Activity Review: Our Private Tuscan Tour with Massi - Siena and Beyond!
For our only full day as a complete family, my mom wanted to do something very special! She hired Massi! Highly rated by others, we would have a care free day while exploring Tuscany!
Logistics
Well ahead of their trip to Florence, my mom booked Massi. His details are below and it includes several hidden gems - winery, salumeria, and old Tuscan villages!
The Beginning
Unlike most Italian trains, buses, or taxis, Massi began the trip on time! What a concept! He picked us up at our AirBnB which meant we didn’t have to sprint downhill to a city center pick up point.
On the way to the first stop, he told us how his small company began - when he met his wife! Back in 2013, he was working at a meat and cheese shop in Siena. Just before the shop closed for the winter, his wife walked in! They exchanged polite chit chat and met for a drink later. Fast forward to today, her savvy social media and marketing skills helped launch his tours!
Harvest Season
Unlike our previous visits in April 2019 and May 2018, this visit coincides with the famous harvest season of the fabulous Tuscan wines. Throughout our drive, we were passing very full vineyards and saw the bountiful harvest! Each vine appeared very full and it looked like a great season, barring any future issues of course! Massi said this harvest is very promising, but no winery will comment on it publicly in order to not jinx their harvest. However, most have told him that they were looking forward to it!
Altiero Winery
Sitting atop gorgeous Tuscan hills, Altiero was a beautiful site on this great day!
Typically producing between 15,000-18,000 bottles a year, they are relative newcomers to the Chianti scene. Beginning in 2001, Paoblo and Samuela began to grow grapes on their old family vineyard that had been rented for years. Nowadays, they are very good at what they do and produce a fine Chianti Classico and their own I.G.T Super Tuscan blend.
During the tour, while similar to the countless others that we have done, we learned they use all sorts of oak barrels to hold their wine. They make this decision depending on the vintage year and then will match the oak to the grape. We saw many hungarian oak barrels that we hadn’t expected to find here! They also have terra-cotta pots and Italian oak.
Tasting
For our tasting, we would try five of their wines:
- Rose
- This is made of the 10% extra san G grapes and is a much darker color than we are use to in rose wines! While good, it was also much more dry. It was sold out, but I don’t think we would have bought it.
- 2016 Chianti Classico “The Younger"
- This one is aged 10 months in Hungarian Oak. Very good and dry.
- 2016 Chianti Classico Reserve
- This one is good. Medium plus but not too bad. Would be great with food.
- 2016 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione
- Much better than the first two. Still dry, but much smoother and could drink without food. We bought this one!
- The Burasca - The Super Tuscan
- In the Chianti region, folks are turning to a new blend of the grapes to form a Super Tuscan. This one is 50% merlot and 50% san G. By far, this one was our favorite wine here! We bought this.
In addition to all these tasty wines, we also sampled a mix of fresh cheese and meats. Samuela makes fresh jam on the farm so we also enjoyed it with some bread! The food was definitely a perk as we sampled their fine wine and gazed into the gorgeous Tuscan countryside.
Montefioralle
From Altiero winery, we made the quick trip to the Montefioralle. The winery also belongs to this village! Luckily, we found a parking spot thanks to his excellent driving skills.
For our grand tour, we strolled through the ancient cobblestone alleys and loved every minute of it! These tiny streets were terrific and we instantly wanted a house here! They only have three businesses - a coffee shop, 1 restaurant, and 1 B&B. As one can imagine, it only took us 15 minutes to see the entire village!
Panoramic Views
At this point, my mom was feeling very under the weather so luckily Massi found a nice panoramic viewpoint of the small village of SASWWW. Similar to our high expectations of Tuscan countryside beauty, it stunned us! MF and I loved every second of it! Plus, we got a great picture of the whole family!
