Visit Florence, Italy with Martina from SunFlorence Tours

SunFlorence Tours
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Meggan: [00:00:00] hello everyone and welcome back to the Travel Mug Podcast this week we are so excited to be joined by Martina Arezzini. Martina, a tour guide extraordinaire in florence, Italy Martina's Tour Company SunFlorence Tours offers a variety of tours in Florence and surrounding areas, and we are confident you will find one that matches your interest. Among other things, Martina has a focus on history, wine, famous local families, food and local markets. We are so excited to discuss your background, your business, and your tour options.

So welcome to the show, Martina.

Martina: Thank you so much. I'm so excited to meet you. Thank you.

Meggan: Thank you. So our first question, uh, you grew up in Tuscany, to us Canadians, and I'm sure many people around the world listening, that sounds magical. Talk to us about growing up in Tuscany and what was that was like and how did that sort of help shape you as a person going out into the world after that?

Martina: Yeah, living in Tuscany, it's like living in a [00:01:00] timeless place. It's like living in a painting. That's really true. We wake up and we are surrounded by beauty. So I'm very lucky. I'm glad that I lived in, I grew up in Tuscany. I actually grew up in the province of Siena, which is the southern part of Tuscany, which is the very famous, uh, Val d'Orcia area. Very famous for wine. Then I moved to Florence, uh, 15, 17 years ago already. So, I mean, still a very good city in Tuscany, and, I think this shaped me as a person who likes, a slow life. Uh, we, we love the very small things of life, like, uh, enjoying glass of wines and, um, we have a deep connection with nature, with good food, with the changing of the seasons.

So we always wait for the, that specific fruit which comes in june and then we wait for the next June to [00:02:00] get that same, you know, October we have chestnuts. So we love these things and, uh, the history, the people, I think this is,

very important for my job.

Jenn: Yeah. Yeah. It sounds magical and it's, it sounds so different from way of life here in Canada, and it honestly sounds like, uh, yeah, like magical, like we said already.

Meggan: I was actually secretly hoping you be like, well, it was just a regular growing up, et but it, it does sound as dreamy as I thought.

Martina: Yeah, we. I think smaller, it's the key word. 'cause we have, uh, like, uh, small classes when we go to school, we have classes that are like 15, 20 maximum people. Um, you know, everybody, it's a small village. I grew up in a village, which is 6,000 inhabitants. It is like a family [00:03:00] and, uh, we all know each other.

Then, uh, you know, uh, in my, in my town for example, uh, there was a kind of siesta, like at 1:30, everybody close. And they go home. They have lunch together. I grew up having lunch with my family, with my parents, and also with my grandparents and then everybody back to work, me doing my homework and then preparing to go to school the next day.

We had very good air, like, uh, fresh air. Uh, the landscapes are magical. I live close to a mountain, which is in the southern part of Tuscany Amiata. So we have hot springs. That's.

Jenn: Oh,

Martina: Interesting. So we have a group of friends since we are a child. We grew up like that. And then I moved to Florence. It felt like a countryside, small town person moving in a to New York.

Wow. Big doors, big [00:04:00] buildings. And now I know that it's not, not building not big was like, wow. Huge door Renaissance policies, big buildings. Um, there's a stadium, you know, and, uh, SÌ, it felt like moving into a big town. I moved for the university.

Meggan: Right, right.

Jenn: Yeah.

Meggan: Well that leads very well, I mean into the next question as well, because your education history is super interesting. So you graduated with languages, literature, and international studies, and later earned a degree in European and American languages and literature. So. Your research focused on gender studies and South American women's literature and eventually led to you teaching Spanish and English in Italian high schools. what was that experience of teaching like for you and how do you feel if it did that that helped lead you toward a career of being a tour guide and teaching tourists about your home country and your history of your country?

Martina: Absolutely. [00:05:00] I, I'm that kind of person who always wanted to be a tour guide. You know, sometimes tour guiding, it's a plan B for somebody. It was like my dream, um, because, uh, since I, like three years old, four years old, I'm talking, talking, talking a lot in person and um, I think this was written in my destiny somehow because I didn't know what I wanted to do precisely.

