Categoria: News & Events

For Sarah’s 18th birthday we chose and booked the Gourmet Vespa Tour in Chianti. Birthday party riding a Vespa in Chianti is the experience that our group has been wanting to do for some time on our next holidays in Tuscany and Sarah’s birthday has been the right occasion.

We reached Fornacette, the place where Sonia, Patrizio and Phil were waiting for us, and after a warm welcome we did the driving tests. Of all the members of the group, Amy proved to be the most insecure in driving but with Sonia’s calm suggestions she improved and luckily we all managed to leave|

Birthday party riding a Vespa in Chianti is a wonderful feeling and I certainly didn’t imagine that driving a Vespa is incredibly beautiful… but prudence is essential.

The first stop took place in Romita with an extraordinary breakfast of Tuscan specialties in the panoramic room of the grocery store. The toast to Sarah with fruit juice was perfect!

Badia a Passignano, protected by the Antinori vineyards and ancient cypresses, welcomed us with its imposing figure. Sonia and Patrizio had booked the guided tour of the abbey. It was their birthday present to Sarah and the whole group. The visit was very interesting. The climb that took us to Poggio al Sole was challenging for our Vespas. Poggio al Sole offered us a spectacular view of the Chianti and while sitting we enjoyed coffee and cappuccino at the bar.

Once we reached San Casciano we celebrated Sarah’s birthday at the Cantinetta del Nonno di Giuseppe with fresh pasta with truffles, mixed roast meat and a selection of tiramisu. Fantastic! After lunch Phil accompanied us on a short visit to San Casciano and we discovered, to our surprise, that Phil is a professor of medicine from the United States and has received recognition in various parts of the world.

Once back in Fornacette we left the Vespas and went by car to celebrate Sarah at the San Giusto farm where we tasted their extraordinary products. The excellent wines, olive oil, vin santo with cantuccini and Lorenzo’s honey with cheese.

We were happy to say goodbye and thank the Vespa Tour in Chianti team for this unforgettable day.

Ann

At the beginning of September in Tuscany, the harvest begins. The Open Cellars in Chianti is one of the most magical moments of our land. Vespa Tour in Chianti organizes a tour linked to this extraordinary event.

Throughaut the month of September, which will end with a visit to the cellar “Tenute di Sticciano”, a beautiful resort surrounded by endless rows of wines where excellent wines are produced.
Upon arrival, we will take you on a walk through the vineyards to caress the succulent and swollen bunches of red and sometimes golden grapes that have awaited a long sunny summer to
Prepare this event.

The tasting of these extraordinary wines will be conducted by the sommelier Anna.

Mercantia, is one of those events that cheers up our land in midsummer.

Certaldo, in its beautiful medieval village every year in mid-July exactly from the 12th to 16th July hosts this extraordinary festival: a kermess of products and artists from all over the world.

This village together with San Gimignano represents one of the most beautiful places visited by the Chianti Vespa Tour reached passing through roads surrounded by extraordinary landscapes that have inspired generations of artists and painters over the centuries.

Mercantia festival in Certaldo alto represents a uniqueness in the rich panorama of parties and festivals that animate Tuscany especially during the summer and the Chianti Vespa tour is pleased to make its participants appreciate these events

Every day for four days, many artists from all over the world take turns on the natural stages formed by the courtyards of the palaces, by the gardens in the shade of the towers and in the basement of the medieval village of Certaldo, the town of Giovanni Boccaccio. Memory and avant-garde, historic companies and the search for new trends, from storytellers to aerial dance, from mimes to street bands, from street parades to cabaret, from puppeteers to jugglers: there are many and heterogeneous shows on the program

In the air you can breathe the flavors of the time and the images of the people, often in medieval costumes, make us dream of the life of the village once upon a time. We seem to glimpse Messer Giovanni Boccaccio surrounded by beautiful bridesmaids, while seated, writing the verses of his Decameron, one of the most

Translated in the world.

We reach the village of Certaldo alto with our colorful and cheerful vespa after Having secured the parking, the characteristic streets full of stalls with handicraft products open up in front of us where the uniqueness makes them truly special. What is striking are the happy expressions of these young artists, but not only.

