The mighty Vespa (Thursday 15th August 2013)

Today was one of the highlights of the trip. On the itinerary somewhere was always going to be a day spent doing the thing that so quintessentially European and, perhaps even more so, Italian – riding a motor scooter around the village lanes and country road.

I had tried to pre-book one from Australia but found it a little difficult, so I didn't. I think the mistake I made was looking in the larger towns, my logic saying that scooter rental businesses will be where the most people are, not the little villages. Wrong. When we arrived in Tuscany we found literature about a few rental outfits all based in small villages. In summer, there are plenty of holidaying potential customers in the villages and the villages are right in the heart of the road they wish to ride.

When we arrived in Siena I chose a crowd call Tuscany Scooter Rentals base in Gaiole in Chianti and Radda in Chianti. I filled in the online form only to get a reply advising that they were completely booked out for the week we are in the 10 days we are in or nearish to the Chainti Hills. Disappointment :( . I contacted another form – still waiting to hear back. I contacted TSR again and asked them to contact me in there were any cancellations. To my delight there was. But getting it organised from there was a mini-saga! The scooter to be made available to me had been filled with diesel by a previous client so it was out of action A couple of others possibly needed some panel-beating so the numbers of available scooters was dwindling fast. The proprietor said he would let me ride his special blue one if I could ride. “Of course!”, I said!. “My Australian licence has a motor cycle endorsement”, I added.

So we drove two hours almost back to Siena for the ride. The mob is rather disorganised. The local tourist information centre (a one woman show) acts as an agent. Anyway, we didn't get the blue one, we got a red Vespa 125 instead. Perfect! The scooter is hired for a 24 hour period. We had until 10:00am the next morning to get it back. The cost is only 50 euro plus 10 eiro for insurance. A bargain. Oh, a 1000 euro deposit is required also. The only other expense is the cost to return it with a full tank. We rode for more than seven hour, using just over 4 litres of fuel.

We first headed for Radda about 10kms away. Kerry was very nervous, I was a little tentative and overly cautious for the journey to the first stop but quickly got the for the feel of the machine and settled into the ride. We caught our breath in Radda over a cool drink, a coffee and an apple and custard torte. Next it was to Castellino arriving about lunchtime after a long stop on the road for the obligatory “man-girl-machine” photo-shoot. We paked in the special Vespa parking area,

then called into a deli to pickup some bread, ham, tomato, sheep's cheese, pesto and Chianti Classico for lunch.

Actually the Chianti wasn't for lunch. It's in one of those classic Chianti bottles with the wicker-work on the base. You know the one. The bottle will be kept as a souvenir once the contents had disappeared.

After Castellino, where Kerry bought some more souvenirs, we jumped on the Vespa, looked at the map, chose a target village for our next drink and headed in that direction on a beautiful, warm, cloudless day. The roads were pretty quiet, but not devoid of traffic. Motorists in Italy are very mindful and respectful of riders of two wheeled vehicles on the public roads. Kerry had become completely comfortable with being a pillion passenger by lunch, even taking photographs while on the move!

Without referring to a map I can hardly remember the names of the villages we visited. 

Riding the Vespa is such a carefree way to spend a day. I cannot too highly recommend it as a way to de-stress. Way better than wandering aimlessly over the same route in a car, or a push-bike. “If it looks like a lot of fun, you're right. It is! No helmet, no licence and no idea, and that legal in Italy” (Rob Sitch, 1995). “Although you may want to check about the helmet, I could be wrong about that.” (G. Smith , 2013 (with apologies to R. Sitch)).

We rode and rode and rode, with the little Vespa more than a match for the Chianti Hills, even with two on board. Needless to say the scenery, the endless panoramic views and the little hill-top villages were marvelous to behold. We passed about 27,000 wineries I reckon, but didn't visit any. We just wanted to be on the Vespa. By about 6pm the sun starting to get low in the sky and the day was cooling of, just a touch.

We rode the last 15kms back to Gaiole through vineyards and cool pine and oak forests. The scent of the pine as we rode along was lovely, remembering to “suck in the big ones” to get the most of that wonderful smell. We filled up for eight euros and very, very reluctantly took the Vespa back to its home and dropped the keys into the letter-box at the information centre.

We had a quick dinner at a nearby restaurant and then started the long drive back to Caprese. And a long drive it was. We made it to Arezzo and from memory with no worries, but directional sign-posts are dying art-form in Arezzo so we found ourselves on the road to the town of Bibbiena to the east of Caprese. Not very far east, if you're a crow, but a long way if one has to negotiate foreign, twisting mountain roads in the dark with unquestionably the worst headlights I have ever had the displeasure to rely upon. But we made it back eventually by about 10:30pm, called Emily on Skype, then Viber to say hello and crashed off to sleep.