But I always wanted to teach. I love to teach at school. My mom, she's a teacher. I for a long time I thought I would be a professor. I would teach, uh, but I didn't know what, like, um, I love, uh, literature, but I also love the foreign languages and I love art. So somehow everything was settled because, uh, now it's what I do, like I teach using art,

And talking foreign languages. So it's perfect because [00:06:00] I love to work with tourists. I meet everyday different, uh, different people, honestly. Um, before when there were less people in tour, Florence and tour guides were mainly working half of the year. So that's why I wanted to teach. I wanted to teach half a year, and then I wanted to be a tour guide for half a year.

Um, I spent few years teaching and, um, the experience is, um, SÌ very challenging but also rewarding. So you can construct relation with students that last for longer than the relation that you build with a person which is visiting friends for one day and leaving. So it's very.

Jenn: right.

Martina: you grew up, uh, you grew up together.

This is more satisfying. But also, uh, talking with tourists that are, uh, obviously mother tongue. , I mean, you learn more because, [00:07:00] I mean, uh, I mainly speak Spanish. So Spanish is my main language. Well, Italian. I'm Italian, but I've studied Spanish languages. Um,

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Martina: let's say teaching shaped my skills of changing, um, language or contents according to who's listening.

Obviously, if you have teenagers or if you have childrens in your tour, if adults or people that are, maybe they have a degree in history of art, it's very different the way you explain the way you talk. So SÌ this, uh, train me to adjust according to the person maybe that I'm talking with. And, um, I've studied South American's, uh, languages, especially literature written by women.

So this is because I always had this interest for different point, points of view. I love to have more points of view, you know, and I love the point of view of people that usually are not, uh, [00:08:00] um, so much, uh, they don't speak loud. Okay. So minor, usually women

Jenn: Yeah.

Martina: That's so interesting 'cause there's a word in literature.

Jenn: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I think that it's really important, uh, as people that we take into account a lot of different points of view, and unfortunately some people don't, but it's really, I. Amazing to see you out there doing that. So talk to us about what you had to do to become a tour guide. Uh, was there any like education or training that you had to do before you became a tour guide?

Martina: Yeah, in Italy, uh, becoming a licensed tour guide, uh, requires passing a rigorous exam. And, uh,

Jenn: Okay.

Martina: you need, um, extensive studies, you know, art history, archeology , local heritage, also food culture. There's a lot to study. So

Jenn: Yeah.

Martina: after the university, i, I, I've studied [00:09:00] for one year for being prepared, for passing the exam.

So when I took the exam, uh, it was a big, long exam. Uh, we, it's, it requires a big, big preparation. Um, and then I became a tour guide. I was already a tour leader.

Meggan: Okay.

Martina: I also passed the exam for being tour leader before being tour guide because, uh, uh, it was easier because, uh, I did at university two different foreign languages.

So I just had to do an upgrade of that, passing an exam, and I became , A tour leader. Tour guiding is much more difficult of course, because you need to explain and to know a lot. So luckily there's an exam. Because this is guaranteeing when you have the license that the guide knows what's talking about.

And Italy, there's a lot to talk about. So luckily we have exams that are guaranteeing you, that you're licensed. SÌ the preparation was demanding, but it is also incredibly rewarding. I mean, it gave me a solid [00:10:00] foundation to speak, , with both knowledge and patient as well.

Meggan: I think that's also great though for people who are coming to Italy and want to do tours with licensed tour guides. You know, you're getting the history, the good information, people that actually have a true interest and have made it their career, not someone I. Who has just decided a few weeks ago, this is what they'd like to do. So they'll give you a tour, but you've really put the hard work in and, and it really makes, uh, it's a high industry standard it sounds like.

Martina: We are struggling against, um. illegal tour guides, of course. Uh, because in Italy you can imagine for a long time, the exam was not available. Now there will be a new exam soon. We still don't know. It's a state exam, so people are studying a lot and, uh, getting ready a lot. I mean, if you don't want to be a tour guide, uh, I mean it's, it's easy to not take the exam of course.

So

Meggan: Sure.

Martina: if you, I mean, you don't really want to be a tool guide. Um, that, that's why it's, [00:11:00] it's important that you have patience because it's really difficult to get the license. So, uh, whoever has the license, it means that it passed through all these steps. So it's guaranteeing that you are, will find a person which is, uh, passionate and knowledgeable.

Jenn: Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. So, , after you've passed the exam, uh, how long it take you to create your company? , SunFlorence Tours? How did that come about? And do you provide all of the tours? Do you have a team? How does that work?

