IF YOU GO
TELEPHONES
To call the numbers below from the U.S., dial 011 (the international dialing code), 39 (the country code for Italy) and the local number.
HOW TO RIDE
Rental bikes are available from several Florence-based companies. HP Motorrad offers a variety, including a Ducati Scrambler for $86 a day ($442 for a week) and a Multistrada for $121 a day ($580 for a week). The company also rents a full line of BMWs and, if you really want to stick out, Harley-Davidsons. Visit www.motorbikerentitaly.com/home.html or email rent@hpmotorrad.com.
Rental bikes are also available from CIMT (www.cimt.it/rental.htm)
WHERE TO STAY
Podere La Lucciolaia, 30 Localita Casaglia, San Gimignano; 0577-950123, www.agriturismolalucciolaia.it. We stayed in this converted farmhouse that offered a welcome swimming pool, very welcome air conditioning and substantial free breakfast. Doubles from $110.
WHERE TO EAT
Le Tre Porte, 4-6-8 Via Trento e Trieste, Castellina in Chianti; 0577-741163, www.treporte.com. The cinghiale alla cacciatore, at $11, was superb.
Locanda San Domenico, 20 Via del Castello, San Gimignano; 0577-940206, www.locandasandomenico.it. This friendly bistro has a terrific garden terrace with a "vista panoramica" that improves the adequate food. Dinner entrees from about $12.50.
TO LEARN MORE
FLORENCE, Italy — There’s no bad way to see Italy. I’ve done parts of the country by train, by rental car and on foot, on multiple trips from Florence, Padua and Rome, and it’s never been anything less than terrific.
But seeing it by motorcycle, I discovered in June, is one of the best. Aside from the great roads and riding — there’s a reason Ducati, Moto Guzzi, MV Agusta and other motorcycle companies were born here — a two-wheeled excursion delivers unexpected delights.
First, it solves a panoply of parking and traffic problems as you slide past the tourists crawling through the narrow hill towns hunting for a place to ditch their rental cars.
Touring by bike also gets you out of the air-conditioned car or train and places you in the Italian landscape in a way that adds olfactory pleasures to the journey, as the country smells of farms, fields and flowers join the city smells of caffe, pane and pasticcia.
For a quick motorcycle tour of Tuscany’s Chianti region, I chose a 2016 Ducati Multistrada 1200. I’d ridden these able machines in the U.S. and recently used one for a multi-day L.A.-Carmel-L.A. jaunt. I thought the combination of sport bike spunkiness and touring bike cargo capacity would be ideal for a two- or three-day swing around the villas, vineyards and hill towns of Chianti.
I started with a visit to Ducati’s Bologna factory and museum — fascinating for anyone with an interest in motorcycles and a bargain at $11 — then rode the Multi to the farmhouse where my wife, Julie, and I were staying with friends in the Mugello valley north of Florence.
It was hot and muggy — nasty riding weather if, like me, you insist on wearing a helmet, jacket and boots — but I thought it would cool down in a day or two. Instead, it got hotter and muggier, more than 90 at midday, every day, and rising to 98 one afternoon.
Julie balked at the temperature and declined to ride. Left to ride solo and suffering from jet lag that had me awake all night and asleep all afternoon, I decided to do what I do when it’s too hot to ride at home: I hit the road at 6 a.m.
For the next several days I enjoyed some of the best riding I’ve ever experienced. I had the quiet country roads to myself. (The people of the Mugello and Chianti regions do not begin their day before 9 a.m.)
Free of traffic, I slipped through the cool air as the sun warmed the fields and the blossoming linden trees and Scotch broom released their heady, honeyed scents.
About the Author
