Adriatic Trip, Day 6: Chianti

Sunday, June 15, 2025

Today we took a bus ride to the Tuscan countryside to visit a Chianti winery. This was a lovely change of pace because of the crowds in Venice and Florence and the very warm weather. We began by driving south into the hills surrounding Florence, which provided a nice overview of the city.

After driving for a bit, our tour director, Alexa, announced that we would be making an extra stop at the Florence American Cemetery. While this wasn’t on our itinerary, she had cleared it with Tauck, and everyone on the bus was interested in stopping there. The cemetery is the resting place for 4,392 American soldiers in World War II whose families chose to have them buried in Italy rather than repatriated to the US. As with other military cemeteries we have seen, it was a very moving tribute, and immaculately maintained.

We continued to a winery in the little village of Passignano. The winery is attached to an abbey called the Badia di Passignano. The tour itself was typical of winery tours, at least for those of us from California. The primary wine they produce is Chianti Classico, a specific local appellation.

Following the tour, we were treated to a wine tasting and gourmet lunch in the adjacent restaurant. The wine was quite different from the typical, inexpensive Chianti often found in Italian restaurants in the US. It has a very smooth taste, and like good wines, the alcohol wasn’t the primary flavor. A trademarked black rooster logo designates Chianti Classico. I will probably be looking for it at the wine store since it was too heavy for us to carry around.

We had a little free time following our return to Florence, and decided to go looking for a campanile to get some views of the city. We got a little lost and ended up at the Cappelle Medici, which houses the tombs of the Medici rulers. We were impressed by the building and artwork.

While walking back to our hotel, we heard the distant music of the calico storico parade. We followed the sound to the parade street and saw more of the teams’ supporters and festivities.

As part of the tour, we had the option to have a “fancy dinner” on one of our days in Florence. We opted for the third day because it seemed to have the most time available, although we were a little concerned about being too full after our gourmet lunch. The dinner was indeed very nice. We were at an outdoor seating area on a square facing the Palazzo Vecchio, and were told we could order anything on the menu. My pasta course included lobster, which was a real treat.

This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Italy, Greece, Albania, and Croatia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.