Martina: Yes. Let's say when I, uh, started at the beginning,, it was just me. Um, I decided to do private tours. Before, there were many more group tours before covid. There's still group tours, but I think after Covid people, they really understood the importance of slowing down a little bit and having more space and not being in a group of 50 people.

So I was already working, organizing my private tours., I was [00:12:00] working as a tour guide for other companies as well. And then step through Instagram especially, and also. Through my, my webpage and, uh, contacts. I developed my own, um, clients. I mean that they contact me. So I have my own clients and I have my, my own tours.

I also have. More tours than the ones I can manage. So now I have guides and colleagues that are sometimes, uh, helping me. And, uh, last year I also, uh, took the qualification for being a technical director, which means that, uh, to open the agency. So now we are

Meggan: Oh wow.

Martina: working on, on it.

Meggan: Congratulations. That's amazing. If things are, things are moving quickly.

Martina: Thank you. See, so step by step and, uh, basically SunFlorence uh, is, is going through from an idea to share the real living Florence because with other agency I was mainly working in Duomo, Uffizi. You [00:13:00] for sure know David, that very handsome guy, but wants to see, which is wonderful. But I really wanted to show the secret places, secret things.

To show how we live and, uh, that's the idea. So yes, I organized tour in the museum, which I love, but I also organize, uh, customized tour.

Meggan: Yeah, I love that idea because yes, you could definitely want to see the things that everyone knows about, but I always feel like a tour or experience is much more special if it's sort of like an inside scoop or places that not everyone goes to. So I think that that makes it very special. So that's really great. Now, I discovered you and your tour company through your videos with Harold Balder. My husband and I have watched his videos for years now. So my burning question is how did you come to know Harold and what impact do you feel this has had on your tour business? I mean, I, I, uh, I'm happy to know you through that, so this is definitely part of that.

But I'd love to know [00:14:00] sort of how he found you or you found him, or how that came to be, and then what effects that has had.

Martina: Well, uh, it change my, my life, my career absolutely.

It's obviously one of the most important moment of my, my career. 'cause when he found me, I was working with, um, other tour agencies, tour companies, and uh, I, I had few private clients also. Some tips, some private clients coming from my page and he's the one, one of this person who came, uh, through the page.

I think, uh,

Meggan: Okay.

Martina: we met, um, in 2019 in Florence, and I had no idea of who. Another random clients. And that was not even my best day in my, in that summer because I was not even feeling so well. So he asked me if he could record the tour and I say, no, no, [00:15:00] you cannot record the tour. First of all, I'm shy. I mean, um.

I've never done something like that. So now step by step, I'm more comfortable. But at the beginning, I had the camera right here and I didn't know who was him, why he wanted to record the tour. And especially before Covid, it was not so normal to record the information because there was the idea of, if I tell the things, why would you buy a tour?

So

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Martina: An, an old way of thinking. So I was one of the first person recording things and spreading knowledge around. So obviously it was something new. I said, no, you cannot record information, especially inside the town or within the special permission. And I said, no, but I want record information about, uh, what does it mean being a tour guide, okay.

About me. So. And I actually haven't explained like I do in a tour. For me, it [00:16:00] was weird because I was talking about me. I mean, I think about the town hall or city hall, and then he gave me this huge tip. And I thought, okay, maybe it's just for the video, or, I didn't want to be tipped because I knew, I knew that I could do, I had to do more.

I mean, I had to explain the building. He did not let me explain the building, so I just wanted to go away and, um, I gave him, I, I wanted to give him back the money. And then he, uh, basically obliged me to accept he wanted to tip me. So I said, okay, I will accept this money if you let me do other tour. So then we did also the market tour, which is the very famous video where he's preparing the bunny with the tripe,

Meggan: Yes.

Martina: him cooking and eating tripe.

And then we kept in touch a lot, uh, especially after Covid because lots of people arrived and then pandemic. So then he came back and when he came back, uh, I was already [00:17:00] working a lot with my private clients, thanks to him. And he brought lots of people to me. So it's really made me independent from my agency and I could develop more tour and people were trusting me more 'cause they, uh, watched the video.

And, uh, I have to say that the greatest client came from him. I always have like, uh, young people and solo travelers or couples, people that love to travel open-minded. Then we did Rome. He came back. When he came back, we were supposed to do, uh, Florence and Naples. He said Naples at the beginning. Then the day Harold is like, um, a very knowledgeable, curious person.

