Westenders Scooter Club

And we're off! Riding a Vespa in the heart of Chianti on a beautiful day; can it get any better than this?

Having enjoyed a couple of days in Firenze (Florence) to get over our jet lag, we were now ready to head out into the Tuscan countryside to enjoy a week of riding Vespas with Italy by Vespa.

We checked out of our hotel, and took a short cab ride back to the train station to meet our contact. An Italian travel firm, Golden Travel, serves as Italy by Vespa's 'men on the ground' in Chianti. They provide the guides and logistical support for the Vespas. At the station, we were met by Paolo of Golden Travel, and were joined by another fellow who would be riding with us, Ace (not a nickname, but actually the acronym of his first three names, Alfred Charles Edward). Ace is a very talented website designer who had been engaged by Italy by Vespa to revamp their website, and was joining the tour to gain a better understanding of IbyV's product. As you can see, when you follow the links provided to Italy by Vespa, their money was well spent! Paolo then drove us to the Florence airport, where we met four more members of our party; Henny, Donald, Cathy, and Art are two very nice couples from Denver who won their tour packages in a charity auction. They would not be riding scooters this trip, so Paolo had a full program of excursions and adventures that he would take them on in Golden Travel's van while the rest of us toured about on our Vespas. Once everyone's luggage had been packed aboard, we headed out of Florence to the village of Radda-in-Chianti, which would be our base of operations for the week. Radda-in-Chianti (Radda for short) is a picturesque hilltop hamlet of approximately 1700 souls located 35 kilometers southeast of Florence and 15 km north of the medieval city of Siena.

The vilage of Radda-in-Chianti. The Hotel Vignale is the white building in the lower left.

In Radda, we met John and Alex, who rounded out our little company. They're a pair of writers (he's an Australian globe-trotting automotive journalist, she's English, and writes for 'home and garden' type magazines) who are currently living in the northern Italian city of Bergamo, in the foothills of the Italian Alps. With our party complete, the five riders (Ace, John, Alex, Tess and Yours Truly) met our guide, Maurizio, and he took out to our scooters.

Inspecting our mounts: Italy by Vespa LX125s await their riders in Radda

As I've mentioned before, an Italy by Vespa adventure doesn't come cheap, but it soon becomes clear in many ways that you are receiving an outstanding value for your money. IbyV provides each rider with a bright red Vespa LX125. Each machine is showroom-clean and perfect, meticulously maintained, and are an effortless joy to ride. For extra-petite riders, they have a few Piaggio 'Zip' scooters (the scooter in the middle of the group) which are available on pre-arranged request. After being kitted out with matching Vespa helmets and issued the keys to our assigned machines, Maurizio took us on a short familiarization ride of the local area. Within minutes we were out in the country, merrily cruising quiet, winding country roads that were immaculately maintained (it appears the Italians are very keen on investing in public infrastructure, even out in the 'sticks'). We were not alone, however. Since today was a Saturday, we regularly saw squadrons of leather-clad sport bikers as well. It seems sport-bike enthusiasts come all the way from Rome and Milan to enjoy Chianti's twisty roads on the weekends. They rode their machines with great skill and daring and were a thrill to watch! At the end of our ride, Maurizio presented us with a delightful gift. This is another thing that Italy by Vespa doesn't mention on their website, but further increases the 'value factor' of your Vespa Tour experience. Tess was presented with a beautiful Italian-made (no 'made in China' tourist tat here; Italians are justifiably proud of their handiwork, and all the gifts we received were made in Italy!), hand-tooled red leather purse/backpack, embossed with the Italy by Vespa logo. I received a very nice leather datebook that included information on our itinerary and upcoming events. Having acclimated ourselves to the country lanes of Chianti, we were taken to the Malborghetto restaurant in the nearby village of Lecchi. The food was outstanding, and they kept bringing it until you said 'stop'! I enjoyed an excellent bistecca with a porcini mushroom sauce. This was just the first of many memorable meals on this trip. The Italy by Vespa scooter tour is also set up to appeal to dedicated 'foodies'! While many of the group were staying at the lovely Hotel Vignale in the village, we had upgraded to accommodations at the picturesque Villa Galenda, about 10 minutes outside of Radda. We settled in just in time to enjoy a fantastic lightning storm (about the only bad weather of the trip), and got ready for the next day's scootering adventure!