Most visits to Florence follow a familiar script: queue at the Uffizi, cross the Ponte Vecchio, eat a quick plate of pappardelle and move on. My Way Experiences, based on Via Romana in the Oltrarno district, offers the opposite approach — multi-day programs where travellers learn actual skills from Florentine artisans, historians and cooks rather than just ticking off sights.
The company runs three formats. The Immersion Experience packs 30 hours of activities into six days, covering what it calls the pillars of Tuscany: history, art, food and wine. The Renaissance Experience stretches to nine to fifteen days with 45 hours of programming, adding outdoor time in the countryside around the city. For remote workers or anyone taking an extended pause, the Expansion Experience is fully bespoke — a month, a season or even a year, built around learning Italian, mastering a craft or digging into Renaissance history at your own pace.
What makes the programs distinctive is the hands-on range. Creative sessions take place in real botteghe fiorentine — the working workshops that still line the Oltrarno — where you can try ancient techniques like fresco painting or egg tempera, sculpture and etching. There are also classes in near-forgotten trades: Florentine mosaic tile work, handmade paper, woodcraft and faux embroidery. On the calmer side of the schedule, participants can tend antique rose gardens outside town, walk trails in the hills and valleys ringing Florence, or explore art therapy as a form of non-verbal expression. No previous experience is required for any of it.
Food, naturally, runs through everything. Cooking sessions focus on Tuscan recipes you can recreate at home, paired with Chianti, and on-site art and history lessons mean you learn about the city while standing in front of the actual buildings and artworks.
Practically speaking, the packages include materials for creative sessions, entrance fees to most museums and churches (the Uffizi is the exception), transport for scheduled out-of-town activities, food and drink for included social events, and taxes. You'll need to cover flights, lodging, meals outside the program, travel insurance and — a detail worth remembering if you get ambitious at the easel — shipping your finished artwork home.
This is squarely aimed at slow travellers: people who would rather spend a week gaining a skill and a rhythm of local life than sprint through a checklist. If the idea of grinding your own pigments or pressing paper in a centuries-old workshop appeals more than another gelato stop, it's an interesting model — and a good excuse to base yourself on the quieter, more residential side of the Arno.
