A Cycle Holiday To Tuscany

We start our tour in Florence. Our hotel is situated in the centre of this beautiful city. We will have time for a briefing over tea before we settle into our rooms. Time to relax and unwind, prepare our bikes for the coming week and enjoy our first evening meal (not included).

Overnight Standard Hotel

After breakfast we take to our bikes, leave Florence behind and head to Castellina in Chianti. We journey along quiet roads and lanes passing through vineyards. We pass via Impruneta, famed for its terracota production, and get to enjoy cycling through small rural villages before arriving in Greve in Chianti for lunch. With rested legs we continue through vineyards and forests before arriving in Castellina in Chianti for a glass of wine and a look around the town. We may have time to try some optional wine tasting.

Total cycling distance approximately 51km.

Overnight Standard Hotel Included meals: Breakfast

Leaving Chianti this morning we head for Siena, an atmospheric city with magnificent Gothic architecture and medieval alleyways. Passing first through the famed wine estates of Fonterutoli we continue onto Radda along gravel tracks and forests. We then arrive at Castel di Brolio in time for lunch in a small local café (not included). After lunch we head towards Castelnuovo di Berardenga, before taking a back road, via Monteaperti, to Siena itself. Arriving sometime in the mid afternoon should give us time to have a look around the city and perhaps enjoy a drink in the Piazza del Campo, the focal point of the city, a semi-circular piazza surrounded by ancient buildings and overlooked by the 100m bell tower (Torre del Mangia). Once a rival to Florence in power and trade, Siena controlled the trade routes between France and Rome, as well as the southern Tuscan wool industry. The Black Death marked the beginning of a decline for the city, decimating it in the 14th century and killing a third of its population. Today it stands as a classic Italian city, with its magnificent central square and the awe inspiring grandeur of the Duomo overlooking the Via di Citta.
Total cycling distance approximately 54km. 

Overnight Standard Hotel Included meals: Breakfast

Today is free to spend at your leisure. You may wish to explore the delights of Siena. The centre of this city is traffic-free, making it ideal to wander around on foot, soaking up the many intriguing sights. The Piazza is also used for a horse race twice a year – the famous Palio, when horses and their riders hurtle dangerously around the square to the delight of the crowds. Alternatively you may prefer to visit Florence, the spiritual home of the Renaissance and considered to be one of the most beautiful cities in Italy. Florence is a city of superlatives: from the Ponte Vecchio, the oldest and most famous bridge in Florence and the only one that was not demolished during the German retreat of 1944, to the religious centre of the city and the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore with its giant dome or 'duomo'. Close by are other artistic wonders, including the Baptistry, the East door (called the Gate of Paradise by Michelangelo) and Giotto's famous bell tower, as well as the Piazza della Signoria.  For those of you that might prefer something a little more relaxing there is also the Treno Natura, a special old train that runs from Siena towards Southern Tuscany, dropping people off along the way and picking them up later for the return journey back to Siena. Plenty to choose from! 

Overnight Standard Hotel Included meals: Breakfast

Leaving Siena this morning we head out along quiet back roads, our journey enhanced by some wonderful views back towards the city. From here we enter an area known as Le Crete, the badlands of Tuscany with classic scenes of rolling landscape lined with Cyprus trees and farmhouses perched on the hilltops. We continue south, via Murlo, with fine open country around us as we enter the wine producing area of Brunello of Montalcino. From Buonconvento we ride along gravel roads with commanding views of the Val D'Orcia region as we make our way towards Montalicino where we base ourselves for the night.

Total cycling distance approximately 62km.

Overnight Standard Hotel Included meals: Breakfast

From Montalcino, we descend initially from the town via a lovely road, surrounded by Brunnello vineyards as we head for the abbey of Sant Antimo where we will have a short stop with the hope that we can catch the monks chanting their prayers. From here we have a gravel road section that takes us round and through lovely unspoilt countryside to the thermal village of Bagno Vignoni. We will take our time here and dip our feet in the hot waters, the main piazza of the town is actually an old thermal pool. From Bagno Vignoni we head along a lovely level road, before we then ascend again slowly but surely to the scenic hill top perch of Pienza, which will be our base for two nights. The birthplace of Pope Pius II, Pienza’s piazza was transformed into a Renaissance centrepiece when the pope commissioned the architect Bernado Rossellino to build a Duomo, papal palace and town hall.

Total cycling distance approximately 53 km.

Overnight Standard Hotel Included meals: Breakfast

From Pienza we take a quiet, scenic road, passing through small villages to reach Montepulciano. Famed for the wine production of the Vino Nobile and also as the filming location for recent films, we pedal up hill to reach this lovely town. We head to the Piazza grande to do some sightseeing and have some lunch. Back on the bikes we continue to the medieval hamlet of Montichiello, en route we descend one of the most photographed cyprus avenues in Tuscany. We have a short time to wander around and have a drink before we take to gravel roads and then the final road ascent back to the town of Pienza, where we will celebrate the final night of our tour.

Total cycling distance approximately 45km.

Overnight Standard Hotel Included meals: Breakfast

Today we transfer back to the airport in Florence where our tour ends.

Included meals: Breakfast