Guida or Accompagnatore?
Italian law distinguishes between the two professional roles of tour guide – Guida Turistica – and tour leader – Accompagnatore Turistico. So what’s the difference?
Guida Turistica
A tour guide specialises in the history, art, and architecture of a particular province (e.g. Florence, Siena, Livorno) and has passed tough exams which test in-depth knowledge of that province (a guida specialising in one province, e.g. Florence, cannot work as a guide in, say, Livorno province, unless they have taken additional exams for that province).The tour guide is the person you see imparting all his/her knowledge in front of famous buildings and works of art to groups of visitors. Often these guides have studied the history of art at university, prior to taking exams to become a guide.
Sometimes a guida will also cover the role of accompagnatore.