Tasty Salmueria in Siena
Just outside the wonderful town of Siena lies a tasty salmueria! Unlike other butcher or meat shops, this salmueria still makes their cured meat. Dad was asking what was the difference between smoked and cured meat and he learned he was doing it the wrong way. Cured meat requires aging in large warehouses and one does not cook it. Essentially, it is dried out raw meat! Learn something new everyday…
Within this shop, there were also homemade dishes and yummy fresh dishes! Massi helped us choose a few tasty treats that I cannot remember their names! Our spread was fantastic! We also chose a glass of the Chianti of the Day!
Our favorite was the prosciutto, closely followed by the spicy sausage. In addition, we enjoyed a “bread salad” where they mix together dry bread crumbled into salad. Luckily, we had an outside table and it felt good to relax in the sunshine.
Strolling in Siena
Because mom was really under the weather, we had to opt to Plan B: Messi dropped us off in Siena while the sick van transported the parents back to Florence. I wonder who drew the short straw there….
Before we hopped out of the van, Massi gave us his four key recommendations in the field of cheese, meat, gelato, and wine! We made it our mission to visit all these shops! Plus, we would have a classic Italian stroll through Siena.
Mission Possible
In Siena, it is very possible to see the entire city in an hour if you don’t stop to enjoy the sights and sounds. For us, we love the sights and sounds so it takes us much longer!
For our first stop, we went to the recommended gelato shop, Gelateria Caribia, located just outside the Pizzia Campo. I had a lovely chocolate and strawberry cone and MF had a vanilla cone. We sat in the piazza and enjoyed the afternoon sun!
For our second short stop, we visit a wonderful cheese shop, Gino Cacino di Angelo, combined with meat and sandwiches! If only we were hungry…
For our third visit, we went to Massi’s first ham and cheese shop, De Miccoli where we purchased a fennel Italian sausage. Finally, we were tired of walking so we went to the piazza to enjoy Siena.
The Ride Back
Having taken the bus to Siena, we knew there had to be a bus back to Florence. Using the below link, we went to get the bus station to buy our one way ticket for the ”RAP” bus to Florence. In just over an hour, we would be back at the Florence bus station! Since our visit in April, the price has increased from 7.20 to 8.40!
Travel Tip: As of right now, this is the cheapest way to travel between Florence and Siena. This link is to the Siena to Florence route and the Florence to Siena route is also on the website. Take the RAP bus for the quickest journey!
Nella’s Grand Redemption
Because it is MF’s last evening in Florence (for the foreseeable future!), I let her chose our date night dinner. She wanted to walk past Nella to see the specials and to evaluate if they were different. If they were fishy (literally) or strange, we would keep walking and try another restaurant. If they sounded tasty, we would stop.
Big surprise, we stopped! The specials sounded right up MF’s alley and I was quite excited as I spied TWO pasta specials. Usually, I let MF have the pasta special while I try something off the menu. Because we also noticed we typically order the same appetizer and dessert, we decided to “drastically” change our order.
For the appetizer, we chose the “crazy” caprese salad! It was very fresh and tasty, but probably will chose the bruschetta next time as that is the better value.
For the main, I had a wonderful fetticune with duck and tomato sauce. The duck melted in my mouth and the tomato sauce was great! MF ordered the other pasta special - the classic spaghetti carbonara! Both portions were much bigger than our meal last night so we struggled to finish half of it! MF had to ask for a takeaway box!
Obviously, we had to order the classic panna cotta. While waiting, we were treated to an impromptu concert and even saw the owner’s brother come in and steal a glass of wine! Free entertainment! Sharing this panna cotta was much better tonight as we had to savor each bite! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!
The UnChartered Summary
- While we enjoyed most of the private tour, I still am not sure it was worth it until Mom felt poorly, then it was totally worth it!
- Certain aspects of the tour could have been changed - granted most of the tour had to change due to unforeseen circumstances! While we enjoyed the family run salumeria, we have had better meals with more stunning views...
- We thoroughly enjoyed the Altiero winery! It was very small and we had the place to ourselves!
- In the end, the private tour felt more like a driver, than a guide. This is fine for us since we have been here before. Massi is a great guy especially for dealing with my family, but MF and I won’t do a private open day tour anytime soon.
- Trattoria Nella never fails! Always get the pasta special unless it really doesn’t suit your fancy!!