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The place and the people

I was always attracted to the iconic pictures of the rolling hills and landscape of Tuscany. Well, I can tell you now, that’s exactly how it looks. The rows of grape vines in the fields, the small medieval towns sitting on top of a hill in the distance, and windy roads providing vistas of this view are ever present. But the roads have little or no shoulders, making it impossible to stop to take it in or capture it in pictures. Even the highways have no shoulders, only occasional pull-outs. At Castel Pietraio, many of the guests were hiking through Tuscany. That’s probably the best way to take in Tuscany.

Everywhere we went, the Italians were friendly and helpful, even to a group of Americans who struggled with a minimum of Italian words. Most Italians we spoke with could speak some English. One older waiter at ZaZa’s struggled understanding our questions about the menu, so he went back and brought a manager who was fluent in English. I think a big part of our enjoyment was when the people were so nice to us at hotels, vineyards, tours and restaurants.

Driving in Italy

While the cars may be smaller, the trucks are still big. On the highways, I think the disparity in speed limits between trucks and cars made it dangerous. Limits were anywhere from 10 to 20 kpm. And as mentioned there are hardly any shoulders on any of the roads. Using GPS apps like Google Maps and Waze seemed to work well. I missed a couple of off-ramps and round-about exits until my shotgun navigator learned to call out the right exit. Navigating in the ZTL traffic zones in Florence was challenging. We were warned Google may miss one-way streets, but I didn’t encounter that. Tim was using Waze and encountered a navigational roadblock when Waze prompted him for a ZTL permit code before showing the routed path forward, but I didn’t see anything crazy like I observed in Rome when I last visited.

The Food

What can I say but amazing. The use of preservatives seems foreign to Italians. I’m not a big eater, but seemed to have no problem finishing a pasta primi or appetizer, and a main entry secondi, and still have room to share a dessert. I’d like to think it’s because of the way the food is grown and prepared. the pastas had a texture and taste different than at home, and the sauces were so much better as well. I actually lost 4 pounds while on this trip!

The Wine

Chianti is the primary wine in the region, but not the only one. As I was informed at Castel Pietraio Wineresort, Chianti contains 70-80% of Sangiovese grapes, blended with other grapes such as Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah. The blending dine at each winery makes their wines unique.

There is Chianti, Chianti Classico, and Chianti Superiore. Each are governed by the sub-regions, the altitude (mini climate variation with the rolling hills), and aging of the wine. Classico is more acidic, giving a robust but dryer flavor. I found the secret to wines I liked was what it was blended with. There is also a premium wine called Super Tuscan. These have the Sangiovese wine blended with the Bordeaux varieties Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and/or Merlot in any proportion, with a maximum of 50% Sangiovese or Syrah. I found them very smooth and flavorful. Rosé wines were also a pleasant surprise. Some were almost a light colored as white wine, yet not too sweet. In any case, I truly enjoyed trying out new wines.

Traveling with a Group

This was my first trip traveling with 8 friends. Four us had traveled together to Niagara Falls together, but the dynamics are different between 2 couples and a group of eight, with a mix of couples and singles. We are all good friends and have spent time together regularly in the past. I have also traveled in large group tours and didn’t like that at all.

I had a wonderful time on this trip with this group of friends, but I think I will do some things differently next time. I think we had a good mix of short duration private group tours where appropriate. I have used independent tour guides found in ToursbyLocals.com before and have always been pleased. Commercial group tours like what Viking does on its river boat tours is not what I want. My use of third party tour wholesalers like Viator or Header have not always been without problems.

Upon reflection at the end of the trip, I realized that Laura and I didn’t do anything as just a couple on this trip, and I missed that. We seemed to be focused on doing things together with other members of the group. And I think I realized that the other couples may have wanted some of that as well. Next time we need to allow/encourage some “alone” time.

My final reflection on traveling with a group of friends is everyone learning the dynamics of the group and each individual. The trip was planned as a group with everyone contributing ideas and we had numerous discussions to establish the planned itinerary. But having this one under our belts gave me a much better understanding of the limits, likes and dislikes of each person to apply in planning the duration, activities and locations on future group trips. This is something that commercial group tours cannot do, you are stuck with their itinerary. Some of our best times were ad hoc — where to eat, an extra stop at a family winery, changed plans based on a tour guide suggestion, etc.