I'm Stefano, and I guide people through the Tuscany most tourists never see. Want to hike in Tuscany with me?
Last updated 15 October 2026
Most questions I receive before a booking are the same questions. Not because people lack imagination. Because they are trying to picture something they have never done before.
A guided hike with a private guide is not a tour group. It is not a fixed schedule on a bus with a headset. It is closer to a day out with someone who knows the mountain, speaks the language of the landscape, and is there specifically for your group.
This post answers the practical questions so that by the time you get in touch, you already know what to expect.
Weighing up a guided day in Tuscany? A local’s Expert Brief helps you decide before you commit.
How Long Does a Hike Last?
The minimum is around two and a half hours. A typical half-day runs three to four hours. A full day, which is genuinely a full day, can reach six to eight hours depending on the route and how the group moves.
If you are uncertain, err toward shorter. A good hike that leaves you wanting more is far better than a long one that ends in silence.
Where Do We Meet?
You reach the meeting point yourself: by car, or for a few of my hikes by train from nearby towns.
I send the exact meeting point about 24 hours before the hike. It depends on the route. Always close to the trailhead, never somewhere that requires you to navigate a forest road before we have even started. The location, parking notes, and anything else you need arrive in that message.
If you don’t have a car, or getting there is difficult for another reason, tell me when you write and I’ll help you find a solution.
What to Bring
I carry a first aid kit and, where the route requires it, maps. Everything else is yours to sort.
The essentials:
- Footwear with ankle support and grip: trail runners work for most hikes, hiking boots for anything with significant elevation or wet terrain
- Layers you can add and remove: mountain weather in Tuscany shifts, even in summer
- Water: enough for the duration, more than you think
- Food and snacks: I cannot provide food, so come prepared
- Sunscreen and a hat for summer hikes on exposed ridges
- Trekking poles if you use them: I do not carry spares
Nothing unusual. Nothing that requires a specialist shop. The most common mistake is underestimating how much water to bring on a warm day.
Looking for private hiking in Tuscany?
Browse my full collection of small-group, fully private hikes across the region.
Difficulty: What Those Levels Actually Mean
All of my hikes are accessible to people in reasonable health. There is no technical climbing, no exposed scrambling, no via ferrata.
The easiest routes feel like a long walk with friends, a few hours of gentle movement through forest or along an aqueduct path. If you can walk for two hours without stopping, you can do these.
The more demanding hikes require sustained effort: elevation gain spread across several hours, terrain that is uneven underfoot, sections where you are genuinely working. Not difficult in any technical sense. But you will feel it in your legs the next day.
If your group has mixed fitness levels, tell me before we go. I adapt routes on the day. If I can see that the pace needs to change, or that a particular section is not the right call, I will adjust without making it a drama. The goal is that everyone finishes feeling good about it.
What Happens During the Hike
I am not a tour guide in the conventional sense. I do not recite a script.
What I do is read the landscape as we move through it: identify plants, fungi, the signs of animals, the structure of a forest. Explain what we are seeing in terms of ecology, local history, the relationship between the terrain and the people who have used it. Answer questions.
Some groups want to know the name of every mushroom we pass. Others want to walk in silence and absorb the atmosphere. Most are somewhere in between, interested in occasional explanation, happy to move without commentary for stretches.
I follow the interest of the group. If you are a photographer, we slow down. If you are a walker, we walk. If you have a specific question (about fungi, about the geology, about the history of a ruin on the ridge), I will answer it honestly, including when the honest answer is that I do not know.
Languages
If your group speaks English, we speak English. If you are Italian, we speak Italian. Mixed groups get whatever combination makes sense in the moment.
How to Book
Contact me on WhatsApp with your preferred date, the number of people in your group, and any relevant context (fitness level, interests, whether anyone has mobility considerations).
I will respond with available dates, the hike I would suggest for your group, pricing, and how to confirm.
Booking is confirmed by payment of the full amount. Once that is done, the date is blocked for your group. I do not hold dates on provisional request.
I ask for at least two days’ notice, preferably more. Same-week bookings are sometimes possible. It depends on whether I am already committed elsewhere.
One More Thing
Private means private. Your group, your pace, your questions. No strangers joining mid-hike, no compromises on route because another group needs something different.
That is the part that surprises people most, I think. They expect a guided hike to feel like a managed experience. It does not. It feels like being shown a place by someone who knows it well.
That is what I am trying to offer.
Frequently asked questions
If you cancel
- more than 7 days before: full refund, minus a €25 processing fee
- within 7 days: 50% of the total is retained
- within 3 days: the full amount is retained
- no-show, meaning you’re more than 30 minutes past the agreed start with no word from you: treated as a cancellation, no refund
I’ll wait that half hour and I’ll try to call you. If you’re running late and you tell me, we just work with what’s left of the day.
If you’d rather not walk in the rain
Tell me at least 48 hours before. If I have another day open while you’re still in the area, I’ll move you to it at no extra cost. That depends on what’s left in my diary, so it’s something I do when I can rather than a promise, and it’s one move. If I have nothing free, or you tell me inside 48 hours, the cancellation terms apply as normal: by then I’ve held the date and turned other work down.
If I cancel
I call a day off for safety, when weather or ground conditions make the route dangerous, or when something beyond my control gets in the way. Then we look for another date that works for both of us. If there isn’t one, I refund the full amount you paid, with no processing fee taken off, within 10 working days. If we haven’t agreed a new date within two weeks of the day I called off, the refund goes out on its own and neither of us has to chase it.
That refund is the limit of what I can cover. It doesn’t extend to travel, hotels or anything else you booked around the day, which is one more reason to have travel insurance.
If we turn back early
If we turn back part-way, for any reason, the day counts as delivered and no refund is due. Getting you safely off a mountain is the job as much as getting you up it. If we’ve barely started when I call it, I’ll do what I can to find you another date while you’re still here.
Ready to Book Your Guided Hike?
Get in touch on WhatsApp or via the contact page with your preferred date and group size. I’ll suggest the right hike and get back to you quickly.