Tuscany bike tour

We had booked a bike / wine tour in the Tuscan countryside for this day, with Tuscany Bike Tours. We walked to the tour office in the Santa Croce area, and met the group. There were a few different groups, some cycling, others on vespas. There were 8 of us in the cycling group. A couple from Australia, a few from the States, and a guy from India.

We got into the van and drove to the start of the cycling  which was a beautiful old family estate that was a winery and olive oil maker. 

The cycle was fairly short, less than 20km, and the first part of it was mostly downhill. We stopped to take some pictures of the amazing countryside. 

Angus, our guide, talked about the different types of grapes that are grown. Most grapes are machine harvested and fermentation starts early, for cheaper wines. Some grapes are hand-selected to make very expensive wines, and the fermentation is more controlled. They don't sell a lot of it, so it doesn't make much money, but it creates a good reputation for the winery. When grape season is over they switch to harvestng and pressing olives for olive oil. That is why there are both vines and olive treea everywhere.

The last part was a very steep uphill climb to make up all the elevation we'd gone down. A few of us did it, the rest took the van.

Back at the estate we had a tour of the winery and the olive oil production and had a pasta lunch with different wines.

We drove back to Florence, getting in about 3:00pm. We walked back to the hotel, then found a laudromat and did some much-needed laundry. Then for dinner in the Santo Spirito area.