ITALY: Renting a Vespa & Touring the Chianti Region

Hey folks!  I know it’s been awhile since my last post.  Ugh, sometimes blogging does not work out the way I want it to when I have life going on! 😛  I will get better I promise!

To recap from my last post, my husband and I used Florence as our hub the last five days in Italy.  It was a perfect city to explore as well as take a couple day trips.  One day trip involved renting a Vespa and touring the Chianti region which was AMAZING!!

We rented our Vespa through MelaVespo.  The shop opened at 10:00am and we got there a little after.  We had called them the day before to confirm that they had a Vespa available to rent.  They did not have a 150cc available, which is what my husband really wanted, so we rented a 50cc.  The 50cc was perfect and provided plenty of power to get us around.  Vroom vroom. 🙂  Micheli and Sabrina were both so nice and answered all of our questions.

The Vespas are awesome because they have a TomTom GPS attached to each one.  You can choose a tour and the destination is mapped out.  Genius!

We chose the Chianti Vespa Tour.  We are familiar with scooters from living in Hawaii so we have our fair share of driving these babies around.  Although I let my husband do all the driving since this was Italy and I was a little nervous.  My husband graciously obliged. 😉

Ever since I read Under the Tuscan Sun I knew that the Tuscan wine region was a place I wanted to visit.  Since our trip was packed we weren’t able to spend any nights in the Tuscan countryside but this day trip to the Chianti region was perfect.

The views were gorgeous as we were made our way into the hillside.  Naturally, we had to stop and take some pictures.

We made a quick pit stop in a little town we were passing through (I don’t know the name of it).  We decided to stop and have due cappuccini and due panini.  The food was delicious and it was a nice little break from our ride.  Another place that I did not take any pics. (Rolling eyes emoji).  I need to work on that!

We continued on our journey enjoying the sights around us and the crisp fall air.

Italy in the fall is absolutely GORGEOUS!!  I mean, check out all the yellows and oranges and different shades of color.  Another place where I kept asking myself, “Is this real life?”.  Reference Cinque Terre for the other times I asked myself that question while on this trip. ;)

Our next stop was at Castello Vicchiomaggio which just happened to be the first winery we saw along our trek.  We figured why not?  

The tasting room was empty except for one couple that was on their way out.  We enjoyed a glass of Chianti and chatted with the woman pouring.  She was very sweet and knowledgeable of the area.  And I heard her speak three languages!  Impressive!

Up the hill was the castle which has a restaurant and I believe you can also stay there?! We didn’t really check out the inside of the castle; just enjoyed the views.  I wouldn’t mind living here one bit.

The tour zig zagged us around the Chianti region (it was all breathtaking) and took us up to Castellina.  We parked the Vespa and started exploring.

It was mid afternoon by this time so we were both ready to eat some lunch.  The town was extremely quiet.  I’m not sure if this was because it was November or just the hour of the day (siesta) but I liked how sleepy it was.

We grabbed lunch at Chianti Bar and in typical Italian fashion ordered wine as well.  When in Rome!  Ummm I mean Castellina. 😉

After lunch we wandered about the town a bit.  Castellina is so quaint and cute. 

We stopped in two wine shops where we purchased a bottle of Chianti at each to take back to the States with us.  The first shop we just chose a bottle and purchased it.

At the second shop, there was an older gentleman and he was so kind.  We chatted with him about what kind of wine we were looking for and our price point.  He also had us taste some wine.  As I’m writing this post, we’ve had one bottle (from the first wine shop) and it was extremely delicious.  I’m still waiting on the right time to open the 2nd bottle but I can’t wait.

We rented the Vespa for 8 hours (I think) but we wanted to get back to MelaVespo before the sun set so after picking up these bottles we began our ride back to Florence.  Of course we made a couple stops on the way back for pictures. :)

Once back in Florence we dropped off the Vespa to Micheli and Sabrina, thanked them for the fabulous time we had and bid arrivederci!  If you’re ever in Florence you HAVE to rent a Vespa and cruise around.  Trust me, you will love it!

This is my last post of our trip to Italy and to be honest it’s a little bitter sweet.  It’s been fun re-living our memories in this beautiful country and I hope you’ve learned a lot about places you’d like to visit.  It’s been fun blogging about travel so we’ll see what my next post will be about!  Until next time friends!

xo, Jenneke Rose

P.S. – Below are a couple notes from the day.

NOTES:

1. We rented our Vespa from MelaVespa – for 8 hours (I think) the total cost was €49, with $500 deposit held on your credit card, which you get back at the end of the rental.
2. Next time around, we would rent the Vespa for 24 hours (pick it up the night before) so we could get on the road first thing in the morning and not feel rushed to get back.