Hi guys,

You are going with me on a 2 days trip in Tuscany.
Back in 2016, I made a trip by bus in Italy to spend a weekend in Tuscany.
We visited Montalcino, San Gimignano, a few vineyards and the Antinori Winery.

I always wanted to visit Tuscany, especially the beautiful city of Florence.
When I finally had a chance to book this trip to Tuscany, I was very excited to go there.
I was disappointed that Florence was not on our list of cities to visit but I realised that there are
lots of beautiful places to visit outside of Florence.

We left Slovenia by bus at 3 A.M and arrived in Tuscany at 08h30 in the morning.
We started with the visit of the Biondi Santi Winery which is about 3 km away from Montalcino.
This beautiful wine estate is one of the oldest in Tuscany.

Cypresses alley leading to the mansion, near the vineyards.
View of the mansion from one of the courtyards of the property.

The huge family mansion is surrounded by vignards and we had to walk along a beautiful alley with cypresses to enter the domaine.
We visited the cellars and tasted their wines. It was a beautiful experience.
Even if you do not drink much wine (like me), It is still a wonderful experience.

Inside one of the wine cellars with a guide. Some of their oldest wine bottles are worth more than 20,000 €.
Some of the wines produced in the winery.

You get to learn a lot about the story of the domain, the region and how they’ve been making wine in Tuscany for many many generations.
If you like wine and want to visit Tuscany, you can visit the estate cellar and taste their wines.

Next stop -> Montalcino.
We left Biondi Santi Estate and took the bus to go to Montalcino.
It took us less than 10 minutes to go there.
I had never heard of Montalcino before but this little city is really worth a visit.
It has almost 6000 inhabitants.

View of the fortress of Montalcino from the courtyard.
View of the center of Montalcino from the fortress.

We spent more than 2 hours walking in the street of Montalcino.
It was beautiful. I especially liked the area around the Fortress.
From the fortress, you’ll have a wonderful view over the city.
If you have time, go visit the church “Parrocchia Di S. Egidio Abate“.
This nice little church stands in the middle of the town about 200 meters away from the fortress.

Inside the church Parrocchia Di S. Egidio Abate.
Nice little square in front of the church. There are a few nice shops and bars to taste wine on that square.
View of the Sant’Agostino Church from a distance.

For our second (and last day) in Tuscany, we started the day visiting the town of San Gimignano.
This town is even more beautiful than Montalcino. If you visit Tuscany one day, you must stop there
for at least for 2 hours and wander around in this gorgeous town.

Walking toward the old town. We can see the medieval wall surrounding San Gimignano.

There are almost 8000 inhabitants living in San Gimignano.
This town is also knwon as the “Medieval Manhattan” because the city counted 72 tall tower in the middle ages.
Now, 12 tower are still standing in the town. Those towers are over 50 meters tall.
If you are not affraid by stairs, you can go all the way up to one of the tower and enjoy the view over the town and the landscape around it.

View of the Cathedral of San Gimignano (pr simply “Duomo”) from Piazza del Duomo.
View of some of the tall towers from Piazza del Duomo.
View of a part San Gimignano from above.

There are many little shops were you can buy local products and many nice bars and restaurants in San Gimignano.
There is a drawback though. Some shops and restaurants are closed for 2 or 3 hours between 13h00 and 16h00.
If you want to buys things or go to nice restaurants between 1 P.M and 4 P.M, it might be closed (nap time).

One of the many nice alleys in the center of San Gimignano.
Nice street leading to one of the tall towers in the historic center of San Gimignano.

 

Before leaving Tuscany (to go back in Slovenia), we went to visit a winery (and museum) called Cantina Antinori.
This was one of the highlight of our weekend in Tuscany. This place is A-MA-ZING.
Great architecture, great design, great location, you can visit the cellars and taste many Chianti Wines …
This place is pretty much a Disneyland for wine lovers.

Very old and huge machine (inside the Cantina Antinori) that was used to press wine.

This beautiful estate belongs to the family Antinori,one of the wealthiest in Italy. They’ve been making wine since 1385.
We spent 2 hours there to visit the cellars, taste and buy wines.

View of one of the huge cellars inside Cantina Antinori.
Employee of Cantina Antinori pouring wine for us to taste
Some of the many Chianti wines that we tasted.

If you go visit Tuscany and you like wine and history, I really recommend you to visit Cantina Antinori.

 

My tips for Tuscany:

1/ Visit Montalcino.
2/ Visit the Biondi Santi Estate.
3/ Visit San Gimignano.
4/ Go visit the Cantina Antinori.
5/ Buy Chianti wine in the Antinori Winery.

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