Touch the coast of Italy: check. Climb the Duomo: check. Eat a cannoli from Sicily: check. Eat a cow’s stomach lining (EEEK), but: check. My list can go on. But noticing that my adventure in Italy was coming to an end and I hadn’t yet been through the Tuscan countryside? That was almost shameful. Riding a bike through cypress-tree-lined roads and olive groves had always been a must if I ever came to Italy. How can you see it in the movies and not want to actually make it happen?
Needless to say I came, I saw, I conquered, and I wouldn’t of done it any other way. Biking through Tuscany’s green hills and drinking up Chianti’s red wine with I Bike Italy was one of the greatest and most memorable experiences of my life. Not only did I get to bike in Italy, but I also went to my first vineyard in Italy, killing two birds with one stone.
That morning was like waking up on Christmas. The day couldn’t have been any more perfect. The sun was shining, birds were chirping (a.k.a pigeons were cooing), and the weather was unexpectedly warm for early March. When I hopped on that bike, I felt as if there weren’t a care in the world, especially with bike-man Bill, our bearded guide, cracking jokes all along the way.
This tour is not your typical stand in a giant claustrophobic circle while you’re getting lectured at. No! This is a tour filled with wide-open fields of wildflowers, grapevines, countryside air, lots of laughs, and of course wine and food.
My pictures are beautiful but don’t do the wonderful day justice. You will have to check it out for yourself! It was the best tour I’ve taken my entire time in Italy, not to mention the legs of steel I have now after biking winding roads and rolling hills. If you worried about not being physically fit enough: it’s not a problem. The Classic Tuscany Full Day Tour we did (€85 regualr/€75 students) is a “moderate” level of difficulty, and I Bike’s list of equally entertaining and breathtaking tours include a Fiesole Down Hill Tour that’s all coasting. I learned new things about wine and olive oil, and I got to experience a little piece of Italian countryside that not many really ever make it out of the city to see. So now I can proudly say, “Biking under the Tuscan sun: check!”
