Last updated: 28 September 2026
Who we are
This website, florencewithus.com (“Florence Travel Guide”, “we”, “us”, “our”), is operated by Valentina Fodde and Elisa Gurau, licensed private tour guides based in Florence, Italy. We are the data controllers for the personal data described in this policy.
You can contact us about any privacy question at info@florencewithus.com.
What personal data we collect
We collect personal data in the following ways:
1. When you contact us or request a tour
Our contact/booking form asks for: full name, email address, phone/WhatsApp number, country of residence, preferred language, arrival and departure dates, number of adults and children, the experiences you are interested in, preferred tour length and time of day, your hotel or area of stay, how you heard about us, and any additional message you choose to add.
The form also has an optional field for mobility, accessibility, or dietary needs. This may reveal health-related information (for example a mobility impairment or a medical dietary requirement) or, in some cases, religious information (for example a religious dietary requirement). We only collect this if you choose to share it, and only to plan a tour that works for you and the people travelling with you. We ask for your explicit consent to process this information via the checkbox on the form; you are never required to complete this field.
2. Automatically, when you browse the website
Like most websites, we automatically collect some technical data when you visit: your IP address, browser type, device type, pages viewed, and the date and time of your visit. This is collected through the tools described in the “Cookies and third-party services” section below, mainly for security, performance, and understanding how visitors use the site.
Why we process your data and our legal basis
- To respond to your enquiry and organise your tour — legal basis: your consent when you submit the form, and performance of a contract once a booking is agreed (Article 6(1)(b) and (a) GDPR).
- To process any mobility, accessibility or dietary information you share — legal basis: your explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a) GDPR), since this can be a special category of data.
- To keep the website secure and working correctly (firewall protection, malware scanning, caching) — legal basis: our legitimate interest in protecting the site and its visitors (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
- To understand how the site is used and improve it (analytics) and to show advertising — legal basis: your consent, given through the cookie banner where applicable.
Cookies and third-party services
We use the following third-party services, which may set cookies or process data on their own servers:
- Google Analytics (via Site Kit by Google) — to understand how visitors use the site (pages viewed, time on site, approximate location). Data is processed by Google.
- Google Search Console and PageSpeed Insights (via Site Kit by Google) — technical tools that help us monitor the site’s presence in Google Search and its performance; these do not identify individual visitors.
- Google AdSense — displays advertising on our blog articles. Google may use cookies to personalise the ads you see, based on your browsing activity. You can control ad personalisation through Google’s Ad Settings.
- Google Reviews and Tripadvisor review widgets (Trustindex.io) — display publicly available reviews about our tours on this site.
- Wordfence Security — a security firewall that inspects incoming traffic and may log IP addresses to block malicious activity.
- LiteSpeed Cache — a performance tool that may set technical cookies needed to serve the site correctly; it does not track you for advertising purposes.
Where required by law, you will be asked for your consent to non-essential cookies (such as analytics and advertising cookies) when you first visit the site, and you can change your choice at any time by clearing your browser’s cookies and revisiting the site, or through your browser’s privacy settings.
Who we share your data with
We do not sell your personal data. We share it only with:
- The service providers listed above (Google, Trustindex.io, Wordfence), each acting as an independent controller or processor for the specific service they provide;
- Our website hosting provider, Hostinger, which stores the site and its data on our behalf;
- Public authorities, where we are required to do so by law.
Some of these providers (notably Google) may transfer data outside the European Economic Area, including to the United States. Where this happens, it is covered by the provider’s Standard Contractual Clauses or another safeguard recognised under the GDPR.
How long we keep your data
We keep enquiry and booking data for as long as needed to organise your tour and to answer any follow-up questions, and for a reasonable period afterwards in case of queries or legal requirements. Analytics and security log data is kept according to the default retention periods of the relevant service (for example, Google Analytics data is generally retained for up to 14 months).
Your rights
Under the GDPR, you have the right to:
- Access the personal data we hold about you;
- Ask us to correct inaccurate data;
- Ask us to delete your data (“right to be forgotten”);
- Ask us to restrict or object to certain processing;
- Receive your data in a portable format;
- Withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at info@florencewithus.com. If you believe your data protection rights have not been respected, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Italian data protection authority, the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali, or with the supervisory authority in your own country of residence.
Children
Our tours are often booked by families, and the contact form allows a parent or guardian to tell us the ages of any children joining the tour. Children themselves are not expected to use this website or submit the contact form.
Changes to this policy
We may update this privacy policy from time to time, for example if we add a new tool to the website or if the law changes. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated.