Vespa Tour From Florence: Two Vespa Rides and an E-Bike

The Chianti listing is a Vespa tour from Florence rated 4.8 from 1,070 reviews, at $151 per person for 6 hours. It is really four rides in one listing: your own Vespa, a scooter for one, a double Vespa shared by a driver and a passenger, or a fully electric car for one or two guests. Check your option carefully: the vehicle, the seating and what is included all change with it.

After leaving Florence you reach the countryside and get a safety briefing before the route begins. You ride through the Chianti hills and Impruneta, with a photo stop at Chiocchio, behind an English-speaking tour leader, with a support minivan along for the whole tour. The route is about 35 km (22 miles) round trip, mostly on paved back roads with very little traffic, at about 20 km/h on average. The listing rates it easy.

The middle of the day belongs to a winery: a cellar visit, wine and olive oil tasting, and a sit-down Tuscan meal with local specialties.

At $168 per person, the second Vespa tour from Florence is the shorter one: 5 hours, rated 4.8 from 826 reviews, with an English-speaking guide. The Vespas are vintage ones, restored. Your tour leader fits you with a helmet and gives basic instructions before you set off.

Here you ride out of the city yourself, in a small group of Vespas, along the river and a tree-lined avenue to a well-known viewpoint, for photos with the Florence skyline and a short visit to one of the oldest churches in the city. Then come narrow lanes between castles and villas, olive groves and vineyards; the listing calls some of these roads more challenging. If two of you share a Vespa, there are plenty of stops to take turns, as long as each driver has a licence.

The break is on a private terrace: Tuscan prosciutto and cheese with a glass of Chianti. A vegetarian option is available; other special diets cannot be catered for.

The cheapest of the three is not a Vespa. The Chianti e-bike tour costs $50 per person for 6 hours, rated 4.7 from 387 reviews, with guides in English, Spanish and German. You start at a garage on Via delle Ruote in Florence, take a short test ride to make sure you are comfortable, then pedal out towards the Chianti hills, vineyards and villages.

On the shared guided tour, the highlight is a winery where you learn how Chianti Classico is made, taste it with cheeses and cured meats, and sit down to a traditional Tuscan lunch. Back in Florence, a second tasting waits in the centre.

Read the options before you pay: on the self-guided tour the tastings and the lunch are not included, and the listing does not say which option its price belongs to.

Book the Chianti ride at $151 per person for the fuller day out: 6 hours, a winery meal, the most reviews of the three, and an electric car for those who would rather not ride. Book the countryside ride at $168 per person if the Vespa itself is the point: restored vintage scooters, a skyline stop and 5 hours in all.

No driving licence? Take the e-bike tour at $50 per person, and choose a guided option if you want the winery lunch.

Two wheels not for you? Our top pick among the day trips, the Cinque Terre and Pisa trip, costs $100 per person for 12 to 12.5 hours: a coach to La Spezia, the local train between the villages, then time on your own at Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa. Compare it with the rest in our list of day trips.