I would love to take a wine tasting tour. But we don't have a car...anyone succeed at this? Or cooking classes? We are heading to Venice and may stop in Florence on way to Rome. I am hoping for actual name or town of place and if you were able to reach by foot? Bus? or? But not car...Grazie! We are in Malpensa today, Oct 18th and heading into Venice on the 19th morning from Milano Centrale. Can check back in 8 hours.
Posted by
Boulder, CO, USA
719 posts
When we were in Tuscany, we took a bus from Siena to Radda in Chianti and stayed in Radda. If you're willing to walk a bit, you can reach several wineries offering tours by foot. Also, your hotel can likely set up a tour, as well. Good luck.
Posted by
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
203 posts
Monique, I don't know what your budget is, but if you want to spend a day doing a wine tasting, olive oil tasting, winery tour, lunch and visit San Gimignano (world's best gelato found here), Siena and Monteriggione, check out www.artviva.com. I did this tour with them a few weeks ago and thought it was a lovely day and removed the logistics of getting around. I didn't have to think about anything or figure anything out - just book it and then show up at their office in Florence and they took care of everything else.
Posted by
white bear lake, minnesota, USA
87 posts
we just got home after 20 days in Italy and loved it, w exception of spending too many days in Florence. Failed to do my homework before booking: Florence has almost 1/2 million population! Way too dirty, noisy, and congested for 2 weary travelers who were already "museumed- out" after Venice and Rome (both of which we loved) In future, I would book a couple of days in Siena instead and splurge on one of those wine and food tours out of there or Florence. Many have been recommended on this site. We also stayed in Buranco Agriturismi inn Monterosso (CT) because I wanted that farm/vineyard experience w/in walk distance of a town. Loved Buranco and loved Monterosso. Will post more on both soon.
have fun!
Posted by
Murrieta
1 posts
We just returned from 3 wonderful weeks in France and Italy, traveling by train and other public transportation. A true highlight was our Sienna experience: Cooking class and wine tasting tour. Both were arranged for us by the very helpful front desk staff at Hotel Athena. I highly recommend the following: La Scuola di Cucina, Lella's website is www.scuoladicucinadilella.net. She and her native English-speaker assistant provide a fun, skillful 4 hour class. The next day, we completely enjoyed a 9 hour wine tasting tour with our host/driver Francesco Conforti <[email protected]>. For the same price that four of us would have paid for a van full of strangers, we rode comfortably through the Tuscan countryside to our choice (his recommendations based on our conversation) of sites. We visited a beautiful Benedictine Abbey before stopping at two family wineries. We tasted (and bought) excellent Brunello. And there were NO other tourists there. It was really fantastic. Francesco speaks good English, knows the local history as well as having personal connections with the wineries. Have fun!