by way of wine cellars and a structured tasting. The grounds are lovely, the wines are severe, and the format works for teams of any dimension from six to forty. Enable two hours for the tasting, plus the drive again to Florence.

A day in Chianti structured this manner takes the group out of the town by 9am, has them on the Falorni store by 10, lunch at Cecchini’s by 1, and the Verrazzano tasting wrapped by 5pm. They’re again in Florence in time to alter for dinner. It’s the company Florence day each group remembers.

Inside the town: the premium Florence desk

For the milestone dinner, anniversary journey, signing celebration, government welcome, Florence has a small group of eating places that sit at a stage above every little thing else within the metropolis. Essentially the most placing of them is Santa Elisabetta, contained in the Resort Brunelleschi. The eating room is constructed right into a sixth century Byzantine tower hooked up to the resort, with a view of the Duomo from the home windows. Two Michelin stars. A degustation menu that takes three hours. The form of room that makes a boss’s birthday dinner really feel like the correct amount of effort.

Different premium choices value understanding: Il Palagio on the 4 Seasons (one Michelin star, a working backyard, a eating room that opens onto the loggia in summer time), La Leggenda dei Frati in a cloister close to Piazzale Michelangelo with a view again throughout the river, and Borgo San Jacopo on the Resort Lungarno with a small terrace straight over the Arno. None of those are stroll in eating places. All of them require reserving three to 6 weeks prematurely for a gaggle, and longer in excessive season.

For a company group at this stage the selection often comes all the way down to setting. Santa Elisabetta is the architectural drama. La Leggenda dei Frati is the cloister and examine. Borgo San Jacopo is the river. Il Palagio is the backyard. Decide by what sort of night you’re making an attempt to present them.

Non-public and group experiences inside Florence itself

There’s a fourth class, which sits between the town and the countryside. Non-public experiences inside Florence that aren’t on any vacationer itinerary as a result of they’re not accessible to stroll in guests. A number of that work constantly for company teams:

A non-public market tour and lunch that begins at Sant’Ambrogio market within the early morning, walks the produce and meat counters with a chef, then sits all the way down to lunch in a working trattoria the place the chef cooks what was purchased. 

A non-public cellar dinner on the opposite aspect of Florence within the Oltrarno, in certainly one of a handful of household owned wine bars with vaulted brick basements which are open for personal teams solely. 5 or 6 programs, paired wines, the household on the desk.

A truffle hunt and lunch within the hills above Florence with a tartufaio and his canine, in season (October to December, March to Might), adopted by lunch at a rustic farmhouse the place what you discovered that morning is shaved over the pasta.

A non-public cooking class in a Tuscan villa exterior the town, ending in a protracted lunch on the terrace. Straightforward logistics, lovely setting, a usable company group picture on the finish of it.

Every of those is the form of expertise that doesn’t present up in the usual Florence itinerary as a result of it requires relationships with the households and craftspeople concerned. They’re additionally the experiences that elevate a second go to journey from a affirmation of what the group already knew concerning the metropolis to a real new layer of it.

How we discover these locations

Each Florence meals expertise we placed on a tour comes by way of the identical course of. Our native staff of guides and producers who really stay and work on this metropolis and the Chianti hills carry ideas again from neighbours, regulars, suppliers, and the households operating the eating places and estates themselves. From there it’s quite a lot of dinners and quite a lot of lengthy lunches. 

We work by way of a spot repeatedly, on quiet weekdays and full Saturdays, earlier than we’d ever carry a company group. Most of the households and producers we work with have been a part of our non-public excursions for greater than a decade. We’ve walked each Florence and Chianti route on this record, typically sufficient to know what an off day seems to be like and whether or not the kitchen recovers. The relationships are the half that takes years and the half we will’t faux.

Continuously requested questions

What’s the most effective restaurant in Florence for a company dinner?

For a milestone or signing dinner with executives, the small group of premium tables that constantly come up are Santa Elisabetta (two Michelin stars, in a sixth century tower with a Duomo view), Il Palagio on the 4 Seasons (one Michelin star, backyard setting), La Leggenda dei Frati (cloister close to Piazzale Michelangelo), and Borgo San Jacopo (terrace over the Arno). All require reserving three to 6 weeks forward for a gaggle.

How far prematurely ought to I guide a company group expertise in Florence?

For premium eating places and personal cellar dinners, six weeks is the working minimal and three months is extra snug, particularly for teams over twelve. Cecchini’s lunch in Panzano books out months forward in excessive season. Non-public cooking courses in Tuscan villas want at the least a month’s discover. The sooner the higher. Many of the operators we work with prioritise repeat purchasers over new bookings when calendars are tight.

Can a Florence company journey be carried out as a day journey from a gathering elsewhere in Italy?

Realistically, no. Florence is 2 hours from Rome by practice and ninety minutes from Bologna, however the experiences that justify a company go to (Chianti, Fiesole, the premium tables) all want a minimal of 1 full day on the bottom. Two nights is the working minimal for a significant second go to journey.

Are these experiences vegetarian and vegan pleasant?

Most of them, sure. Tuscan cooking has a deep vegetarian custom (ribollita, pappa al pomodoro, panzanella, the bean and grain dishes) and a lot of the trattorie and premium eating places accommodate effectively. Cecchini’s lunch in Panzano is the foremost exception (it’s particularly a meat expertise). For teams with a number of dietary necessities we’ll ask up entrance and route round them.

How large a gaggle are you able to accommodate?

Group sizes from six to round fifty work cleanly throughout a lot of the experiences on this information. Above fifty we cut up into parallel teams with synchronised timings, which works significantly effectively for personal market mornings and cooking courses. Smaller is mostly higher for the premium tables and the cellar dinners; the day journey experiences in Chianti scale comfortably.

Sources

Consuming Europe. (n.d.). Florence meals excursions. https://www.eatingeurope.com/florence/

Consuming Europe. (n.d.). Florence non-public excursions. https://www.eatingeurope.com/florence/private-tours-florence/

Consuming Europe. (n.d.). The opposite aspect of the town meals tour. https://www.eatingeurope.com/florence/the-other-side-of-the-city-food-tour/

Consuming Europe. (2026, February 12). An area’s information to wine bars in Florence. https://www.eatingeurope.com/weblog/wine-bars-in-florence/

Consuming Europe. (2026, February 12). Oltrarno, Florence: An area information. https://www.eatingeurope.com/weblog/oltrarno-florence/

Consuming Europe. (2026, February 12). Florence Sant’Ambrogio market vs Mercato Centrale. https://www.eatingeurope.com/weblog/florence-santambrogio-market-vs-mercato-centrale/

Il Palagio Ristorante. (n.d.). Il Palagio Ristorante. https://www.ilpalagioristorante.it/

La Leggenda dei Frati. (n.d.). La Leggenda dei Frati. https://laleggendadeifrati.it/

Lungarno Assortment. (n.d.). Borgo San Jacopo restaurant. https://www.lungarnocollection.com/borgo-san-jacopo/

Ristorante Santa Elisabetta. (n.d.). Ristorante Santa Elisabetta. https://www.ristorantesantaelisabetta.it/