9 Best Fiat 500 Tours in Florence (2026): Self-Drive vs Chauffeured

A Fiat 500 tour in Florence costs €124 to €209 per person and runs from 1 hour 40 minutes to a full day. Most use restored vintage Fiat 500s, including a Spiaggina, and one uses an electric Fiat 500 conversion. The tours split into two quite different experiences that share a search term: ones where you drive, following a guide's car in convoy, and ones where a driver-guide takes the wheel while you look out of the window.

That single distinction decides more than price, duration or route. If you are searching for a vintage Fiat 500 tour in Florence because you want to drive one, only four of these nine let you, and all four come with conditions most people do not expect.

The short answer

• Best overall: Walkabout Florence, €133, self-drive into the Chianti hills with a meal on a private terrace.
• Cheapest: 500 Touring Club's wine tour, €124, self-drive with a tasting and light lunch.
• Best if you cannot drive a manual: florence platinum's electric cabrio, €160, or the €140 Spiaggina with hotel pickup.
• Best for photos: the €160 electric cabrio, where the guide shoots at every viewpoint.
• Best for families: any 500 Touring Club tour, where under-12s go free.
• Longest day: Italy on a Budget's 7-hour run to San Gimignano, €170, though on only nine reviews.
• Shortest: the €160 electric cabrio at 1 hour 40, with departures every half hour to 10pm.

What actually decides this booking

Primary:

• Do you drive, or are you driven? Four self-drive, five chauffeured. Settle this first, because nothing else matters if you book the wrong one.
• Can you handle a manual? Every self-drive car is a stick shift, the operators require prior experience, and they can stop you driving on the day.
• City panorama or countryside? Four stay within sight of Florence on the Piazzale Michelangelo and San Miniato circuit; five head out into Chianti for a tasting or a meal.

Secondary: price, where you meet, how long the tour runs, and whether food is included.

If the manual gearbox rules this out, our Florence golf cart tour guide covers the automatic alternative to the same hills, and the Florence Vespa tour comparison is the two-wheeled version with its own riding test. For the wine rather than the car, see our Florence wine tasting guide and our Tuscany day trip comparison. A vintage car through Chianti also ranks in our things to do in Florence for couples guide.

We rank these on whether you end up in the seat you booked: a car you can actually drive, a route worth the hours, and a format the listing described accurately. Price is the tiebreaker.

This is the decision the page exists to settle, and the listings make it harder than it should be. One chauffeured tour still lives at a web address containing the words self-drive, and another has to state in its exclusions that customers cannot drive.

Expect €124 to €209 per person. The useful thing to understand is that price tracks the food and the exclusivity rather than the car or the time: the cheapest and the most expensive tours both run four hours, and the €85 gap between them buys a multi-course lunch and a private driver.

• Be honest about the manual gearbox. All four self-drive tours require prior experience with manual gears and all four reserve the right to stop you driving on the day. A vintage Fiat 500 handles differently from a modern car, and gearboxes vary between fleets. If your last stick shift was a hire car a decade ago, book a chauffeured tour.
• Bring the original driving licence. One operator states plainly that a copy or a photograph is not accepted, and the minimum age to drive is 18 across all of them. Without it you are a passenger.
• Decide who drinks before you book a self-drive wine tour. Three of the four self-drive tours end at a tasting, an aperitivo or a lunch with wine, and you drive yourself back. One operator recommends the nominated driver spit rather than swallow.
• Budget €15 in cash for the fuel surcharge at the Scandicci clubhouse. All three 500 Touring Club tours exclude fuel surcharges, and guests consistently report being asked for €15 cash on arrival that the booking page never showed. Bring notes.
• On the top pick, expect to share the road with Vespas. Its Fiat convoy runs with the operator's scooter groups, so the pace follows the least confident rider and the whole group is tested before anyone leaves. Guests who wanted a Fiat-only drive are the ones who rate it down.
• Ask about the automatic electric cars before you rule yourself out. The top pick keeps automatic electric Fiats alongside the vintage manuals for guests who do not get on with the clutch, so a mixed-confidence couple can still book the same tour.
• Check where you are actually meeting. Three tours start from a clubhouse in Scandicci rather than central Florence, and the full-day option offers a Poggibonsi start about 50 km out alongside its Florence departure. Only two include hotel pickup.
• Read the format, not the web address. One chauffeured tour sits at a URL containing the words self-drive, and another states under exclusions that customers cannot drive. The booking page text is reliable; the link is not.
• Check whether the car is actually vintage. One of the nine is a restored Fiat 500 converted to electric: quiet, automatic and comfortable, but not the petrol vintage car most people are picturing. That is a feature if you want a smooth ride and a drawback if you want the classic experience.
• Travelling with children? Compare the age bands first. The three 500 Touring Club tours carry under-12s free with valid ID, one tour takes infants, and three are adults only. The gap between free and excluded is wide here.
• Book the half-hourly tour if your schedule is tight. Only one of these runs on a rolling timetable, every thirty minutes from 09:00 to 22:00. Everything else has one or two fixed departures a day, and three run at a single daily time.
• Weigh review depth, not just the star rating. Two tours here carry 779 and 695 reviews; four carry fewer than 40, and one has nine. A 5.0 from nine reviews tells you much less than a 4.9 from 779.
• Expect no air conditioning. These are small vintage cars, and one operator's listings state they have no air conditioning or heating. In July and August an open Spiaggina or a cabrio is the more comfortable choice than a closed saloon.
• Visiting in May? Our Florence in May guide covers the month an open vintage car is at its best, warm enough to enjoy and before the summer heat arrives.