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Published: February 14th 2012
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me on the scooter
we stopped for a quick pose with the scooters September 8-9, 2007
It's Valentine's Day so I thought I'd kick off this travel writing with a tale of a trip to one of the most romantic places on earth: Tuscany.
The starting point of this trip is Firenze (Florence) because although I lived in Genova (Genoa) at the time of the trip, the train ride with layover in Pisa is largely uninteresting. My companion on this weekend trip was a gangly colleague by the name of Eric. The date was September 8th and the wine harvest was under way. Eric had heard of a wine festival in a small village in the Chianti region called Greve. The weather was still very warm so we decided that scooters should be the way to travel through the Tuscan countryside. We reserved the scooters online and a hotel in Siena (Sienna) for Saturday night and set off.
Upon arrival at the rental shop, we discovered it to be very busy. When it was our turn, the guy gave us a few hasty instructions and sent us off. Fortunately, I had borrowed my friend's GPS unit so getting out of Firenze was not so tricky. It didn't take us long to
Eric
Eric poses in front of the Tuscan countryside get used to the scooters...or so we thought.
We arrived in Greve around lunchtime. Our first stop was buying the glass and punch card for the festival. For about ten euro, you received a wine glass and a punch card good for eight tastings. We wandered around the booths and sampled a few. We even competed in a smug-off to see who could look more smug while tasting the wine. About halfway through our tastings, we realized we needed some food. We found a booth with fresh pork sandwiches. I only wish I had a picture of these sandwiches! It was something similar to
this. And then back to finish the wine tasting. We had mostly Chianti Classico wines but we also tried some Sangiovese and Vin Santo. A couple times the vendor failed to stamp our punch card, seemingly on purpose, so we got a couple "free" tastes! After a coffee and a Red Bull to counter the effect of the wines, we got back on the scooters to drive on.
Our next stop was to be San Gimignano, a city of towers on a hill. However, the GPS was behaving badly and took us through some
scooters
our chariots very small roads and even a gravel road. That gravel road then split and I followed the gps left. I turned my head to make sure Eric saw me turning left and down I went! I completely wiped out in the loose gravel. There were scratches and aesthetic damage but nothing too bad. We finally made it off the gravel and back to a main road. It wasn't the first or the last time the GPS misled us.
As we got close to San Gimignano, we could see it from pretty far away. It's very recognizable since it's on a hill and has a bunch of towers. As we were driving up and looking for parking, I somehow lost Eric. I found a spot to park along the main street and waited for him. a few minutes later, I flag him down. Apparently, when the road tee'd and I turned left, he lost control and went straight across the intersection into a bunch of thorn bushes! The scooter's gas cap broke off but he was unharmed.
We wandered around the village and went up one of the towers to see the view from the top. It was such
Greve in Chianti
the main piazza of Greve where the wine festival took place an incredible view! We didn't stay long since we still had to make it to Siena for the night. We stopped at one of the many torture museums to see what it was all about. I suppose that should have been self-explanatory. Then we fought the tourist crowds back out of town to our scooters.
The night was falling as we approached Siena. I knew we were on the road where our hotel was located but i was unsure as to where it was exactly. I pulled over at a fuel station and told Eric to stay close because I might be turning quite suddenly once I saw the hotel. We got back on the road and within five seconds, I spotted the sign and pulled into the parking lot. Turns out it was much closer than I expected! It was cheap because it was on the outskirts of the city so we decided to eat dinner close by and check out the city the next morning.
The next morning, we headed to the city center and found parking quite easily. From there, we walked into the main piazza: Piazza del Campo. There is a horse race in
grapes
yet to be harvested grapes up close this piazza every summer called the Palio. This is the race at the beginning of the Bond movie "Quantum of Solace". It was not taking place at the time we were there so the piazza was quite empty. We took some cappucinos and some panforte and sat in the piazza for a bit but not very long since we still had a long way to go that day.
Back on the scooters, we headed south towards the village of Montalcino, home of the exquisite wine Brunello. As we passed through some of the villages on the way, we noticed many of them having small festivals of their own but we didn't have time to stop at all of them.
We arrived at Montalcino and parked on a sloped street. I was very naive when it comes to how to park a scooter on a slant so I happened to park it incorrectly. Of course, it took this opportunity to fall off its stand. Eric and a passer-by help me pick it back up since it happened to slide partially under a car parked adjacently. More scratches; I knew I'd have to pay for the damages but that was
San Gimignano
along a street in San Gimignano with one of the many towers not the time to worry about it.
In the village, we visited a few enotecas and sampled some Brunellos. I even got to taste a 2001 Casanova di Neri Tenuta Nuova, which was one of the tops wines in 2006. In the same shop, I noticed an old rack of dusty bottles. I looked closer and discovered they were full and dated from the 70s. The price tag on one of them was 2500 euro! A little too rich for my blood, but I did walk out with a couple selections. Up by the fort, there was a honey festival with many farmers selling their honey and other goods. We stopped for a quick lunch at a bar and realized it was time to head back to Firenze.
Getting back wasn't so easy since the GPS failed to cooperate at some critical points. It would eventually find a good signal and get us back on the right track. We found a little fuel station to refill our scooters and then returned them to the rental shop. The problem was that it was closed since it was Sunday. We didn't remember if the guy told what to do in
Siena
the tower and church in the Piazza del Campo in Siena case they were closed. We decided that they probably had spare keys so we locked everything and locked the keys under the seat. With our backpacks full of wine, we headed back to the train that would take us back to Genova.
Turns out they did have spare keys but they were at the Pisa office. They tried to charge us for an extra day while they retrieved the spare set. They told us we were supposed to leave them at the parking garage across the street but they had never told us to do that since they were in such a rush that day. We both had to pay for the damages incurred so it ended up being a more expensive weekend than we expected but I didn't mind! It was just all part of the adventure! If everything goes smoothly, where do the memories come from?
Has anyone else had a memorable trip to Tuscany? Were scooters or any of the above places mentioned involved? I'd love to hear your stories as well!
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