As they say, art has no definite age ….

Mercantia also welcomes a considerable number of stalls selling food and confectionary specialties famous in Tuscany, where it is sometimes possible to taste them and whose quality is demonstrated by long queues of visitors.

As always, we take advantage of the artistic cappuccinos and the excellent tiramisu’ of the Boccaccio bar, then a last look at Certaldo alto and its Mercantia and with a goodbye we continue with our tour.

Early September is one of the best times to visit Chianti and riding a vespa is always a unique and fascinating experience that becomes incomparable for a visit to the Classic Chianti wine expo in Greve in Chianti.

The expo festival takes place on the second weekend of September starting on Thursday. It is a party that welcomes all lovers of good wine and takes place in the splendid setting of Piazza Matteotti in Greve in Chianti.

During the days of the event, Greve in Chianti offers its visitors a rich program of artistic and cultural events related to the rural world, close contacts with winemakers, their vineyards and cellars.

For us at the Chianti vespa tour, this festival is an event not to be missed.

Piazza Matteotti is full of producers of this extraordinary wine, from the most famous to the less known but still excellent products. Once we park our vespas, we join the visitors who fortunately, in the morning, are not so numerous and this makes our visit easier and more Interesting.

These wines represent the work of generations and are the pride of these producers who, thanks to their passion and a growing and selective market, have experimented and refined their productions.

Unfortunately we have to avoid the tastings in order not to compromise the guide but of course, it is possible to buy the wines to remember this beautiful experience once arrived at home
Back on the vespas and the tour starts again its journey through the vineyards tired of the long summer and the recent harvest. In the fields it is still possible to see the industrious farmers picking the grapes. An operation abandoned by most and replaced by machines which have certainly solved many problems of manpower and working times but which have emptied the vineyards of the colors and voices that have always been a feature of countryside folklore.

We pass through streets that border the sometimes empty rows of their precious fruit. Here are those of Badia a Passignano, in front of the abbey of the same name from the 1000s, where the famous reserve is produced and then those of Tignanello, unique in their kind for having white stones covering the roots.

This attention serves to prevent the roots from excessive dehydration, maintaining the freshness accumulated during the night in the day.

Returning we turn our backs on this eternal paradise, a land of sweat and passion, and the memories of this wonderful day will accompany us forever on our life’s journey.

wine expo 2

wine expo 3

wine expo 5

Wine expo 1

In the splendid and unique hills of the Florentine Chianti there is a jewel: Montefioralle.

Montefioralle is located in the municipality of Greve in Chianti in the province of Florence. Its history dates back to around the year 1000. The small village has always had a significant military importance in the events that have taken place over the centuries, seeing Florence against Siena.

In the romantic setting of this extraordinary village, for over 50 years, every year the first week-end after San Giuseppe celebration, on March 19th take place the “sagra delle frittelle”; an ancient popular festival with Renaissance origins.

The celebration is held on Saturday and Sunday from 10.00 to 18.00 and the municipality of Greve in Chianti to facilitate Access to the village, has set up in recent years a shuttle that leaves from Piazza Trento in the center of Greve which runs a transport service every 30 minutes to avoid the traffic jam that occurs every year along the narrow up hill road that leads to the castle.

It was the custom of the local population to prepare “rice pancakes” as a typical dessert on the occasion of the celebration of St. Joseph.

The “frittella” in all its delicious variants, is a warm dessert that has brightened up Tuscan tables since time immemorial and propitiate the spring. In the main square of Montefioralle, in front of a gigantic pan with a diameter of two meters, capable of containing up to 250 kg of oil, is celebrated the ritual of cooking pancakes, made in very hot oil, which once extracted and dried must be eaten very hot.

Around the pan there are a group of Chefs busy “creating” one pancake at a time, to immediately throw it into the ocean of boiling oil in the mega pan. Formidable!

We took part in this event with Vespa Tour in Chianti, preceded by a very inviting road and with images of Badia a Passignano just left.

The Vespa Tour in Chianti awaits you to share this experience by participating together in the next “sagra delle frittelle” pancake festival in Montefioralle, sharing the emotion of traveling on a vespa, enjoing the landscape and finally tasting the famous “frittelle”.