Discover Tuscany

Planning my trip to Italy I knew for sure I wanted to do a wine tour. Searched and searched online… These tours can be very expensive and generic. I wanted something more personal, and affordable. Finally found ‘Discover Tuscany’. Christina immediately started helping me with this. She works with Guido (our tour guide). Everything was arranged for him to pick us up at our hotel, and have the whole day planned for us. Christina helped us with our train schedule (we visited 3 cities), and also booked our hotel in Florence. This part of our trip was Absolutely perfect thanks to her. She worked hard and accommodated to our schedule and requests patiently and successfully.
We arrived at Residenza Johlea (hotel Christina recommended and booked) and it was one of my favorite hotels in the 2 weeks I was in Europe.
For our wine tour, Guido was right on time, very friendly, funny, and very knowledgeable. He asked what exactly I was expecting from the tour, and with my input, even though he had the day planned, he changed it seeing that other things might be more to my liking after talking to me personally. He made a couple of calls and took us to 2 Brunello wineries. Must say, this is now one of my favorite wines. Not only was the wine amazing but the people too. We got a tour of Costanti where we tasted 4 of their Brunello wines and got a tour of their winery, while learning about the region, the wine, and it’s process. Next, we went to a small, family owned winery, winner of last year’s best wine in a blind tasting and found only over there. This was a really nice experience, we met the owner and wine maker Valter Nanetti, very nice man. Met his wife and grand kids, plus we were able to handpick fruits from their garden — delicious!
After this, and extra to the tour I had envisioned, we had a cheese tasting. Fresh, smelly, so good. Lunch came next, and a little tour of the city. Before I left, I really wanted to see sunflowers. They weren’t in season yet but Guido drove and drove until he found them for me. This was not part of the tour but, I know Christina had told him this was one of my «must do» in Italy, and with me telling him too, he just went for it. I can’t say how much I appreciated this and his great attitude throughout the whole tour.
When I get another opportunity to travel like this, I’m contacting Christina again to help me plan it. She’s a great person to keep in mind, she’s a travel agent with great hotel contacts and tours. If in Italy, ask her about Guido, he offers tours all over the country, not just wine. Believe me, you’ll have a great vacation and learn at the same time.