Monday morning, Bel and I prepared ourselves for the bike tour. The assembly point is at Ponte del Grazie. It’s still early so we went to the street behind to have a cup of coffee. We went to the High Bar where and we are the only customer, again the cappuccino is strong and good. I like the bar setting very much. When time is near, we went back to the assembly point, there were some people already waiting there. We waited for a while and one of our guides came to pick us up. There are 2 couples who showed up without registration. Unfortunately the group that day is already full so they could only book for tomorrow. We were given a brief introduction and then we head out to the countryside in 4 vans.
After about 20mins drive, we arrived at Poppiano, a village on a hill. As soon as we got off the van, there’s strong smell of fermented grapes. Yes, our first destination is to visit the wine breweries. After we filled up some forms, we were divided into 2 groups led by Keith and Andy. Bel and I were in Keith’s group. Keith started off with a proper introduction about himself and how he started out this bike tour business, he also briefed us about our itinerary of the day. He told us some background of this brewery which is inside a castle-liked building. Here, they produce olives oil besides red wine (Chianti). Inside, Keith explained the process of producing the Chianti red-wine and showed us where they kept the grapes and wines for fermentation. Then we were led to the top of the castle for amazing view of Tuscany hills. After the photo-taking session, we went down to the courtyard for wine and olive oil tasting. Everybody gets a glass of the Chianti wine and we tasted the olive oil by dipping white bread into them. Bel doesn’t drink so she just took a sip from my glass. We both find that the wine is very good and the olive oil doesn’t taste oily at all. Of course after this tour and tasting session, we were brought to their little shop where you can buy wines and olive oils at a cheaper rate as we were told (as compared to getting them from the high street). 
Finally, it’s time to bike. We were led to the bike shed where everybody gets a bike to suit his/her height, a bicycle helmet and a bottle of water. There’s a pouch behind the bike to store important stuff while other bags etc were left at the shed. Bel got a junior bike while I was assigned an adult bike. After everyone gets their bike, Keith briefed us on the rules and precautions while riding. Then we all head out, still in 2 groups, riding in single file. The initial part is pretty easy as we were going down the hill and on flat road. We stopped at certain points to make sure everyone kept up and also to take photos. We rode through the beautiful Tuscany countryside, passing by grape farms, and wonderful sceneries.
After about 20-30mins ride, we stopped for lunch at a residential house which doubled as a restaurant. We started with salad while Keith and Andy took orders for our main dish (different types of spaghettis), dessert and coffee/tea. I opted for spicy spaghetti, tiramisu and cappuccino. Very good tiramisu I must say. Over lunch, we chatted with this Taiwanese couple whom are here for holiday as the husband is working in Middle East while the wife in China. We rested for a while and move out again. There were a few gooses at the yard. The Taiwanese guy was trying to pose with the goose but out of sudden the goose flapped his wings and chased that poor fella for quite a distance. All of us laughed our hearts out while he was so embarrassed at that incident. We started off again on flat road and Bel was constantly left behind on her junior bike. She needs to work double hard to peddle her bike to cover the same distance by adult bike. She told me that Keith asked her a couple of times if she is OK and can she keep up. Then, at a junction turning up a slope, we saw people coming off their bike, and sat into the van. So we too join in the band and gave up cycling up the pretty steep slope. Bel is done with cycling while I didn’t want to strain my knees further. We went pass others mostly pushing their bike up the slope and arrive at a café. We rested while waiting for the others to arrive.
After all had arrived, we cycle back to the castle and ended our bike tour. After returning the bicycles, we were taken back to the assembly point and greet farewell. This is definitely a good expedition on our trip although we would have enjoyed it more if we were allowed more time to cycle slowly, stop more often for photos and enjoy the countryside. Most of the others tourists seemed to be aiming at getting to the next checkpoint as fast as they could hence making the whole trip a little too rush to our liking. And for Bel, she would definitely had enjoyed it more if she’s riding on an adult bike.
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