Florence June 2011: Toot it and Scoot It

After a great nights sleep, we were off again. Alyssa, Emily, Donny and myself had signed up to go on a Vespa tour through the Tuscan countryside in the Chianti area. We arrived outside of the trusty McDonalds for our transportation at 9:25 am and started our day.

About an hour drive outside of Florence, we visited Monteriggione Castle in the Chianti area before heading to the ranch where we were to start our vespa tour. We got to see San Gimignano from the castle. I just learned about San Gimignano in my wine tasting class on Wednesday. It is the only area in the Tuscany region where Vernaccia grapes are grown to produce Vernaccia white wine.

When we got to the ranch, we did a test drive on the vespas (and our ginormous helmets) in a gravel track area. It was pretty easy for me since I have a scooter at school. For my roommates this was not the case. Emily was nervous to keep the throttle open and therefore couldn’t keep her balance very well, and Alyssa was doing alright until we left for the tour (Emily hopped on the back of one of our Tour Guide’s scooters). About 10 minutes in, Alyssa fell over on her scooter scratching her right knee and arm. She didn’t want to get on the back of anyone’s scooter – which I don’t blame her as it was probably startling to fall over her first time – so Alyssa, Emily and Donny went back to the ranch. I kept going on the tour with 3 other girls and our Tour Guide named Phillipo. He was crazy! He even took us out into an actual vineyard with our scooters (which he told us we weren’t allowed to tell about) to see a magnificent view.

The ride was perfect. The weather was cool and breezy with enough sun to keep me warm in my leggings and tank top. We rode for about 2 hours through the countryside, meeting up with another group that did horseback riding and Alyssa, Emily and Donny at Monteriggione for our lunch. We had bread with olive oil, prosciutto, soft pecorino cheeses, bruschetta, linguini with a pomodoro sauce, homemade gnocci in a meat sauce, and panne cotta with chocolate sauce for dessert. Of course, with plenty of Chianti as well. I was stuffed…. come to think about it, I still am pretty full from the meal I ate almost 3 hours ago. We scooted back to the ranch – I managed to hit 45 mph on the road back. The ride back to Florence was nice and I took a little nap.

Now, I am going to do the same thing and rest a little before we decide what we are doing for dinner and where we will go out tonight. Tomorrow I will be staying in Florence to finish shooting some photos for my natural landscape photo project, and will hopefully make our way into the Academia and the Uffizi. We are planning on heading to Fiesole for sunset tomorrow night as well. I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

All my love.