What is the best way to visit the wine country around Florence? Are some tour groups better/more economical/with a tuscan family meal than others?

The Florence Tourist office was offering a tour that was very cheap (15€ I think). It may be a summer only thing though.

florence chamber of commerce
30E on Thursdays only, leaves early at like 8 am returns around 5, will see if I can find the link someone on here gave to me, might have been ky, lol

Hi Lucky - CAF Tours and SITA do wine-tasting excursions to the Chianti area from Florence:

CAF:
www.caftours.com/en/regtoursac.htm

SITA:
http://tinyurl.com/yw6hx3

Other companies include:

http://www.accidentaltourist.com/

http://www.italy.artviva.com/italytr...r/tuscany_tour

Alternatively for a personalised tour, Luca at 'Hills & Roads' has had numerous recommendations here:

www.hillsandroads.com

Here's a recent thread which you may find useful:

http://fodors.com/forums/pgMessages....me=Steve_James

Hope this helps ...

Steve

St4eve - That's a link to your profile.

Here's the link for the tour I was talking about. It's 15€ and was a promotion by the tourist office. The company the tourist office was using for the tour has others, if that one is no longer available. Their contact info is on the link.
http://www.firenzeturismo.it/en/even...l-chianti.html

laartista - Have you moved back to NYC?

The Tourist Board also offers these Atisans in Chianti tours. It says participants are asked to make a contribution as payment, but doesn't appear to have a set fee.
http://www.firenzeturismo.it/images/...in_chianti.pdf

Hi Ky, nope, in Vegas at moment, been back in the States about 5-6 weeks, was in LA, NYC, Chicago,Fla. now Vegas, head to Bali for 1 1/2 months mid Oct. Permanent move back to Italia I think in Dec.

Sorry for the hijack lucky
On a thread note, any tour will be fine, to be honest they are all pretty much the same

Thanks Ky - not sure how that happened.

I don't know myself, but awhile back had to arrange stuff for some cousins renting a villa, and used yourtuscany.com. Aside from being a very nice rental agency, the girl who booked us was sooooo helpful and more knowledgeable about the area than people I know who live there. And yes, she's a font of knowledge about wine tours too. Her name is Cinzia and the address is [email protected]. I'm not sure if you'll ever need a lovely Tuscan vacation rental either, but if and when you do, THAT's the site to look on for sure!