Biking Chianti Region in Italy

Thursday, June 25, 2015
We were met promptly in our hotel lobby by Luca, our cycling tour guide for the day. Finding parking in old Florence can be tough, so Luca parked on edge of town and was now escorting us to the van that would take us to the bikes.

Within twenty minutes we had left the confines of Florence and emerged in Greve, Chianti at Noleggio bike shop where Luca hooked us up with a cool set of "magic" bikes (more on these later).

We get geared up and start our cycling adventure. Luca had laid out the day for us, bike a couple hours then have espresso,  bike an hour more then have lunch for couple of hours. The day is perfect for cycling, cool breeze and sunshine on our face and WE'RE IN Italy!

True to the schedule, two hours into our ride we pull over at a local vineyard tasting room in Limole for expresso and to take in the country side. The past two hours of riding have been amazing with spectacular Tuscan views.

(the view from out expresso stop)

Back on bikes and we are now led off the beaten path to a gravel roadway that has us going downhill for at least thirty minutes. We finally meet back with the main road for more downhill biking, at one point reaching a top speed of 51 kph (31 mph). The fun finally ends as we begin our uphill climb to the town of Radda in Chianti, where we break for lunch at Caffe San Niccolo. On the topic of lunch Luca shared an Italian saying with us, "Italians don't age at the dinner table so we take long meals". And it would be an hour and a half before we got on the bikes again.

Lunch finally over we map out our route back to our point of origin, which is not the same route that brought us to Radda. The route Luca has chosen for us will have our final push to Greve along a scenic downhill run (the day keeps getting better). Of course common sense tells you that what goes downhill, has to climb the hill first, so we begin our after lunch ride gaining elevation.

Now is a good time to mention the "magic" bikes. These marvelous machines are electric power assisted bikes. They do not do the work of pedaling but they have an electric motor that assists in moving the bike as long as pedaling is happening. It has several modes of assist from what I call turbo mode (max assist) to manly-man (no assist). The more assist you need the faster your battery drains, so you must find happy medium between assist and battery reserves. While Brenda and I needed some assist on the uphill, Luca did not have a magic bike, all his uphill biking was all Luca.

(fantastic views)

 

(the roadways)

(this is what I think of when I think of Tuscany, it does exist!)

Our afternoon ride was amazing, the Tuscan country side is beautiful and todays ride was perfect. We pull back into Greve and the bike shop around 4pm, six hours and after we departed and thirty miles of dirt heavier. Amazing day!

(with out guide Luca, awesome day of cycling!)

Its pretty late after we clean up and neither of us feel like dressing up for dinner. We hike over to the Duomo for dinner and people watching at L Opera Caffe and Wine Bar to finish our night.