A Week in Tuscany: Markets, Cellar Doors, and a Dinner to Remember

There's a rhythm to Tuscany that you only find if you slow down long enough to let it find you.

We arrive into Florence on a Tuesday, which turns out to be exactly right — the weekend crowds have gone and the city feels like it belongs to the people who actually live here. After a night in a small hotel two streets back from the Arno, we pick up our hire car and head south.

The Chianti Road

The SS222 — known locally as the Strada Chiantigiana — winds through some of the most photographed countryside in Europe, and yet somehow it still surprises you. Cypress trees in lines on low ridgelines. Pale stone farmhouses set back from dirt tracks. Vineyards in every direction.

Our first stop is a small family estate just outside Greve. The owner meets us in the courtyard and spends an hour walking us through four vintages of their Sangiovese. No sales pitch. Just pride and patience, and some very good wine.

The Market Morning

Panzano on a Thursday morning is one of those experiences that makes you want to cancel your return flight. The market runs along the main piazza — local vegetables, aged pecorino, wild boar salami, fresh pasta, jars of truffle paste. We buy more than we can reasonably carry and eat most of it at a table outside the nearby enoteca.

The Dinner

On our last evening, we eat at a restaurant in Montalcino that seats fourteen people and takes bookings three months in advance. The menu is four courses, decided that morning by the chef based on what was delivered and what felt right. We have no idea what's coming, and that turns out to be the best possible way to approach it.

The Brunello they open with the main course is from 2016. We talk about it for the rest of the trip.