Wine tasting and lunch at an agriturismo

Both of these properties offer tours, tastings and fantastic food.

Both are by Greve in Chianti, an hour bus ride from Florence.

https://www.vignamaggio.com/en/tuscan-food-and-wine-tours

https://www.verrazzano.com/en/guided-tours/

You can't go wrong with either.

Check with your lodging on how to get there.

Thanks Gerri,

They both look great. Was transportation provided to and from the agriturismo or did you have to provide your own?

steve

We drove, but there is a bus from Florence to Greve. Takes about an hour plus a walk or taxi ride. Check with your lodging, they should be able to point you in the right direction.

Highly recommend tours by Roberto, who is a local tour guide Rick uses often. Did a wine immersion tour with his company that took us to two family brunello producers as well as lunch at one. Tour can be joined in florence or Siena.

A very strong second for Vignamaggio! We did a cooking class there in March 2017, although they also serve lunch and dinner. Vignamaggio is both an agriturismo and a winery. It is also the ancestral home of the family of the Mona Lisa. (You can read about its storied history on their web site.) The villa is located in a beautiful setting in the Tuscan countryside (in Greve in Chianti) and the people were very friendly and accommodating.

All of the arrangements by email well in advance of our trip. You are allowed to pick 6 dishes to cook, but no more than 2 per course. A chef does all of the prep work and guides you thereafter. A rose (wine, not flower) also was provided in the kitchen during the cooking phase. (Fortunately, no one lost any fingers.) After preparing our dishes, we went outside on the patio, were seated at a table, and were offered a plate of prosciutto, cheese, and bread. Being very careful not to fill up on the aperitivo, we tasted the fruits of our labor, accompanied by several Chianti Classicos. Needless to say, there was way more food than we could eat.

We hired a taxi recommended by Vignamaggio to take us there from our hotel in Florence and back. One other highlight was that we stopped at the Florence American Cemetery on the way back to our hotel. It is one of the many cemeteries in Europe maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission and worth a visit. Most of the American soldiers buried there died in the action north of Rome in 1944-45. It is a very beautiful, peaceful and quiet place to contemplate the cost of freedom and to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Thanks for the detailed response Robert. I will definately give this one the highest priority. Your stop at the American Cemetery outside Firenze was a very good choice. My father's ashes are there. It is one of the most beautiful American Cemeteries in Italy. Hope you got to sign in and leave a message. I go back whenever I can.

Ciao,

steve

We spent a week at Castillo di Verrazzano. We had a great time. Their food and wine tasting lunch is just amazing, one of the highlights of our stay in Tuscany.

Steve: Your father rests in hallowed ground. It is great that you can visit periodically. The impetus for our visit was that my late father-in-law served in the 100th Infantry Battalion, which became part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (“Go For Broke”) and fought in Italy. Several members of the 100th/442nd are buried at the FAC. The huge marble operations maps of the American forces in Italy in the Memorial is spectacular. We did sign the visitors log and had a nice conversation with the Director and other Cemetery personnel, who were very welcoming and knowledgeable about the Italian Campaign.