Oh the bike tour! We met at the office bright and early to get a can out of town and to their office out in the country. After getting our bikes and helmets we were off! Our guide's name was Joseph, an 29 year old Australian that has lived in Italy for the past two years, and he was a spectacular guide. The tour was set up so you rode around to different checkpoints where everyone would stop to admire the view or monument and Joseph would then tell us things about the land or the families that go out and pick the olive trees and press them for oil together during the harvesting season. It was a great mix of freedom and information, and even though we were together with Joseph the whole time, we still felt like it was relaxed and un-touristy. We also got to ride out at our own pace most of the time, so we could enjoy views of the countryside or pick up speed and just have fun riding down hills.
After about 2 hours of riding and stops, we arrived at the Corsini estate who have an impressive vineyard and olive grove where they produce Corti wine and olive oil. We toured the oak cellars and the fermenting vats before sitting down to a tree course meal with two of there red wines. The first course of polenta suofle with yellow curry sauce was delicious and not expected, while the soup (chickpeas and other beans and veggies in broth) tasted like hearty Italy. The pasta course was spaghetti with anchovies, which no one really enjoyed unfortunately. I think anchovies are an acquired taste, one that we do not have yet aquired (our chosen adjective to describe it was "icky"... I think we may need to aquire a few more years to have more refined levels of taste and maturity). The wine was top notch, probably the best chianti I've ever had. Quick wine lesson, wine that is called chianti is only actual chianti if it is grown within a certain region of Tuscany in very strict guidelines about soil, harvest time, composition of grapes, and of course, taste. Any wine to pass the Chianti board (yes, it is a board of old men who drink wine for a living, if you were wondering) then gets a thin pink label around the neck of the bottle with a number on it that you can plug into their database to find out when and where it was made. Any other chianti without that label is probably still made in that region, but it is not true Chianti. After lunch, we cycled (our bottoms were very, very sore after getting un- accustomed to the hard seats during lunch) to a local gelato shop and grabbed a treat before heading back down to town. The last stop was a little overlook of the Florence skyline where we took pictures with Joseph and our friends before cruising down the final hill.
The whole tour was a great get away from the hustle of the city and something that I would recommend to anyone (we went with Florencetown, if you ever are in the area) and definitely do again. After the tour we went back to the hostel (most hostels have luggage storage if you have checked out but aren't leaving the city yet) to freshen up and grab a bite to eat in town before hopping on our night train out to Viennna. It was a long but incredible day...I'm so glad we switched our tour to do it with our hostel friends. Meeting new people and using our friend making skills has been an really amazing part of this whole trip. It's neat because with hostel friends, you get to skip the slightly awkward part where you don't know if they want to be friends or not and since no one is really in their element, everyone bonds quickly. It's also hard though, because you spend two or three days with a great group of people like Jon, Fiona and Molly and then you just split off. These friends will definitely be friends that we remember though, that's for sure.
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