"Vesta" Tour

Saturday morning we woke up early and hurried downtown Florence to the meeting point of our long-awaited VESPA TOUR OF TUSCANY! Flashback to November when Nancy woke me from my slumber saying, “Guess what I just did! I just booked us a VESPA TOUR in TUSCANY! I'm so EXCITED! Ok you can go back to bed now.”

After signing wavers, we got assigned our Vespas, did a quick run through of how to drive one (the man training me couldn’t believe I had never driven one before…no big deal J ), and then we were off!

The three of us with our super cute helmets :)

In my bulky yellow helmet and Ray-bans, I was zipping through the little winding streets of Tuscany. It was absolutely breath-taking. The rolling hills flowed out from either side of me and continued until the horizon, meanwhile I kept having to remind myself that I was operating a motorized vehicle and couldn’t simply stare off into the beautiful abyss.

We made a quick stop at Machiavelli’s old abode and stopped for a quick photo-op. Apparently when Machiavelli was banished from Florence, he made his way out into the countryside…frankly, I don’t know why he didn’t go there beforehand because the view from his house is AMAZING.

Machiavelli's old house after he got banished from Florence

View from Machiavelli's backyard

Grammy made friends with the tour guides

For lunch, we stopped at another vineyard. However, this time it was at the villa of one of Florence’s oldest “royal” families; The Corsini’s.

Corsini Family Royal Crest

Although royalty no longer holds any importance in Italy, having a title is still considered very respectable and important.

Their villa was absolutely breathtaking, and the gardens weren’t too shabby either. This particular vineyard produces 4 different types of wine and Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

The gardens behind the villa

One thing I learned about wine while I was in Italy: If it’s going to be a Chianti, it needs to meet a ton of different standards. One of them being that the wine needs to consist of at least 85% San Giovese  (SPELLING) grapes. The other 15% can be anything the vineyard owner wants; at the Corsini’s villa, the other 15% was French Merlot.

I also learned that you need to take into account two things in order to identify a true “Chianti” – since a wine shouldn’t technically be able to be called a “Chianti” unless it’s made in the Chianti region and it meets all the criteria (kind of like Champagne in France). A TRUE Chianti bottle will always have a pink ribbon around the neck and a sticker with a Rooster on it. If you see both of those, you’re golden J

Brand New French Oak Barrels

One thing I learned about Olive Oil when I was in Italy: Extra Virgin means that it’s the first press (cold press) of the Olive. The olive will be pressed several times in order to make the most of the oil inside, but it's the oil that comes from the first press of the olive that’s Extra Virgin. The second press is Virgin, and the third or fourth press is regular Olive Oil. No Olive Oil that I will taste in the future will ever compare to the Olive Oil I had in Tuscany.

I also learned that apparently, for some historical reason, the bread in Florence doesn’t contain salt. So when they dip their bread in Olive Oil, they salt the Olive Oil before dipping.

After learning alllll about the 4 different wines at the vineyard, how the grapes are picked, where they’re stored (Brand New French Oak vs. Cement barrels), how long they’re stored (12 months, 18 months, 24 months), and what kind of grapes they consist of, we finally got to taste some of the wine.

I’m not even going to tell you how they tasted. You’ll just have to go find the Vespa tour yourself and taste them. Plus. There are no words to describe the way that perfectly crafted Chianti tastes alongside Extra Virgin Olive Oil after a long day riding a Vespa around Tuscany.

Life J

We had a relaxing lunch and then spent no more than 2 minutes deciding which wines to have shipped back to the US (it really wasn’t that hard). My mom even deciding to invest in a bottle of the villa’s newest creation; ZAC. Zac consists of 100% San Giovese grapes and spends 18 months in brand new French oak barrels before being bottled. If you bought it in America, it would cost you about 200$ a bottle. We’re planning on saving it for a special occasion – I cannot WAIT to pop the cork J.

We hopped back on the Vespas and did a quick trip to a gelateria before meandering to the top of a hill; from which we saw one of the most breathtaking views of downtown Florence.

View of downtown Florence (you can see the Duomo)

We made our way back to our starting point and had to say goodbye to our beloved Vespas.

I’m not going to lie; this day was probably one of my favorite days from my entire semester in Europe. It made me seriously consider moving to Italy, opening a B&B in Tuscany and buying a bunch of land to start a vineyard. Being there, I can’t imagine how anybody could ever be sad. The sun is always shining, the landscape is unbelievable, there’s an abundance of wine, and the people are incredible.

After my first visit, I will be waiting very impatiently to return to Tuscany.

And in the words of my grandmother "I just LOVED that Vesta Tour!"

À Bientôt!