Tuscany Biking Tour

During this biking tour of Tuscany you spoil yourself with traditional Tuscan cuisine and lose your sense of time as you cycle past fields of red poppies and sunflowers surrounded by cypress trees and olive groves; an agrarian wonderland.

This Italian region, best known as the heart of the Renaissance, is fully explored from memorable inns, farm stays and converted palaces. Savor full course meals and witness a cultural history dating back to the days of Italy's original inhabitants-the Etruscans.

Tuscany first attracted the Etruscans in 800 BC and each succeeding culture has added to the region's allure and charm. Marvel at the artistry of towns like Florence and Siena, which quickly give way to the rolling hills of olive groves and vineyards. 

Florence, the center of the Renaissance, is the meeting point of your tour. From here we transfer south to explore the pristine beauty of the Tuscan Chianti Classico countryside. You ride along quiet country roads that wind through the hills and valleys of colorful fields of poppies, sunflowers and along the vast rows of vineyards that produce the delicious deep red Chianti wines and the crisp white Vernaccia wines of San Gimignano.

We visit medieval fortresses, ancient Abbeys, Etruscan porticos and Renaissance palazzi. One vista after another leaves a lasting impression as we ride up to hilltop towns that offer stunning panoramas of the valleys below. You glide through the surreal ashen landscape of deeply fissured hills known as "crete", into the land of Brunello wines and through the inspiring scenery from where the "English Patient" was filmed.

To visit Tuscany is to step back-to a time when people lived to appreciate the simple things in life: an orange sunset, a ripe peach, the shade of an olive tree, a church bell at dawn. As you walk through the countryside, you too will soon understand what drew some of history's greatest figures to this magical area. Tuscany is truly a feast for both the body and the spirit.