Chianti Walking & Wine

Discover picturesque towns and delicious wines in Tuscany

With Renaissance cities, medieval villages and cypress-lined avenues winding through vineyards, southern Tuscany is the perfect place for a relaxing guided walking holiday. Based at the tranquil Villa Casalta, we visit beautiful San Gimignano, the market town of Greve in Chianti, the Unesco World Heritage site of Siena and the magnificent city of Florence. During the week, we sample several varieties of the local chianti and learn more about Italian wine on an interactive course at a wine school.

People, Places & Planet

We work hard to create trips that have a positive impact on the people and places we visit and look after the planet we explore. Learn more about our sustainable travel ethos and practice here and find out about the work of the Exodus Travels Foundation here.

Some sustainable travel highlights of this trip include:

People

How this trip helps improve life for local communities.

• Local guides keep you well informed about local traditions and cultural-social sensitivities.
• This trip brings income and opportunity to the destination community through the inclusion of locally owned hotels, restaurants, and other enterprises, and by championing locally produced food wherever possible. We spend seven nights at the family-run Villa Casalta, a farmhouse in the heart of Chianti.
• We arrange three wine tastings, where we learn about local wines and how they are made. This includes a session in the farmhouse, one in a local winery and a short course at the Tuscan Wine School. These are great opportunities to support local suppliers and to encourage the traditional methods of local wine production.

Places

How this trip helps protect and conserve local landscapes and nature.

• By travelling in a small group, we ‘tread lightly’ to minimise our impact on local resources and the environment.
• We work with our partners on the ground to proactively reduce waste; this includes eliminating all single-use plastic water bottles by providing refills for reusable bottles.
• Erosion on and adjacent to popular paths is a growing problem in certain places and therefore our trip leaders encourage clients to stick to advised routes to minimise this.
• We rewild 1,075sqft (100sqm) per passenger to compensate for all trip and flight emissions.
• Read about our commitment to nature protection and restoration here, including our rewilding commitment for every customer who travels with us.

Planet

How we seek to keep the carbon footprint of this trip low.

• Accommodation and restaurants in the itinerary use locally sourced food which has not been transported long distances.
• The farmhouse owners are environmentally conscious and try to minimise negative effects on their natural surroundings by paying attention to recycling and energy conservation.
• Walking trips like this have very little detrimental impact on the environment and the locals, as it is a quiet, low impact activity requiring comparatively few resources to support.
• Read about our climate action here, including our carbon reduction and compensation commitments.

Tips for sustainable travel on this trip

• Leave no trace: We do all we can to ensure we leave no rubbish in the wild and beautiful places we visit; we ask that you do the same. If there are no recycling facilities in-country, consider bringing recyclable materials home with you.
• Plastic waste reduction: Please bring a reusable water bottle on this trip, also consider avoiding single-use hotel toiletries, which generate a large amount of plastic waste.

Visa

Italy

Travellers from the UK, US and EU normally do not need a visa to enter Italy. Please note, visa requirements often change and it is your responsibility to obtain any required visas for this trip. Therefore, we recommend that you check with the nearest embassy or consulate of your chosen destination(s), including any countries you may be transiting or transferring through.

Some local governments provide guidance on what visas their citizens need. To help, we’ve gathered a selection of useful links below.

• Australia: www.smartraveller.gov.au/destinations/europe/italy
• Canada: www.travel.gc.ca/destinations/italy
• United Kingdom: www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/italy/entry-requirements
• USA:  www.travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Italy.html

Please note: it is compulsory to carry ID with you at all times in Italy.

Vaccination

Italy

There are no required vaccinations. However, you may want to consider vaccinations for tetanus, rabies and tick-borne encephalitis. Please confirm with your doctor or travel clinic.

Eating and Drinking

All breakfasts, five dinners and three wine tastings are included.

Breakfast is usually a continental-style buffet. The five included dinners are taken at Villa Casalta (drinks not included). Vegetarian choices are available – please advise us of dietary requirements on booking.

Weather

April and May departures can expect warm days and although rain is possible, it seldom lasts long. Nights may be cool. We strongly recommend a fleece-lined jacket or warm sweater in these months. June sees the start of summer and July and August can become quite hot by mid-afternoon, so this time is kept free for lunch. Although rain is unusual, torrential cloudbursts are not unknown. September and October are cooler and wetter, yet visibility is often better. Swimming is usually still possible at this time.

Is this trip for you?

This trip offers a good mix of city and countryside walks. During the walks, the terrain and path type include paved tracks, forest trails and gravel. The walks are not technically difficult, although there are some ascents and descents, so a reasonable amount of fitness is required. Please be aware, the Radda walk on Day 3 can be challenging due to the length and hilliness of the walk. The area is quite hilly and most drives, although short, follow twisty mountain roads through wooden areas.

Summer temperatures

Tuscany can be very hot in summer, especially from June to August but heatwaves can also happen in April and May. Temperatures can reach the high 30Cs (around 100F). We try to start our walks earlier to avoid the hottest hours of the day but temperatures and humidity will be high. You should feel comfortable and be used to walking in the heat. Agriturismo accommodations are not normally equipped with air conditioning, therefore rooms can be quite warm at times. The number of mosquitos may increase (significantly) in summer, so we recommend bringing repellent.

Following a review of all our trips we have categorised this trip as generally not suitable for persons of reduced mobility. However if you are a regular traveller on such trips, please contact customer services to discuss the trip and your personal condition.