Enjoy Your Wine But Enjoy Tuscany As Well

There is, of course, more to Tuscany than wine. In fact, there is more to Tuscany than food and wine! Like most Italian destinations, there are beautiful cities to explore, architecture to admire, great restaurants to enjoy, and picturesque villages to visit. You can also explore some of the region’s vineyards or sign up for organised wine tours to ensure you experience the best local wine. Enjoy the Chianti by all means, but it’s a good idea to plan ahead and have a few ideas of what else you want to do in Tuscany before you visit.


Visit Local Wine Makers

A trip to a local winemaker offers an excellent combination of learning and enjoyment of great wines. The Fontodi vineyard

Vineyard of Chianti Classico

is located at the center of Chianti Classico country, just south of Panzano. The entire vineyard and farm is organic, consisting of 80 hectares of vines and 30 hectares producing organic olives. Traditional methods going back centuries are used to produce wines with terracotta vats rather than wooden barrels to store wine. The owner Giovanni Manetti bucks the trend of many more prominent winemakers as she does not charge for tastings. You can visit the vineyard without even being obliged to buy a bottle.

Wine Tours

Organized wine tours offer the chance to be escorted around some of Tuscany’s best vineyards and restaurants by tour providers with detailed local knowledge. Do a little research, and you will find tour operators running tours that last from a few hours to days or weeks at a time. Tuscan Wine Tours is a small company that local food and wine experts run. It books tastings and sittings at some of the best local vineyards and restaurants, often negotiating discounted prices. Private tours can be arranged or you can join larger organised groups.

Sightseeing

As tempting as it may be to spend an entire trip in Tuscany settled inside a wine bar or touring vineyards, there are plenty of other tourist attractions where visitors can work up a thirst and an appetite. Florence is arguably the cultural highlight of a trip to Tuscany. Famous for its fine food and wine, the city offers some of the best architecture in Italy and some of the finest art galleries in the world. The Uffizi Gallery, Boboli Gardens, and the Ponte Vecchio attract tourists worldwide, and the city can become almost overrun in the peak tourist months. Cruise ship passengers disembark at the local ports of Livorno and Pisa and head into Florence to sample the food and wine for a few hours, so there are times when it is best to head out of the city and explore some of the delightful local towns. Lucca is less than an hour's drive from Florence, and its cobbled streets, which are tucked away behind Renaissance period walls, offer a quiet sanctuary from the bustle of Florence. You can walk round the city walls, admire the color of the surrounding countryside and then wander back into town for a walk around the impressive Cattedrale di San Martino.

Siena is another Tuscan town that is well worth a visit. Again, filled with medieval churches and towers, it is the place to simply lose a few hours wandering round and admiring the architecture. There are plenty of dining choices, ranging from the expensive delis and restaurants along Via di Citta to cheap osterias that will still serve decent local wines. There are several vineyards not far south of Siena; some are reachable by local buses so you can leave the car behind.

Where To Stay

There is accommodation to suit all budgets across Tuscany. The big cities have hotels across all price ranges, and some luxury hotels are dotted around the Tuscan countryside. Plenty of budget hotels or cheap bed and breakfasts, campsites are standard, and plenty of vineyards and farms also offer rooms. For real wine lovers, there can be little better than spending a few days staying in a Tuscan farmhouse, surrounded by vines and some of the best Tuscan wines readily available at cheaper prices than will be found anywhere else.

@Laura Chapman