Tuscany Day 3: Wine Tour

This was probably our other most favorite day of our trip! The wine tour was such a great experience and really nice to have someone else drive us around to all of these little places. The other people in the group were great and we had so much fun.

We had to drive into Florence to meet up with our tour group and then we were off in a miniature version of a van through the Italian countryside.

First we stopped at a vineyard on the side of the road to look at the vines and learn a little more about the region. We got to see little grapes starting to grow!

Marialuisa was our tour guide and we absolutely loved her. Her family owns and runs a vineyard in San Gimignano, which is one of the very few regions in Tuscany that does white wine. We did not have a chance to go there this trip, but definitely will next time!

Our first actual vineyard stop was Renzo Marinai, which is an organic vineyard. We got a tour of the grounds and then the cellar. We have done wine tastings at vineyards before, but have never gotten a full tour like this so I learned a lot.

Then it was time to taste the wine! Which was delicious so we bought 4 bottles plus a dessert wine.

We stopped in Panzano to get lunch at a world famous butcher shop run by Dario Cecchini. Dario is an absolutely character and hilarious. He sings and entertains the whole time. There is a restaurant right above the butcher shop. In the butcher shop they offer free wine, salami and bread to eat and Dario comes around and shakes everyone's hands. Food was delicious and I even tried I tiny piece of sushi steak--steak tar tar.

Next stop was another vineyard, much larger than the first one, called Villa Cafaggio. A really cool experience, but we didn't like the wine as much so we only bought two bottles.

We did a quick stop in the town of Greve, which is the capital of the region, and ate some gelato.

We took a picture of Florence from the hill top where we were dropped off and then we headed back to the hotel in Donnini. We didn't even eat dinner since we were still so full from our lunch and gelato.