Day 12 — Tuscany by ebike, and a wine window

Written by Wendy from the road · photographs by Tatiana

We had a 4 hour ebike tour through Tuscany's hills in the morning so we grabbed our usual croissant and espresso or americano and headed to We Like Tuscany tours. The sun was already beating down at 9am but nothing was stopping us.

At first we biked through the city to get to the hills and then all of a sudden there were streets lined with trees and villas spread out, and then we took a turn into a one way street overlooking the beautiful hills of Florence. Our tour guide Santiago was very personable and would have us stop every now and then to explain the city's history and take pictures of us along the way.

During our tour we stopped at Trattoria Omero, this really great local restaurant up on the hills where they served us a glass of Chianti and a charcuterie board each… delicious. Once we were done we kept riding until we got to a church at the top of the hill, San Miniato al Monte, where we explored around and took some more pictures. Once we were done there we rode back down totally exhausted but worth it.

After dropping off our ebikes we walked back to the city and grabbed a drink at Paszkowski, a very nice place that also offers live music. After taking a break we were walking around and came across this store called My Mancini where we met the owner. He was happy to take us upstairs and give us a tour of his studio where they created these really cool custom sneakers. They basically measure your feet, create your sneakers and then paint by hand any design or picture you want onto them. This was unexpected but it was so much fun.

Needless to say after all that we headed back to our hotel to take a nap. For dinner we went to Ristorante Il Paiolo where the food was once again very yummy.

Afterwards we got lost walking around and ended up outside the Uffizi Gallery. It was late and we didn't get tickets ahead of time so we just wandered around outside looking at the beautiful architecture and taking photos. After that we went back towards the bridges where we saw a wedding reception taking place with a floating piano on the river which was cool to see. Once again there was live music in the background so as I looked over the bridge I was filled with gratitude just being in such a beautiful place. I regret not booking tickets ahead of time for a lot of the must see places, but this was also really cool to experience.

As we made our way back to the hotel we came across something I had no idea existed — a Buchetta del Vino, a wine window. This one was clearly just for taking pictures, but a man standing next to it told me that there were functioning ones around the city. The way it worked is that you rang a bell or knocked on the little window, they opened it, you ordered a drink, then they handed it to you and you paid. After unsuccessfully finding a functioning Buchetta del Vino we went back to our hotel for the night.

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Places from this day

• We Like Tuscany — Ebike Tour — four hours through the hills with Santiago.
• Trattoria Omero — Chianti and a charcuterie board, up on the hills.
• San Miniato al Monte — the church at the top of the climb.
• Paszkowski — a drink and live music back in the city.
• My Mancini — hand-painted custom sneakers, and a tour of the studio.
• Ristorante Il Paiolo — dinner, once again very yummy.
• Uffizi Gallery — admired from outside; no tickets booked.
• Buchetta del Vino — the wine window we didn't know existed.