Tag: Italian travel

Surviving 2020

Michele KarlssonLeave a comment

Well, 2020 has certainly been a year to remember so far, even as most of us wish we could forget it and move on to 2021 in the hopes it has the potential to make us smile more. That wish would take away our chance to learn from this year and we think learning is the real gift we can all take away from a year of political upheaval wrapped up in a pandemic and cooked in a climate crisis.

As a small company in a huge industry we’ve always had to stay flexible and quick on our feet…I mean wheels. The reliable constant has been the stability of tourism overall. We could be Leif and Michele riding through the Italian countryside drinking wine and sharing our experiences with the people we meet along the way because tourism had a place for everyone. That illusion has been shattered this year with the arrival of the pandemic. “Now what?” is a recurring question for everyone, but for the travel industry it’s a particularly loud, repeated and immediately unanswerable question.

We’ve been in limbo since the end of February. It’s an uncomfortable place to be for any length of time. To use a travel metaphor we’ve gone from the excitement and enchantment that the first days of a vacation bring, past the comfort of the next few days as comfort grows out of repetition, and now we’re well into those last few days where living out of a suitcase is downright unbearable and restaurant food is predictable but we have no choice and we’ve run out of comfortable sitting positions to make the bus rides less tedious. If this were a vacation we’d be hoping against hope that our Instagram feed would one day make this trip feel less awful.

But we still have hope.

We also remain remarkably light on our feet. Ahem, wheels. We’re doing what we need to do to survive these awkward months where nothing is normal and no one has a clue what tomorrow brings. We have time to explore ideas and reimagine our lives and learn all kinds of new things. Instead of looking back on what we think we’ve lost we’re looking forward to what we can be and have in the future.

Leif has become a pretty darn good bike mechanic. He has always had mad roadside skills but now he can walk into a fully equipped shop and take a bike apart and put it back together. He’s always been able to make a rental bike fit the rider. Now he can talk to a rider and help them find the perfect bike to buy. His passion for cycling has a new depth. Instead of getting people on a bike for a day he has been able to help others make cycling a part of their every day. Pretty cool, huh?

Michele has turned a corner of the apartment into her painting studio. Letting her creative side dominate during the lockdown has been a blessing. Expect to see a lot of watercolors of the Tuscan countryside in the months to come.

We’re also shifting our focus a bit from the Velo to the Vino in our company name. Leif is exploring the idea of becoming a wine educator. It’s a natural progression from connoisseur to guide to teacher that he’s perfectly suited for.

Michele is diving into the world of wine in a serious way too. She’s starting classes to learn more about wine, wine growing and the business of wine. She’s always been pretty good about drinking wine; now she has a chance to understand it as well. Living in the heart of Chianti as we do wine has a place in everyday life and the more she learns about it the better she can help visitors to understand the role wine farming has played in the culture of Italy.

As hard as this year has been, we intend to be around next year and for many years to come. How we do that isn’t completely clear, but we’re going to do it. The friendships we’ve built, the special times we’ve shared, and the joy we’ve received make it impossible for us to just quit. We have so much yet to give…we just have to figure out how to do that.

To all our past guests: We treasure the time you spent with us. We have relived so many experiences during our lockdown and feel richer for having known you.

To our future guests: We can’t wait to meet you and show you what life in Italy looks, sounds, feels, smells and tastes like. It’s 1000 times better than you can imagine.

Another season begins

Michele KarlssonLeave a comment

It’s not Easter yet but the weather has become more predictably beautiful, and with the sun comes another cycling season.

Right now it’s perfect weather. The nights are cool and during the day the sun is strong and warm. Everything seems to be blooming and the air is heavy with the scents of apple blossoms and wisteria while the green grass is already dotted with bright yellow dandelions and brilliant poppies.

It seems like overnight it has become possible to eat lunch on the terrace overlooking a valley of vineyards just starting to show the promise of this year’s vintage. To wear shirts and shorts, and to sunburn after only a short time in the sun.

It’s time for Aperol spritz and white wine and prosecco. Time for sunblock and rides into the countryside. There’s so much to see and do and taste out there and the beginning of the season is exciting because even we don’t know exactly what surprises are out there to discover!

First Sundays

Michele Karlsson2 Comments

Not everything happens on a bike or with a glass of wine in our hands. I swear.

