Well, we had to show the nieces a good time out in the countryside. So, I called "Fun in Tuscany" and they set us up with a Vespa tour of Chianti. Invited another 10 women (temporary Florentines) so we all took the van out together to a little farm in Chianti. They put us on Vespas on their little round test track and there were a few preliminary crashes and gas spills and then we were on our way down these back roads.
Now, with all the tourists in Florence and the Vespas buzzing all over the place, I thought we might as well just try it out ourselves as part of our "cultural immersion." Paul Theroux, the travel writer says when he was in Italy in the early 70s, he would see young men in their brown baggy
suits on white motor scooters with their mothers in black coats riding sidesaddle behind them on Sundays. Of course, that's a thing of the past! An interesting commentary on trust, though: we didn't sign anything, didn't pay up front, no one even asked for our licenses and off we went, all 12 of us without any preliminary fuss. My sister and I had a minibike with a converted Briggs and Stratton engine as kids (for a short time that is, until one of our friends drove it into a neighbor's car!) so
getting the hang of driving it wasn't hard. It was incredible driving around the countryside at about 40 or so km an hour, passing castles and vineyards and being passed by cars. Mostly we were on tiny back roads or gravel roads.
Here are Kelcie and Molly looking very photogenic after removing their helmets.
I'll admit, I had a little trepidation at first, but you only live once and this is some of the most beautiful country anywhere. It was like being in a scooter parade.
This is the castle town of Monteriggioni, where we stopped for lunch. This was a stronghold for the Sieneses to control the via Francigena (holy road to Rome from France) as a defensive outpost against Florence and the little town is completely contained within its medieval walls. Some of the pictures are taken from the walkways that connect between the lookout towers.
So this was a way to take a breather from the city and even get a little culture...even Dante recorded the walls of Monteriggioni "come in su la cerchia tonda Monteriggion di torri si corona" (like Monteriggioni, whose round circle of walls are crowned with towers)--again that Blue Guide Tuscany is very helpful in such matters.
the lone "street" of Monteriggioni. The whole town has about 50 inhabitants now.