He knows a lot, very interesting. And um, but he has millions of ideas. He was, and then we finished in Florence, um, full day, uh, was about to go home and said, okay, so we go to [00:18:00] Roma Rome, study Naples. So I had to study like Naples and I tried to study the entire city of Rome in one night. And you cannot study the entire city of Rome in one night.

Yes, I can. So, but then it was just, uh, touring with a friend. I mean, now is there, I I, I know Rome, I, I know its other cities, but I'm based in Florence of course. So when there's tours, I can obviously suggest my colleagues in Rome.

Meggan: Right.

Martina: Trusted colleagues in Rome and um, obviously, , whenever I have another request that I send people to my dear colleagues there, or it's, it's usually I work in Florence mainly, or in, in Tuscany, in general,

Meggan: Right, right, right. I saw that video. You did very well, so

Martina: especially, he's

Meggan: it was

Martina: holding him for breaking all the Italian etiquette with food.

Meggan: Well, it is so funny that you say that because every time my husband and I have red wine, we [00:19:00] stare at each other in the eyes as we're drinking it very intensely because we learned that from your video. And then every time I have, I think it's a cappuccino, later in the day, I am like, we shouldn't be doing

Martina: Thank you so much. You're saving an Italian every time.

Meggan: And Harold did it on purpose, of course, because he's, he doesn't follow anyone's rules apparently. And then, but the staring in the eyes is we do it every

Martina: Yeah.

Meggan: So we have definitely learned that from you. But I mean, your chemistry is also very good. So yes, it happened organically and I think it's amazing that you did not know who he

Martina: Yeah.

Meggan: was just another client.

I think that's a, a beautiful start to that story, but also. He's very playful and I think that that also brings that out in sort of you when you're with him as well. So I think that the chemistry of the pair of you together was really good, and I think that's why it works, honestly. And that's why

Martina: is really [00:20:00] authentic. I mean, everything that you see happened, so,

Jenn: Yeah.

Martina: there's not, um, erasing the video or parts or changing it's. His life, what you, what you see. It's real. So that's why to me, I, I started following him on YouTube and I, every video he publish, it's really amazing. Mm-hmm.

Meggan: It is. Yeah, no, I agree. And you do have a wide variety of tour options as well. We've sort of alluded to that a little bit. So can you talk to us about how you developed your tour options? Because there are a lot of things that people can choose from, so I'd love to hear sort of how that process came to be.

Martina: Yeah. I started with classic tours. 'cause of course, for my information, I did, uh, many, many, many tours. Um, I met for the first time, uh, Harold in the duomo tours, the dome tour. I was climbing the dome three times per day for years. Then the academia david, with every day at least two, three times per [00:21:00] day. But then with my private clients, as I told you, I was, uh, trying to, um, convince people to do kind of More particular experience to go out from the crowd, especially to find that little bar, little spot, little window where nobody goes.

And um, I noticed that people actually are looking for more flexible, customized experiences. So then I shift to work around specific different interests that basically are my interests also.

As you mentioned, I studied the woman literature, so books written by women, and the first tour I created was, um, great Woman of Florence Tour because, and you always mention names. We have so many names to mention, Lorenzo de' Medici, Leonardo, Botticelli, Michelangelo, but behind them, they were great women.

The Medici families full of great women who made the history. Important and they created Florence as we have Florence now. [00:22:00] So we have to mention these women. And uh, I noticed there were lots of women, but also lots of people that were interested in, um, hearing more about the story. So it's walking tour and we talk about the places dedicated to important women or art artists.

Um, also we had, uh, incredible names, scientists, you know. Many names. Then also artisans. The artisans. , This was born as an interest of, um, showing to people what the real artisans do. So it's my community, it's my district, my my city. I love to, uh, show the real person. Not the scammers, but the person who really do that in their life for living.

So how much they struggle to select the good quality, how much to guarantee good quality. How, how much they have with how much they have to know to, to learn, [00:23:00] to be able to make a belt, you know? And so I wanna show this, which is less. Fancy, maybe because you don't go in a shop, but it's real. So that's how I developed, for example, this tour.

It's a little different, but we go to talk to people that are friends that I trust and, uh, now friends took time and, uh, now trust. So they are happy to tell us what they, what they do, or the managed tour, maybe secrets everybody wants to hear about gossip, so I have a tour about the secret stories.