One of the really great things that Italy has sponsored since 2014 has been to offer free admission to state museums on the first Sunday of the month. Florence has responded by opening some of the city museums and gardens for free as well. That means if you are planning a trip to Florence or Italy you may have the opportunity to see a museum or two for free if you can plan your trip to coincide with the first Sunday of the month.

As an example, for the first Sunday in March we visited the Archaeological Museum near Piazza Santissima Annunziata. It’s a treasure trove of Etruscan, Roman, Greek and Egyptian artifacts collected by the  Medici and Lorraine families, and eventually donated to the city. It’s the kind of museum I could spend the whole day investigating.

The Bargello is another museum that is open on first Sundays. It’s a favorite among artists and students of art because of its many sculptures, with at least four different versions of David and several Bacchus. The Galleria dell’Accademia, home of Michelangelo’s David is free on first Sundays, as is the Uffizi. The Boboli and Bardini gardens are also on the list along with parts of the Pitti Palace. You can find a fairly comprehensive list of museums here.

If you’re planning a trip and are lucky enough to be in Italy, especially Florence, on the first Sunday consider taking that day to visit a museum. My advice? Get there early as the lines can be outrageously long because who doesn’t want to get into a major museum for free?

Confession time: I only go to the museums when it’s raining or bad weather. Sunday is the day that every person capable of pedaling a bike is out on the road basking in the sunshine and the camaraderie of fellow cyclists.

Winter Riding

Michele KarlssonLeave a comment

Both Leif and I are from much colder climates; Leif is from Sweden and I’m from Minnesota in the United States. We’re used to cold and snow and weather that doesn’t invite cycling for months out of the year. This doesn’t mean cycling doesn’t happen in those climates, it just changes significantly for those who chose to ride year round. Different bikes, different clothing, different terrain. Very different mind set.

Part of the attraction of Tuscany for Leif was the longer cycling season. And if you’re from the north it truly is a year round season: It’s only the clothing and often your speed that needs to change. When I came here I didn’t cycle but really really really enjoyed what is in my experience a pretty mild winter. Now that I ride I appreciate that warmer winter season even more.

We’re very lucky, we know this. We have many friends who have to stay inside during the winter and use a trainer because of work schedules and less daylight hours, or simply because they have a great dislike for being cold. Since we’re in the off season our schedule is super flexible and we can ride at the driest and warmest time of the day. One of the perks of our kind of work.

While I suppose this could be classified as “riding outside the season” this is the perfect time to see Tuscany in a whole new light. The cooler temperatures are a welcome respite from the melting heat of summer. Fall is the smell of wine fermenting as we ride by a farm, the chatter of workers picking olives in a grove and the swift change of colors as the vines and trees prepare for winter. Winter itself is another kind of ride. The air is scented with wood smoke from the many houses that still heat with wood. The trees may be bare but we can see the shape of the hills clearly and trace the change in soil and climate from one valley to the next. Coffee breaks take on a whole new meaning as they mean warmth inside and out. We may come home cold and wet, but we also feel incredibly alive.

For now we put on our long pants, long sleeved jerseys, warm socks and gloves and hat and head out just as much as before. When the temperatures really dip down, like into the single digits (Celsius) we’ll break out the long underwear and super warm accessories and ride a little more carefully on those wet and/or frosty roads. But we’ll still be outside riding and enjoying the warmer days with bright sunshine but also the those other days, bitterly cold wind in our faces as our toes and fingers go slowly numb…because this is the way we’ve always known winter to be.

cascine-001
The colors are peaking right now.

Endings and Beginnings

Michele Karlsson2 Comments

We are at the end of our 2016 season! We’ve done some of the same tours and activities we do every year but we’ve also added some new things, one of which is this new website and blog. It’s an exciting change for us!

We’d like to thank our partners, colleagues and especially our clients for a fantastic year of cycling, hiking, wine, food and lots of smiles. It’s a joy to go to work each day with the goal of having as much fun as possible with very special people.

We’ve celebrated birthdays, many of them 50th birthdays this year, with people from all over Europe and the United States. We’ve celebrated weddings, anniversaries and honeymoons. We’ve helped celebrate the “empty nest” and ticking items off the “bucket list”. It’s been an honor to be a part of each of these celebrations.

We’ve spent serious time with people working to improve themselves, whether it’s on the bike, on the trails, behind the camera or communing with nature. And we’ve spent a serious amount of time with people just having fun.

Now we take a deep breath, do a ride just for fun, and start planning for next year’s tours. It’s already shaping up to be an exciting year. Hope to see you in 2017!