My third day in Florence was spent in the Tuscan country side of Chianti, which I got to see from a vespa. Yes, I drove a vespa through Chianti, and managed not to crash it.

Now, when I signed up for this tour I imagined driving a little scooter through fields and wineries. What I didn’t imagine was driving a scooter on the road with other cars.

Before we ventured out onto the road, we had to practice driving and making turns. After almost crashing while I tried to turn I wasn’t too confident in my ability to drive among cars and other vespas. But I wanted to get my moneys worth and not be the loser sitting in the van while everyone else was zipping around on their vespas, so I attempted to drive, at a very slow pace. And drive at a colossally slow pace I did. For the first two hours I brought up the end of the group because I kept imagining myself crashing into a tree or worse, a car. Eventually I grew a pair and it turns out the faster you drive the easier it is.

Every 15 minutes or so our tour guide would stop us so we could get pictures and take in the countryside. Before I say anything else, let me say this- Chianti is very pretty and I was overall just excited to be in Italy. However- I would have to say, personally, that I find Napa Valley a lot prettier. Not saying that Chianti isn’t nice- I just think Napa has more picturesque views. Chianti has a lot of dirt roads which make it seem a little dusty and while there were trees, for some reason it felt more bare than Napa. I wish I hadn’t been comparing Chianti to Napa but I couldn’t help it. Regardless of the comparisons, Chianti has a lot to offer when it comes to wine and food.

One of our stops was at a local food market where you can buy an array of meats and cheese, including Philadelphia cream cheese. I guess not everything sold was local to Chianti.

We taste tested pecorino cheese on some type of focaccia bread that had the perfect amount of salt seasoning on it. Do I even need to say how delicious it was? Cheese made from sheep’s milk has a different consistency than cheese made from cow’s milk. If I remember right it was a little softer.

We also sampled prosciutto and bread with grapes baked into it. Different and not my favorite, but interesting all the same.

Our next stop was a house where Machiavelli once lived. The stone building was covered in vines and led to a path that overlooked vineyards and Chianti’s tree-covered hills.

Once I finally started to become comfortable driving my vespa we arrived at our main stop and my favorite part of the day: a winery complete with a tour of where the wine is made and lunch (with Chianti wine of course). If there’s food involved then obviously it’s going to be my favorite part of the day.

Our tour guide took us through where the grapes are dried, then pressed into wine and then put in barrels. Before I go on, here’s a quick description of our tour guide: Italian/American with and Italian/Boston accent. His accent was one of their weirdest, most confusing things I’ve heard. Imagine an Italian accent and then all of a sudden “gaaaden” and “caaah” are thrown in. Why do people from Boston leave out their R’s? Do they not see the R in gaRden and caR? I don’t get it. I had to stifle a laugh every time he spoke.

Anyways, despite his confusing accent he knew a lot about making wine. Chianti wine is only made in the Tuscan region and is now officially my favorite wine. It goes down like water. A fun fact I learned and actually remember is, contrary to popular belief, sulfites are put in every wine in Italy. Have you ever been told that wine in Italy doesn’t give you a hangover because there are no sulfites in them? According to my tour guide that is false because if there were no sulfites in the wine it would be infested with bacteria. There might be less sulfites in a lot of Italian wines but they’re still there. And that’s my fun fact of this post.

So we saw where and how wine is made and learned a little bit about olive oil and that if it comes from Chianti,there’s a green tab around the neck of the bottle. According to our Italian/Bostonian tour guide, olive oil is like Italy’s ketchup- they use it on everything. Good to know Americans have a reputation of drowning everything they eat in ketchup.

The highlight of the winery tour came when we sat down to eat. We were given two different Chianti wines to try, both of which were amazing. Our meal consisted of three courses, starting with bruschetta appetizers, squash soup, and spaghetti in tomato sauce.

The real shining star in the culinary offerings of the day came later when we stopped at a gelato shop. Our guide told us it would be the best gelato we had in Florence and it was the best gelato I had in all of Italy. So creamy and perfect in every way.

After experiencing some of the best wine in the world (our guide kept telling us this was some of the best wine in the world…he could be biased but it is the best I’ve had in my 21 years of life) we took a few more stops for pictures and ended back in the parking lot where we began, somehow all in one piece.

Despite my thoughts about what Chianti has to offer visually, I can’t deny that I had some awesome wine and food. I can’t say enough about how great Italian food and wine is. So thank you Chianti, for introducing me to some of the world’s best wine.