Of course wine. I love to drink wine. I'm a wine guide and logic guide. I to connect some also for that. So being able to drink wine properly. And so I love to explain how to, not to ruin the flavor of wine, mixing it with the wrong food or see that's, um, every, everything comes to like, um, oh, we should do that.

So.

Meggan: And [00:24:00] if you're, but if you are interested in it, you are also going to be that much more passionate about it while you're talking to people. So it only makes sense that these are also your interests because if someone is telling me something and I can tell they don't really care about it, it takes away from that experience.

So that's, so that makes sense.

Martina: we make, we get angry. I mean. You know, it's fantastic. So, because if you don't believe that, it's fantastic. It's not fantastic. That's,

Meggan: Right.

Jenn: Right.

Martina: the idea. Your, I mean, when I work also in the classic tour, Uffizi Gallery or David, I'm a love with David and I explain, David is like. I feel glad to be able to stay next to him and see him every day and explain him and talk about him. During, during covid.

This happened a lot. Uh, when I was, uh, at home, uh, I really noticed how much I missed being surrounded by beauty because

Jenn: Hmm.

Martina: I mean, I always [00:25:00] work surrounded by beauty. That's a privilege. Even if I'm outside, there's the Duomo next to me or everything is so beautiful and that's a privilege. And, uh, if you don't believe it. It's useless that you tell to people what you, what you see, what you feel.

Jenn: Yeah, definitely. So I'm wondering which of your tours are the most popular? Like which ones do people book the most?

Martina: Well, the Medici tour, it's one of, uh, the most booked tour 'cause, uh, Medici are, you know, fascinating. This. Murder, homicides, money, and, uh, intrigues. So people are fascinated by the Medici family and also the classic tours, like, Uffizi and the academia are must, so

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Martina: everybody starts with an Uffizi tour or with an academia tour, especially if it's a first timer and then maybe they add an extra food tour [00:26:00] or a wine tour or something else.

Food tour also are really popular now. People, they love to drink. They love to eat, and.

Jenn: Yes.

Meggan: Is there a tour that you are a big fan of, that people should be booking more, but they're not? Do you think there's a tour people are missing out on?

Martina: Yes, there's many. There's two museums in Florence, well, many more than two, but let's say two museums in Florence that people usually, they don't book so much, but are super interesting. For example, the Bargello Museum, which is an incredible place. It's the place where we had executions in medieval times.

And so it's also the place where they were spending the last night before the execution. And it's full of Masterpiece by Donatello, Michelangelo, Verrocchio,. There's collections of, uh, ivory ceramic. weapons, it's so interesting and it's, um, one of the oldest building we have in Florence. [00:27:00] We also, uh, churches like Santa Croce Church, they should book more at the church.

It's incredible. It's the place where we have the tombs of The Italian glories, there's the tomb of Michelangelo. It's amazing. And um, maybe something about Dante. Dante's popular, but a walking tour about the places of Dante, the writer of the Divine Comedy should be booked more 'cause it's full of, but also full of history of course.

Meggan: Excellent. Well, I think that's important for people to, to understand what else is out there because I'm sure that there are some that people are always booking, but missing other good ones. And, already alluded to this, but just to reiterate, is there a particular tour you feel is best for first timers to your city?

Martina: Yes, for the first timers, for sure. I always recommend, uh, my Love at First Sight tour, which is a [00:28:00] walking tour. Kind of fast, one hour and 45 minutes, two hours, something like that. So not heavy at all. Little walking of the center where we explain the main, uh, sites of the center. But it's uh, like a great introduction to understand the city properly.

We talk about the history of Florence, the main characters of Florence. The main place is in Florence and, uh, some curiosities. And obviously during the tour I also show them where to eat, what to eat. This is a terrific place. This is a local place and so some suggestions and especially we talk about what to do in the next days.

So this is a great museum. These other things, this is, so the first thing you should do is this tour in this way. If you have more days, then you will have an idea of what to do in the next days without wasting time.

Jenn: Hmm. That's such a good idea to book this on your first

Martina: And that's such a lot on the way usually. So.

Meggan: It's gelato is always a good idea.

Jenn: yeah.

Meggan: now to finish [00:29:00] off the tours aspect of our chat, do you have, what's your favorite tour that you do?

