p0keroo

Hi,

I'm a student planning a 2 month trip across Europe as a grad trip. I'm planning on going to Italy for 2 weeks and see Rome, Pompeii, and Florence/Pisa. I was hoping to do a wine tour through some Part of Tuscany using Florence or Siena as a base (ie. the bus would leave from there and return there). I'm not too picky in regards to how long the tour is as I'm not exactly a wine conneauseur, but just wanted to experience it and learn a bit more about the process so an informed tour would be the best. All the tours I seem to find though are over 80 euros and that seems to be a bit much for someone who wants to go only for interest's sake and not for a true love of wine. I've heard that most vineyards offer tours by the owner's or something but there exists the problem of a) how good are these tours? and b) how do we get there as we dont have a car and I'm not sure if the bus goes there (or whether we'd be able to recognize our intended destination and get off in time). I haven't seen anyone with a similar problem so if anyone could give me some feedback that would be much appreciated I'm basically just wondering if anyone knows of any educational but inexpensie wine tours. Thanks!

tuscanfan

Hi student,
I understand your request and practically you are asking to do something expensive (because let's admit that wines in Tuscany are not cheap) and you are wanting to learn from wineries and taste their wines - and supposedly not buy anything because that would be too expensive. Face it, 80 Euros is a deal for you!

p0keroo

hmm...I guess I was wondering if there were certain ways to save (ie. I've heard if you go to certain vineyards directly their owner can take you himself for like 10 euros). So I was just wondering if there were any that were generally informative (as I wouldn't want to be stuck with someone who didn't really care and just pointed at things) and was accessible by bus.

p0keroo

For anyone who is interested, I found a great wine tour at this vineyard for really cheap. It was 13 euros (although you would have to arrange your own transporation via the bus company which cost about 4 dollars each way I believe)and included tasting 4 types of wine (more than 1 glass per wine, if you wanted), some minor food, plus a tour of the wine making cellar, their castle, and the olive oil making process. All in all, very good value, I was definitely pleased and it came at a much more reasonable price than the 80 dollar tours where they take you to the same vineyard (a busload of 50 people paid 80 euros for that winetour including the bus and an additional free dinner).

Kate_W

In France, we've found a significant amount of information about regional wineries available on the government's general tourism websites - and we've also seen that in "wine towns", the local tourism office offers tours, tastings (sometimes free ones) and other guidance. So you might try doing some research, focusing on Florence and Siena first and then exploring further to see if there are smaller towns that are important to the wine industry, and see what their tourism websites offer. Even if you can't find anthing now via the internet, you likely will be able to find some information once you get to Italy. We booked a cooking/winery tour through a company that posted a notice in our small hotel. So you might find similar notices in the tourist office, in your hotel or hostel, or in a neighbouring hotel.