Tuscan Winery Tours and Day Trips

under the tuscan sun

One of my favorite things about Italy is the wine! If you have not been, a fun fact is that the you can get a decent bottle of wine cheaper than water (which is something you need to ask for at restaurants — you have the choice of getting sparkling or still).

As you can imagine, there are all different kinds of wines throughout the country, but one of my favorites is Chianti. Chianti wine is produced in the region of Tuscany (which can been seen in orange on the map).

If you are visiting Italy and you spending time in the city of Florence, a must do day trip is vising the wineries in the Tuscan countryside.

Winery tours

Both times we have been to Florence we have done winery tours. The first time we were there we did a larger group tour where we got picked up in near our hotel and driven to 2 different locations in Tuscany. The first stop was a winery called Fattoria Poggio Alloro, that overlooked the medieval town of San Gimignano (which you can see peeking out in the background)

Our second stop was visiting the village of San Gimignano that could be seen from the first winery. This town is located about 25 miles from the city of Florence and

is an amazingly preserved town built on the hills in Tuscany, with 14 of its 72 medieval towers still standing. One of the coolest features of this town is the well that still stands today that was used by locals thousands of years ago! You can check out this guide to San Gimignano to learn more!

private winery and cheese tour

This time around we chose to do a private tour (just Jonathon, my parents, and myself). Our driver picked us up from our hotel and the first place we stopped was a pecorino cheese factory. Here we got to watch the process of how all different kinds of cheeses were made, how they were stored, and then of course we got to taste them all! I had the best tasting ricotta cheese of my life here! If you are a cheese lover, this is a MUST see, do, and taste!

After all that cheese, it was time for to wash it down with some wine. We went to a a beautiful winery called Casa Emma Winery where we tried a refreshing glass of rose, Chianti Classico, and Chianti Classcio Riserva. You can find my outfit details linked in my post Summer Amazon Finds .