Finally, a couple weeks ago I bought a nice book of Chianti with maps and we made a compromise to stay over night in the region and rent the scooter when we were actually there. So, we decided to stay in Greve. Greve is almost the center of Chianti and it’s a pretty descent size city with a good bus stop that takes you directly to and from Florence. Since we don’t have a car we couldn’t stay in the agriturismo’s located throughout the area. If you travel to Chianti I totally recommend staying at one of the many castles and agriturismo’s in the area rather than a typical hotel. This way, you can truly experience the “Italian way”.
We ended up finding a hotel right in the center, after a lot of hard work. We had a hard time finding a place because of the volcano; there were a lot of tourists stuck in their hotels. After first finding one hotel and booking they called us to tell us they no longer had rooms because people weren’t checking out so at the last minute we had to find another hotel which ended up being great anyhow. My only complaint was the mattress was completely uncomfortable and I woke up with a backache and Maurizio woke up with a crick in his neck, which he still has to this day. But, otherwise, we had a great trip.
Day 1:
We left Florence on the bus at 8:30am and arrived in Piazza Trento in Greve at around 9:45. After we checked in at the hotel Casa al Sole we headed down to Ramuzzi’s scooter shop. It was only a 5-minute walk from the hotel. We rented a 125cc scooter and headed off on our first day in Chianti. We broke our itinerary up into North Chianti and South Chianti and decided to spend the whole day visiting only the south because there was more land to cover. We left Greve and headed south towards Siena. The weather was sadly cloudy and absolutely FREEZING but we didn’t let that get us down.
The first part of the day we covered: Lamole, Panzano, San Donato in Poggio, Cortine, Pietrafitta, and Castellina. When we arrived in Castellina we decided to have lunch and we stopped in the town center where we ate baked pecorino drizzled with honey and I had ravioli stuffed with meat sauce from Maremma (a region in Tuscany) and Maurizio had Pici (a pasta shaped like spaghetti but it has a hole in the middle) with pepper and pecorino. It was delicious; obviously we washed that down with some Chianti wine.
After touring the city we left for the second half of the day in which we covered the cities of: Tregole, Fonterutoli, S. Leolino, Quergrossa, Petroio, Vagliagli, Radda in Chianti, Gaiole in Chianti, Castelvecchi, Volpaia, and back up to Greve in Chianti.
By the time we got back to Greve in Chianti it was 7:30pm. We had a super long day on the scooter and we were exhausted. We went back to the hotel relaxed on our balcony a little bit and headed out for a stroll and ended up at dinner. For dinner we went to a restaurant that specialized in grilled meats and fish. They had a wood fire grill and it smelled heavenly. We shared a bottle of the Castello Verrazzano Wine (a local castle of Greve in Chianti) and shared appetizers of cured meats and crostini. For dinner we shared a mixed grill made for 2 people that contained pork chops, sausage, steak, and short ribs. It was delicious. For dessert we had simple biscotti with Vin Santo a typical dessert wine from Chianti (and a very standard dessert in general in Italy). After dinner we corked the leftover wine and went back to the hotel to relax and finish it off. I have to admit even though the bed wasn’t comfortable, we passed out immediately.
The next morning we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel. We checked out and asked them to hold our bag for day 2 of exploring and headed back to the scooter rental shop. We decided since we had already explored the largest part of Chianti the day before that we would only rent the scooter for 4 hours and then go wine tasting in Greve at Le Cantine before heading back to Firenze. This way Maurizio didn’t have to worry about drinking and driving.
We left Greve in Chianti at 11am and our first stop was the Castello di Verazzano. It was absolutely beautiful. Thankfully day 2 was a gorgeous day and sun was out and it was definitely less cold. We toured the castle then setoff for the Castello di Gabbiano. After the 2nd castle we covered the following cities: Le Quatro Strade, Mercatale, S. Casciano in Val di Pesa, Cerbaia, Chiesanuova, Tavernuzza, Montebuoni, Grassina, Imprunetta, Strada in Chianti, Passo dei Pecorai, and finished at the Castello di Vicchiomaggio before returning back to Greve in Chianti at 3pm. During our ride it was such a gorgeous day and the scenery was beautiful all the flowers were in bloom. On a side note because of this, there were a ton of bugs out. Which meant, ever so often we would get smacked in the face by an insect as we were riding on the scooter. Poor Maurizio hit a bee and it stung him in the ear. It was kind of funny, not for him though.
Anyhow, once we returned to Greve in Chianti we went to Le Cantine where they have a TON of wines and you purchase a wine card then you can drink the amount on the card. Whatever you don’t use, they will give back to you. It was an awesome concept. We were able to taste a lot of the wines from the cities we visited and we snacked on some local salami’s and bread in olive oil in the process.
We spent a few hours in the Cantine and then headed on a tour of the city in search of somewhere to have a late lunch. We went to one of the famous Antica Macelleria Falorni and afterwards had a quick lunch. I had pasta with truffle sauce and Maurizio had bruscetta with mozzarella and sundried tomatoes. At 6pm we caught the bus back to Florence and by 7:15 we were happily relaxing in our home. It was a long two days and absolutely worth every second.
See below a video of the area.
Maurizio's comments always make me laugh! Where are we? Italia! What's that pig doing? I don't know but the other one looks like he's enjoying it! His wit is so priceless! Duke E. Pants has got to be the most well traveled dog EVER!
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