Martina: Well, I love, uh, ah, this is a hard question. I knew you were about to ask me this question because, uh, all the clients ask me this question, but I don't know. It's like saying, what's your favorite child? I think. Because, um, I love classic tours, but I also love the tours I created so much. Um, it's like, what's your favorite wine?

That's not a favorite wine. It's the wine. It's good with what you eat with. So it depends on people in the group. Obviously I love treasure hunts with kids so much fun. I love to, when I have couples, I love to do the boat tour on the Arno River, so it's romantic. They enjoy the sunset and it's really relaxing.[00:30:00]

Uh, when I have people that are interested in history, I love to do Uffizi gallery. I love to spend like three hours in Uffizi Gallery with people listening to me. If they're not interested. Of course, I prefer to drink wine with them or to to other tours. So it's difficult. I don't think I have, um, a favorite tour.

Meggan: I have. I see that

Jenn: Yeah.

Meggan: it's hard to

Martina: Complicated. Yeah.

Jenn: So what do you want people to know about Florence and why should people choose to visit Florence when they're planning their trip to Italy?

Martina: Florence is, um, an amazing city for sure. It's, um, still authentic. It's a city that is, um, obviously easy to love because as soon as you arrive, it feels like living in a painting. It's being surrounded by painting. I just finished a tour with a client that was like, uh, I don't believe this is real. He was saying when looking at the Duomo, [00:31:00] like, um, a painting for, for sure.

So in some, some way it's easy. To enjoy and to understand. But it's also difficult and it requires attention. You have to pay attention. You have to respect the city so much to understand the city. So now we are struggling with overt tourism and fast tourism

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Martina: So people, they should, um, in order to understand Florence and to enjoy Florence, they should stay a little bit more like at least three days, two nights minimum, because only in this way you will understand that there's a community of people that still defending the city of Florence and still loving the slow things in the city of Florence. So you will find only if you stay more and if you love the city, you will see people waking up, reading the newspaper, getting a cappuccino, and then going to work, and that's authentic and not in all the other.

Watching some other cities, of course, of Italy, you, you can still find this, [00:32:00] but uh, in Florence there is a community of artisans. There's a community of inhabitants And we should defend them because they're struggling a lot now with the prices that are higher apartments that are not findable. So I mean, it's real.

Florence is real. That's why people, they should visit Florence

Meggan: Amazing. I that sold. I'll be there. I'll be there next. I'll be there next April, so I'll see you then. So.

Jenn: Yeah.

Martina: before I.

Meggan: So you were in Thailand yourself fairly recently. So talk to us about that adventure. What was the favorite part of your trip and had you been there before? So was this repeat visit or your first time there?

Martina: First time in Asia.

Meggan: Okay.

Martina: Yeah, because, um, tour guides have holidays when people work, so February.

Jenn: Right.

Martina: Uh, I went with colleagues of mine 'cause only other colleagues they had on holiday in [00:33:00] February. So we decided to go in a warm place like, um, uh, here it was winter, very cold. So we wanted to go somewhere where we could swim and relax a little bit, but also learn about history and um,

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Martina: a place full of, uh, one in history and, uh, with a great cultural heritage.

So, um.

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Martina: decided to go to Thailand. I've never been there, so first time amazing. I loved so much Asia. I loved the Thailand. We were shocked about the size of buildings and the number of people in there and how much the food is good, how much

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Martina: nice, and I was fascinated by Chiang Mai, especially in the north.

She's full of temples in incred, incredible temples and animals that I've never seen in my life. Beautiful. Mm-hmm.

Meggan: [00:34:00] Excellent. Yeah, I, I followed along with your pictures and it looked, it really incredible and you could tell you were doing the trip from a tour guides perspective in terms of

Martina: Yeah.

Meggan: what you were sharing with your audience was very relevant to really understand what Thailand is about. And I, I think that that, and so whether you meant to or not, or you're just being yourself, you could really tell that you were showing the parts that you felt were, were truly impacting you and that would impact others.

So thank you so much for

Martina: Thank you.

Meggan: the pictures and,

Martina: For your feedback. Thank you. I was

Meggan: yeah.

Martina: of the other two guides there because tour guides, tour guide. Traveling are the worst nightmare of other tour guides can be bad. I mean, we had a very good experience with a guide there that I recommended. So much because she changed our, uh, our entire journey there.

I mean, um, I, since I'm a tour guide, I book tour guides.[00:35:00]

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Martina: understand if there's a tour guide telling me what's that place.

