Adventures in wine tasting in Tuscany with kids

As part of our five days in Florence with my in-laws, we decided to take a day trip from Florence for a Greve in Chianti wine tasting. To make this even more exciting, we decided to do it entirely by public transportation. Tuscany with kids by bus — what could go wrong? A fair amount, it turns out, but the end result was fabulous Chianti wine tasting at Viticcio Winery. 

Related: Check out our adventures in Florence with kids!

Our Tuscany with kids misadventure: In medias res

It was raining, it was muddy and we were stuck on the side on the road at a “bus stop” in Chianti that was a) not in the right town and b) apparently not home to a single taxi. With two small children. And my in-laws. Our decision to spends the day on a Greve in Chianti wine tasting was not, I had to admit, off to a great start. Nor was our decision to visit Tuscany with kids without a freaking car. 

I was pretty sure that every adult member of our group was ready to kill me.

Act 1: The run-up to our Florence to Tuscany day trip

So, backing up. When we decided to make Florence our home base for the majority of week-long trip to Tuscany and Rome, it was always our intention to break things up with a couple of day trips — including a trip to go wine tasting in Greve in Chianti. After all, what is a visit to the heart of wine country without going wine tasting?!

I considered a bunch of options for our Tuscany wine tasting day, and the front-runner for a long time was doing a wine tasting tour with a group. That got nixed based on  worries about whether the kids would be accepted, cost and lack of freedom to explore. Then it was on to the idea of renting  a car and doing a self-guided tour, but renting cars large enough for six is expensive and I was terrified to drive anywhere near Florence after a friend’s horror story about getting a million tickets. In desperation, we even considered hiring a driver for the day like some family members had for a recent Tuscany day trip from Florence. I’m sure you will all be shocked to know that we also deemed that too expensive.

Chris likes to joke that I hate buses. I like to pretend that it isn’t true. However, it eventually became apparent that taking the bus from Florence to Chianti was our only economical option. I quickly convinced myself it would be fine,and by the time we climbed onto our bus (we took bus 365 A from Florence to Chianti), I was feeling very pleased with out decision. It was comfortable, cheap and there weren’t many people on it. Go me!

Act 2: Things start to go south

After a while it occurred to us that our bus driver wasn’t announcing where we were when we stopped. Since the bus ride from Florence to Greve in Chianti was only supposed to take about an hour, I was given the job after about 50 minutes to go ask the driver to tell us when our stop — Greti Chiesa, according to our Google directions — was approaching.

I have no idea what it was about Florentine bus drivers or whether we just got unlucky, but every bus driver we experienced this time around was rather surly. This one was no exception. I asked him about Greti Chiesa, and he grunted “Greti, si. Next stop.” I verified, “Greti Chiesa? This next stop?” “SI.”

OK, buddy. I cheerfully herd everyone off the bus and onto the side of the road. Fire up the old Google maps and … my stomach dropped. Somehow our walking distance, already pushing it with our crowd, had doubled.

Also it was raining. Also it was muddy. Also the beginning of the route, at least, was taking us along the side of a busy road that conveniently didn’t have much of a shoulder.  A quick call to our winery, where our tour was scheduled to begin in 20 minutes, confirmed that there were no cabs to be summoned and that we were “at least” a half hour walk away and also, what were we doing in Greti? Viticcio Winery is only a 15 minute walk from the Greve in Chianti bus station, why hadn’t we gotten off there?

Stupid Google maps. That’s why.

My husband was convinced we were going to be run over by cars. My in-laws, Gail and David, were concerned about the length of the walk. I was worried everyone else was going to shove me off the hill for making them march so far. It was not a great moment to be the primary trip planner for the Tuscany with kids portion of the trip.

So, the walk did prove to be long. And it was somewhat alarming when we were on the side of the road. BUT! At some point it turned off the main road and everything was absolutely green and gorgeous. It even stopped raining, which seemed fair enough. The walked ended up being fairly pleasant (Chris disputes this point in the strongest possible terms), except that the winery also happened to be at the top of a hill. (Chris suggests I change this from “hill” to “small mountain.”) 

Because of course it was.

Act 3: Arriving at Viticcio Winery for Greve in Chianti wine tasting

We didn’t end up making it to Viticcio Winery* for the 11 a.m. Chianti wine tasting I’d scheduled, but made it we did! Even luckier, we happened to be six of only eight total people there for the wine tasting and tour that day.

*After a tense moment where I ran ahead to verify that a house-looking building up the hill was indeed the correct place, and ended up having to walk through a gate that warned “PRIVATE RESIDENCE. ATTENZIONE AL CANE” into an area I was half-sure was actually someone’s home. Eventually me and a random guy selling pavement I ran into managed to find the right place to go on the not-abandoned-after-all property. 

And this is the part where our visit to Greve in Chianti, the “gateway to Chianti,” became not only our favorite day trip from Florence, but our favorite part of the whole week.

Our tour at the Viticcio Winery could not have gone better. We started with a tour of the vineyard and the wine cellar, which took perhaps 30 minutes. Since we were the only ones on the tour, we could ask whatever questions and spend as much time looking as we needed to, as well as pausing for the inevitable kid bathroom break halfway through. It was great to learn the background of the chianti wine the area is famous for, and the kids were very amused to see the “baby grapes” on the vines.

From there, it was on to the drinking tasting. We sampled one white wine and three reds, and we liked every one of them. Viticcio also supplied a lovely plate of cheese, meat, bread and fabulous olive oil that we all devoured with the ferocity you’d expect of people who’d just walked a million miles and up a hill.

But the main thing, honestly, was that it was just fun. The six of us sat around talking and joking with our guide, who was very amusing and worked hard to engage the kids as well. I feel like I’ve given this disclaimer before, but I know taking kids to a winery might seem odd to some people. But to be honest, the wine tasting was basically just like a regular meal with an added friend joining us. And the vineyard/cellar visit? Like visiting a farm. If you are going to Tuscany with kids, doing a wine tasting doesn’t need to be off your radar.*

*I will admit that it was helpful that it was just the six of us at this wine tasting, but I honestly think it would have been fine even if it was a bigger group. Although one of us would have missed part of it because we had to take Fiona to the potty. 

The Chianti wine tasting and tour at Viticcio Winery cost $25 per adult, and we considered it money well spent. You can check out Viticcio Winery here.

Act 4: The return home

It was with considerably higher spirits that we endeavored to begin our return journey to Florence — having decided to abandon our plans to take bus to the nearby town of Panzano first — but we did still have a considerable walk ahead of us. Albeit, a downhill walk this time.

Still, the crowd determined we needed some wine for the walk into the town of Greve in Chianti, where we intended to find some lunch. The good news was that our lovely guide was was willing to open a bottle for us, the bad news was that she didn’t have any plastic cups. I had a nasty cough at the time (which now seems to be bronchitis), and while I was away taking a kid to the bathroom Chris, David and Gail came up with a solution to keep my germs away …

So this happened.

Suffice it to say, the walk into Greve in Chianti was considerably nicer than that walk from Greti to Viticcio Winery. And Tuscany with kids — especially if you are doing a Greve in Chianti wine tasting — gets a big thumbs up from us.

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