ROLL UP FOR ICE CREAM

What more dynamic, exciting, healthy way to get to know Tuscany than a bike ride through Chianti? Combining fun exercise, breathtaking landscapes, a UNESCO-listed town and a tempting reward, this experience features an eclectic mix of the very best the region has to offer.

You will be picked up at your accommodation in Florence and driven to the starting point of the tour in Castellina in Chianti. After a leisurely stroll through the town’s picturesque medieval streets, head for a gelateria, known for its delicious ice cream creations.

Young visitors might like to know that gelato is an age-old delicacy, dating back thousands of years. Frozen desserts are recorded as long ago as 3,000 BC when Asian cultures began consuming crushed ice and flavourings. Chinese sorbets made with fruit, milk, rice, honey and ice are probably among the earliest known versions of this favourite treat. But we don’t know exactly when the delicacy was invented or whom we should thank for its creation. It is said that Alexander the Great had a passion for snow mixed with honey and Biblical passages refer to King Solomon quenching his thirst with iced drinks during harvest season. Another famous ice cream fan was the Roman Emperor Nero who used to send servants up to the mountains in search of snow and ice which would then be aromatised with sweet fruits and honey. Our modern gelato may well have its origins in a recipe brought back to Italy from China by Marco Polo. But it was during the Renaissance in Florence, under the rule of the Medici family, that the great tradition of Italian gelato began and from there flourished in Europe and the Americas during the 18th century.

The ingredients used in ice cream making down the ages are many and diverse. Today you can be sure that the homemade varieties found in Chianti use the freshest cream, milk and fruit, alongside other tasty natural flavours. After a brief introduction to the art of gelato treat yourself to a few scoops of the parlour’s coolest creations.

Then hop on your bike and begin your cycling tour through the splendid Tuscan countryside. Your guide will accompany you along an easy route covering mainly downhill roads so as to ensure an exhilarating but relaxed ride for guests of all ages. Take in the matchless scenery Chianti has to offer from the saddle as you cycle past villas, vineyards and olive groves.

Your driver will meet you as you approach San Gimignano and escort you by van to this charming hilltop town where you may enjoy some time at leisure. You can saunter through the two central squares, Piazza della Cisterna and Piazza del Duomo, wander along enchanting narrow streets and gaze up at a number of sturdy medieval towers that still dominate the skyline, pronouncing the wealth and prestige of the families who built them centuries ago. Several outstanding Renaissance masterpieces can be admired here in their original locations, including Benozzo Gozzoli’s celebrated fresco cycle of St. Augustine. While you weave your way through this remarkably beautiful town, pause for a moment to breathe in traces of a feudal air that still linger here. It only takes a tiny step of the imagination to picture the scene – not so very different from today – as it appeared to the nobles, knights and dames who must have taken this same route hundreds of years ago.

San Gimignano also boasts some modern delights… before rejoining your driver for the transfer back to Florence you might be ready to try another ice cream: the much acclaimed, award-winning homemade variety proudly created by Gelateria Dondoli.