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Martina: But like, like that, it's really changed my perspective, I think. Yeah. I, I booked a tour for two hours, three hours, one hour. When I travel there, we booked a guide for three days and Wow.

Without her not being the same. So I really said I understood how my job, it's uh, it's important. People, they tell me with you, it's different. With you, it's different than now. I'm used to here with you. It's different. Yes. But now that I experiment, I experiment this by myself.

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Martina: really believe it. I mean, it's, um, it gave me also lots of, um, I mean some, I, I had some feedbacks looking at that guide because, uh, I, I felt housed like being guided.

So

Jenn: Right.

Martina: I understood I should do that or I should not do this anymore. So I.

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Martina: It was a good thing to take a guide for three [00:36:00] days.

Meggan: Yeah, I, I could see that for sure. Now, is this the first, or when you usually travel, do you usually take tours so that you can pick up tips and tricks, or was this the first time, I know you mentioned it's the first time, you've probably done it for a longer period of time, but is taking tours something you typically do when you travel as well?

Anyway.

Martina: Yes. Um, before, no, before I was like, oh, I can study by myself. Uh, um, and then, yeah, I can study, can read, I'm a tour guide and all that. So before being tour guide especially, and um, yes, I was doing it by myself. Then I became a tour guide. Why I have no time to maybe study. So I, I'm on holiday, just want to relax.

I just want someone that is telling me what I usually tell people. I wanna spend time and then I would ne even if I'm studying, I would never know the things that a person living there tell me. So I hired guides in museums and the museum transformed [00:37:00] completely with someone explaining you the paintings.

Also, if I study the paintings with someone telling me about the gossips insights or the history or things that they know. It's optimizing your time. You have two hours, and in two hours you do the museum and by yourself you just get lost. Um, and then

Jenn: Yeah,

Martina: I think the point of view of a local, it's too much important.

So from the moment I took the license, I hired guide everywhere. I take at least one tour everywhere I go.

Meggan: Excellent.

Jenn: Yeah. I love that. do you have any other favorite destinations that you've visited over the years?

Martina: Sì so many, many, many.

Jenn: Yeah,

Martina: The last

Jenn: to

Martina: question, I love Spain. I love Spain so much. I know it's close by, but I lived in Spain for many years and I love to go back to Spain with my friends. And I think Spain is a wonderful country, [00:38:00] especially the south of Spain and Lucía, where there's Granada. I, I love those cities and, uh, speaking Spanish, I can really enter in contact with, um, with them.

So it's uh, less effort and fun here

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Martina: for, for me. So when I have time, I go there, especially because I travel in, uh, see January, February. So I went to the islands there, , Canary Islands.

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Martina: I really love. It's, uh, Morocco. I went there to Morocco,, two years ago and I fell in love with that, those colors and all the markets.

It's really interesting, the food. And uh, I'm also a big fan of the north of Europe, even if I don't look like, because, uh, I like a lot warm places. But also winter, winter in Ireland, it's magical. Scotland, Ireland. You don't know what green is until you go to Ireland. You know, it's uh,

Meggan: Yeah.

Martina: magical.

Meggan: I agree. Yeah, I, I was in [00:39:00] Ireland, in June, so not in winter, but the green, it's definitely the emerald isle. They're not lying when they, when they say it, for sure. , So if someone wants to follow you, or most importantly book a tour with you, uh, where can people find you?

Martina: Well, um, they can contact me through Instagram. Instagram. My page is SunFlorence Tours Martina uh.SunFlorence Tours like sunflowers 'cause we have sunflowers. So SunFlorence Tours easy to remember and um, especially if they wanna book a tour, they can cut on me through email. So sunflorencetours@gmail.com and, uh, if you dunno what tour you would like to book, you can check on my webpage, which is, uh, sunflorencetours.it.

Jenn: Perfect. So we'll make sure that all of those links are in the show notes so that people can find you when they're heading to Florence. Thank you [00:40:00] so much for joining us. This was so fun. And I think both Meggan and I are ready to plan a trip to Italy to, uh. Yes, yes. Amazing. So as for us, you can find us on social media at Travel Mug Podcast and on our website travel mug podcast.com. You can support our show through, um, buy me a Coffee and you can leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. we'll chat with you listeners again next week. And thank you so much for

Martina: Thank you for inviting me.

Meggan: Thank you.