Our trip to Italy centered on a tour of Tuscany, Umbria and San Marino aboard motorcycles supplied by Edelweiss Bike Travel. Here are a few photos from our first three days of the tour, including the Chianti Region and Umbria.
Woke up the morning of our Day 1 ride at the Villa Pitiana in Donnini outside Florence. A fog carpeted the valleys until mid-morning.
Our first stop on the Day 1 ride was at the piazza at Greve in Chianti on the warmest day of the tour.
On the piazza in Greve, a stuffed boar guards the entry to a butcher shop that featured some wonderful meats and sausage.
Our lunch stop at the roadside Pestello Ristorante included a pasta with truffles dish that I'll remember forever as one of the best.
Looking out over the countryside from near San Gimignano.
The piazza at San Gimignano was the last stop of our Day 1 tour ride.
The Monastery at San Galgano is known for the sword stuck into a stone by a returned crusader. Read more at: http://www.castellitoscani.com/sangalgano.htm
Our "rest day" sport ride took us west and south of Siena. I look like I'm having fun and I was.
This road marker overlooks a newly turned field south of Siena.
The small piazza in Montalcino is under a clock tower. The town is known for its Brunello wines.
I think the sign says parking only for big German motorcycles. A little chilly in Montalcino that morning.
A good example of the Romanesque style, the abbey at San Antimo was founded by old Charlemange himself in 781 ad.
The courtyard at the abbey; not hard to imagine the monks meditating here a century ago.
Olive orchards and vinyards are everywhere on the rolling hills of Tuscany.