heather88

My husband and I will be traveling to Italy in May of 2013 for a two week vacation.
We are an early 30's couple who decided to start our trip in Venice, travel to the Tuscan region (wine lovers), Rome, Pompeii/Naples, Sorrento and Capri.
I am in need of guidance for the Tuscany part of our trip. We decided to skip Florence and focus more on the Siena/Chianti region as we wanted to get a feel for the wine country. That being said, we are thinking of making Siena our home base for the 2 days we have allocated coming in from Venice.

What specific vineyards/wineries are close to Siena that you would recommend? We would at least like to see 5. I have been to Napa, so I'm pulling from that experience but I'm open to hearing the differences so I can set my expectations.

We are thinking of hiring a private driver (expensive, but we are weighing the pros & cons) for about an eight hour day. We have looked into the group tours (the bus picks you up at the hotel, two vinyeard visit and a lunch), but something about not having the flexiblility to pick where we want to eat, or when we want to leave is unappealing to me.

Any tips for other "must dos" in the area are greatly appreciated. Thank you!

kybourbon

I would concentrate more on Montalcino (Brunellos) than Chianti. Do you actually have two sightseeing days or just staying in the region two nights (only one full day)?

If you stay in Siena, there are a lot of bus tours that operate from there to either the Montalcino/Piena/Montepulciano areas or to the Chianti areas. You can also just hop a bus to Montalcino for the day (about 3€ one way) and wine taste at the Fortezza or the many enotecas.

Are you more interested in tasting wines or seeing the countryside?

>>>I have been to Napa, so I'm pulling from that experience but I'm open to hearing the differences so I can set my expectations.

mr_go

Tuscany is not Napa where you just drive and there are drop in tasting rooms everywhere.

This point bears repeating.

HappyTrvlr

Go to www.turismo.intoscano.it, choose English, then click on "countryside" for wineery suggestions. We went to a different winery every day for tastings, all in view of our villa in Chianti as there so many. Some require reservations, others do not. We personally prefer the Chianti region.

heather88

Thank you for the responses. we are fairly flexible as we recently decided to skip Florence and head straight towards Siena/wine country in the Tuscany region, coming from Venice. We originally allocated three days for Florence before moving on to Rome.
How would you suggest we outline our locations/itenerary? We would like to take trains from the major cities.
we were interested in seeing Pisa as well.

mamcalice

Several years ago we visited Dievole, a vineyard just outside Siena. The winery produces Chianti Classico and we tasted excellent reds and a wonderful rose.

The vineyard is charming and the tour one of the most interesting we have ever done. They had delicious food to accompany each wine.

Visit their site at www.dievole.it/

mamcalice

Posted too soon. We made reservations on their website.