One of the reasons Mr. P and I chose Italy for our honeymoon was for the food and wine. A wine tour was high on our to-do list. We hadn’t pre-booked any wine tours. We figured, we would book one while we were in Italy. We didn’t do a ton of planning before we went to Tuscany with the wedding and all, so we kind of just winged it. Not a great idea in hindsight, but we figured it out. We had WiFi at our apartment complex, so Mr. P and I scoured the internet on our iPhones and e-mailed a bunch of tours we found. We ended up booking a tour with Tom Bolden of Tuscan Trails.  Read some reviews on Trip Advisor here…I will be posting mine shortly. We also contacted Angie with Tuscan Wine Tours, but the times she had available didn’t fit our schedule. Although, we read great reviews of her on Trip Advisor as well. I wish we could have taken two tours, but we only had time (and money) for one. They can be a bit pricey, but the ones we looked into were a full day tour including transportation and lunch.

We went on the daily Chianti tour with Tom and had a great time! There was about eight other people on the tour with us and all were from the U.S. as is Tom so we felt very comfortable. The tour departed from Florence so we had to take an early train in to meet up with them. We stopped at Chef Express, one of our favorite breakfast places…this place had really good cappuccino’s and chocolate pastries!! Then made our way to the meeting point at one of the bridges.

Our guide Tom was really nice and very knowledgeable. He was from San Francisco but now lived in Florence with his wife. We had a blast on this tour and were able to taste so much wine and olive oil!

The first stop we made was to Castello Del Trebbio. ;It was breathtaking! It looked exactly like what you think Tuscany looks like with a castle, a few farm houses and miles upon miles of vineyards.

Look at this place…it’s just beautiful!

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We toured the castle, where the wine is made, saw all the different barrels and a bunch of dusty bottles! After the tour, we tasted the wine and the olive oil. This was what I was waiting for…my favorite part! And I wasn’t disappointed…neither was Mr. P! We ended up buying a bottle of Chianti and the olive oil from this place. It is delicious! We’re still enjoying the olive oil, but the wine is long gone. I need to look this place up to get more of it! I’m not a huge Chianti fan, but the wine we tasted here was great.

Then we stopped for a very much-needed lunch…with all of that wine, I was getting a little too drunk! The lunch was amazing! We had the basic Italian meal…cured meats and cheeses, pasta and a desert with a glass of Vin Santo. It was out of this world! I wish I knew the name of the restaurant, but I just know that it was way up in the hills. The view was spectacular…it truly looked like a picture you would see in the magazines.

The final stop was Fattoria Selvapiana. It was just as beautiful as Castello Del Trebbio, without the castle. We were taken on a similar tour of the property, but here we were able to taste the grapes right off of the vine! And at the end of the tour, more wine awaited us!! Here’s some pictures of our tour…

After that, we headed back to Florence, then made our way back to our “home” in Italy. It was a wonderful tour…one I hope to do again on my next visit to Italy. Maybe a different region or different wineries, but Tom was a great guide.

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