I think this is going to be the last travel post from Italy. You can find my post from Florence, here and my day in rome post, here.
The Chianti wine tasting tour was by far one of my favorite experiences from my trip to Florence. There are so many wine tours in Tuscany, but I’m convinced the chianti wine tasting tour I did was the best. When Livi’s parents visited her, they went on the same wine tour and they loved it.
The tour took us from Florence to Tuscany. You could do the wine tour in the morning or the afternoon. We booked the wine tour the day before, so we could only do the afternoon wine tour.
If you’re reading this, you may not know what Chianti means. A Chianti wine tasting tour means that the wine is produced in the Chianti region of central Tuscany. Now that I’m back home, my Mom will only buy Chianti Classico wine. FYI, if there’s a rooster on your wine, it was produced in the Chianti region. You have the good stuff then.
It was disasterous trying to find the bus terminal in Florence. The way the GPS took us was not the main way people probably go. My Mom actually was hyperventaliting because she thought the area wasn’t safe (it was fine). We finally got there, in one piece. The bus is what took us to the Chianti wine tasting tour. It was a nice small tour bus and the ride there had amazing views.
Onto the wine tours
The Chianti wine tasting tour took us to two wineries. The first of the two wine tours took us down to the barrells. They showed us how the wine is fermated and aged. It was so cool, the pictures will be below.
After that, we headed to a tasting room. The best part…the olive oil. The olive oil is to DIE for, we loved it. My Mom and I brought olive oil home and we finished it in a few weeks. At the first wine tasting tour we tried three wines and two olive oils, so good!
The second chianti wine tasting tour took had the most INCREDIBLE views. We also met so many great people on the wine tour from all over the world.
We went into a tasting room and sat at a table. They brought out a cheese plate, it was again, incredible.
We were so tired after! Of course we still pulled through for another amazing Florence dinner.
More of these pictures with outfit details to come
Another travel blog post! This post will cover Florence.
Florence was my home base while in Italy. My best friend Livi traveled A LOT, but she lived and took classes in Florence. After being to Rome, I’m so happy she chose to study in Florence. Florence is INCREDIBLE. I have not a single bad thing to say about the city.
We did so many things in Florence. I was just content wondering the quaint city.
We stayed in an Airbnb for the first four nights and a hotel the last two nights. Since originally I was going with my roommate Cara, I had searched places with high ratings and with a low cost. We LOVED both places that we stayed.
The Airbnb didn’t have wifi, but it was suppose to. The host was apologetic so that was apperciated. Other then that, we enjoyed our stay. It was a very authentic space which my Mom and I apperciated. It was also a two minute walk from Livi’s apartment which was perfect.
Our Hotel, Hotel Rapallo, was an incredible boutique hotel. The hotel was a 10 minute walk from the train station, but a bit more of a hike to Livi’s apartment. We didn’t mind the distance to Livi’s apartment since we only stayed there for the last two nights of our trip. The hotel had complimentary breakfast, and our favorite, tea time. Tea time was from 5p.m to 11 p.m. and had little pastries, meats, cheese, tea and coffee. YUM.
Day one we got into Florence around 8:30 PM. This is after our long travel day with a 15 hour layover in Lisbon, Portugal. We were exhausted! Luckily, Livi pushed us to enjoy a true Italian dinner in Florence. The restaurant was the best introduction and welcome to the city.
Day two we just spent time walking around and getting to know the city. My Mom bought a plan with Verizon while we were abroad and it wasn’t working at first (ended up being the silliest mishap). Finally, we got the phone to work. At first, it was disasterous because her navigation wouldn’t work. Florence, and really everywhere we went, was really impossible to navigate without a working GPS.
Once the GPS started working we were good to go. On Day two, Livi took my Mom and I to this amazing panini place. All’Antico Vinaio was a 10/10. They’re GIANT and I had so much prosciutto in my panini. After that, my Mom and I went to the Gucci Gardens.
At night, Livi and I went to the Christmas market and walked around. It was similar to the Christmas market Bryant Park has around Christmas time.
Day three was more exploring of Florence. We shopped, ate and walked around. With ongoing rain, we stopped exploring for a little to get dry inside a local pub. This pub was great, but what was not so great was the “turkish” style toilet. Livi and I went to use the bathroom and thought we were in the mens bathroom. The “toilet” was a squared whole. We were confused and asked the waitress where the womens bathroom was. She said, “Oh that’s the womens bathroom. You have to squat, it’s turkish style.” We were hysterically laughing over this. It was unreal (I should’ve taken a picture).
