Mercantia – Certaldo, Tuscany.

Le Terme – The Hot Springs of Tuscany

Ride In The Hills Of Mugello (near Florence)

Greve in Chianti

This video was taken at the beginning of August at Greve in Chianti (known simply as Greve before 1972) in the heart of Tuscany. As the principle town of the Chianti region it is a mecca for wine lovers and visitors on wine tours. It’s a great day trip from Florence, plus you get to see the lovely Tuscan countryside in between! Easily the best (and most stress free) way to see the beautiful countryside of Chianti is with an organised tour;

The town was very quiet, as many smaller Italian towns are on Sunday, so don’t let that fool you! On weekdays, there is a market in the town that has been running almost continuously for hundreds of years. The centre has a triangular piazza with lovely walkways along the two longest sides which house artisans shops, restaurants and bars. There is a monument to Giovanni da Verrazzano (who discovered New York harbour) in the Piazza.

If you’d rather stay in Greve in Chianti, Venere have 5 properties in and around the town.

Our favourite is Villa Le Barone, with an average guest rating of 9.1 (including a perfect 10 for the surroundings!) it has to be on the prospective list for anyone planning a tour of Greve in Chianti or Tuscany.

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Impruneta and the Surrounding Tuscan Countryside

Impruneta is a small town south of Florence. It can be a short day trip (it is quite small) or combined with somewhere else in Chianti. It is close to Greve in Chianti so the two can be combined for a day out so that’s what we did! On sundays Impruneta reminds you of an Italy from years ago; everywhere is closed! Especially in August.

Although popular cities like Florence have embraced the tourist season and now are pretty much open all summer, smaller places will close up and it’s not unusual to arrive in a town in the middle of August and all the restaurants and shops are closed. So, if you are planning a holiday to Tuscany or Chianti in August bear this in mind.

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The Medieval Festival of Monteriggioni, Italy

Each year Monteriggioni, an ancient hill-top town around 50kms from Florence, is transformed into the town that inhabitants would have known hundreds of years ago. OK, so some of the swords may have been made in China and the fighting clearly has the safety of the combatants in mind but you get to use old-fashioned plates and cups and buy food, wine and products with the “Grosso”. The Grosso is the local currency that exists solely for the duration of the festival. As one Grosso is one Euro, calculating the cost of anything isn’t hard and once you’ve paid 2 Grossi for a cup of wine, refills are just one Grosso. This is probably the cheapest wine you’ll buy anywhere in Tuscany!

This year is the 18th Medieval festival and over the years, the attractions have grown in number and improved; there are activites for children during the day and entertainment for the grown ups at night. With 20,000 last year though, the town gets quite packed at peak time – around 10pm – so you can expect to wait in some medieval queues. First to buy your Grossi (don’t worry about over estimating your needs, you can change them back at the end of the night) and then to pay for your food or drink and thirdly, to collect it!

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