Secluded spot to drink wine under the stars

Help us out a little. How far from Florence are you willing to go? When do you plan this excursion?

Just south of Florence, near Greve is Castello di Verrazzano. It is a lovely drive up a private road to the winery. There are some great vantage points of the vineyards and the valley below. There is also a terrace at the winery. Their wines are terrific. You could contact them with your plans and they may even be able to provide a plate with cheese and Tuscan salami.

See: http://www.verrazzano.com/en/wine-tours/

depends on how much you drink, but any alley should work :)

There are no laws against drinking wine in public parks or open spaces in Italy and everybody does it.
Only "manifest" drunkenness in a public space is prohibited by law and punishable with an administrative fine ranging from 51€ to 309€ (art. 688 of the Penal Code). But to be "manifestly drunk" you have to be pretty wasted.

There are lots of parks and open spaces in or around Florence where you can go. Some parks close at night (like Boboli in Florence), others don't (like the Cascine in Florence). The countryside obviously doesn't close. However if you are a woman I wouldn't necessarily want to be in a secluded place in the dark, possibly inebriated.

Also check whether your hotel has a roof terrace. Some of them do but don't advertise it well.

The Cascine Park never closes but it is not exactly the place where you want to be at midnight, maybe also a bit drunk. If you can find a private place it would be better.

Thanks you for the input! I'm willing to drive a ways, in fact we'll be making the drive from the Cinque Terre to Florence after a day of hiking and swimming, and I was hoping to do it somewhere on the way. This will be in three weeks.

The vineyard definitely sounds like an option, but I was hoping for something totally informal where we could just go by ourselves. Seclusion is the priority. I don't know if it's possible. I know that in the states if you pull off on a quiet road you'll be trespassing.

Roberto, the countryside is what I'm looking for. I guess my question is how to know where it's okay to pull the car over and walk? Oh, and there will be two of us, a man and a woman.

This sounds like the setup for a special moment....

Nigel, I want it to be special but not THAT special, hahaha!

Be very careful about driving after drinking that wine. The drunk driving laws are very strict in Europe, including Italy. The Europeans we spend time with will not drive if they have had ANY alcohol--- not even one glass of wine.

What Lola said. Drunk driving laws in Italy are VERY strict. BAC limit is 0.05. More here:
http://www.amoretravelguides.com/blog/drinking-and-driving-in-italy.php

You can pull over wherever you want in the countryside, however 30 some years ago, when I was younger and living in Florence, I would have advised a couple like you against making such plans, as you could have been shot not for trespassing, but for different reasons

Roberto---that occurred to me as well. We read the non-fiction book by that title, and it was chilling. But very well-written, by a journalist who was himself a suspect at some point.

Roberto, thank you! A random spot in the countryside is EXACTLY what I was hoping to be able to do. I assume that we'll find plenty of spots on the road from La Spezia to Florence, yes? And thanks for the chill up my spine, lol. I've already ordered The Monster of Florence on Amazon to satisfy my curiosity!

Thank you to everyone who took the time to write a response! And, no worries, based on what I've read here I'll keep my vino consumption to a couple of sips. :)