Q: Is the tour van non-smoking?
A: Absolutely. Neither smoking or eating is
accepted inside the van as not to bother other passengers
or myself ;) Smokers may smoke when outdoors as in Italy
there is now a law that prohibits smoking in indoor public areas.
Q: Are the roads windy?
A: Yeah, a
little. It's hard to avoid
windy roads as one goes into the country side, even though they are in a
very good condition. If you have an inclination of a sore stomach, it might
be recommendable that you take a travel tablet or use sea-bands that can be
bought under the same name in most pharmacies.
Q: Do the wineries accept credit cards for payment?
A: Most do, however, if you don't want to be disappointed it's probably a good
idea to bring some cash in Euros. Some wineries are too small to accept credit cards
or sometimes phone lines are down! Italy is still very much a cash country, but you
will find ATM machines in every little town so all you need is a debit card and you
should be able to get out around 250 Euro a day. Make sure to notify your credit card
company when traveling abroad as they tend to block cards if not.
Q: Is there any specific dress code for a wine tour?
A:
Not really!
Wear comfortable clothes and depending on the season it is recommendable to
wear layers as it often is a bit cooler out in the country, and it can vary greatly
from morning
to
day
to
evening. Comfortable shoes are also a good idea as there might be an
opportunity to take a
short
hike through a vineyard.
Q: Which wine region should we tour? Can we do more than
one in a day?
A: First of all you should consider what kind of wines you like. If you like wines
like medium bodied wines, Sangioveses as well as Cabernets, a good idea would be to tour
the Chianti Classico region. If you are a Sangiovese fan and love more complex and elegant
wines, you should probably choose the Brunello region. If you like whites (and unfortunately there
is very little white wine production in Tuscany) you should choose the Vernaccia region.
If you're favorite wines come from Bordeaux but
you find yourself in Italy, you might want to try to go to Bolgheri
that follows in the footsteps of fantastic Bordeaux wines.
Bear in mind that it matters where you are staying in Tuscany when you choose a region.
The regions are rather distant and not always connected by fast highways.
For this reason it is not advisable to try to go to two different regions in one day as
most of the time would have to be spent commuting from one place to another. But, of
course, the final word is yours...
Q: We will be
staying in Rome. Can we do a Tuscan Wine Tour anyway?
A:
Well, unfortunately pick-up in Rome is not an option. But if you want to do a wine
tour badly enough, it is definitely possible to take an early train up from Rome (it takes
only an hour and a half) and start a private wine tour from the Florence train station and
ending it there in the evening. Trains run to Rome from Florence until around 11 pm.
If you are wanting to join a semi-private tour, you can still
take the train up and then catch a cab to our meeting point.
Q: Your recommended tour options include visits to only two wineries
- we would like to visit more than that. Would that be possible?
A:
No problem!! First of all you should choose a private wine
tour. Let me know where you are staying, what you have in mind for the day,
and I will get back to you with the different possibilities. Bare in mind
that winery visits in Italy take a little time, so it will be possible to do
3 maybe 4 in a day - but hardly more than that. If your main goal is to
purchase wines from specific wineries, let me know and we'll work on a
customized itinerary just for you.
The suggested tours (e.g. the joinable tours) are "slow wine tours" meaning
that there will be a fair amount of time visiting the two wineries and time
for visits to towns or other monuments as well.
If you would like to ask questions or see other
questions, please go to the forum:
http://tuscan-wine-tours.forumattivo.com/ |
