Summary
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Trail in numbers
- Distance: 164 km
- Total climb: 4742 m
- High point: 800 m
- Rideability: 95%
- Duration: 4 days
Highlights
- History and Culture. It’s expected, as we are in Tuscany. Apart from Florence and Siena, this trail winds through several small medieval villages, many of which showing their ancient Castles. Simply amazing.
- Food and wine: Again, this is obvious…rest assured that every effort, every pedal stroke or drop of sweat will be rewarded with superb wine and tasty, filling Tuscan food.
- Crete Senesi: Possibly a little less known than the Chianti vineyards, Crete Senesi is an area of large, gentle and green rolling hills extending as far as the eye can see. Beautiful to see, but tiring to conquer!
Useful info
- When to go: From April to October. Despite you could ride this trail all year-round as it is very unlikely to find any snow here, you will definitely get the most out of this experience if you skip the winter season. Not only you will find more favorable weather and nicer colors, but also you will find more open b&b, hotels, restaurants and in general the entire experience will be more lively and energetic.
- Directions: We drove to Florence, parked our car there and hit the trail. We then headed back by train from Siena. Florence can also be easily reached by rail from Bologna and Rome, but if you opt for the high speed train Frecciarossa you will have to pack your bike.
- Food and Water: You will always be crossing villages, so there is nothing to worry about. Just be mindful of the baking sun which will get you dehydrated fast. Make sure you carry plenty of water.
Table of contents:
Photostory
2017 is a year of lots of bike touring experiences: April saw us crossing Sicily in our coast to coast from Palermo to Agrigento , and in August we have planned to spend 3 days in the Dolomites around Cervinia. As we have a couple of holidays around June 2nd (a bank holiday in Italy), we decide to hit the trail and follow the beautiful Chianti Trail. Once again, we find inspiration and detailed tracks on The MTB Biker webpage.
This is how we organised our personal Chianti Trail in 3 nights and 4 days on the saddle:
- Day 1: Firenze – Impruneta (25 km). The first day for us included the car drive from Milan to Florence, so we began riding after lunch. This section is fairly short and it is meant to offer lots of time to visit and enjoy Florence.
- Day 2: Impruneta – Gaiole in Chianti (49 km). The first section until Greve in Chianti is rather easy and fast rolling, but then a challenging climb must be tackled to reach Gaiole in Chianti.
- Day 3: Gaiole in Chianti – Castelnuovo Berardenga (55 km). The day features a challenging hill climb from Gaiole in Chianti to Ambra in a forest trail.
- Day 4: Castelnuovo Berardenga – Siena (33 km). This is a nice cavalcade on the rolling Crete Senesi. Once in Siena, there is time for some sightseeing before taking the 1-hour train back to Florence.
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Bike Setup
This time we had to improvise. We had planned all the route, sorted the bikes and booked our hotel, but when the moment of assembling our kit came, we realized we had a major problem. Our trusted Topeak MTX panniers is 350km aways, forgotten in Basel. Therefore, we had to make the most of what we had: two 10L soft-shell Decathlon backpacks, which we hastily clipped to the rear rack of my bike, using cable ties and and scotch tape. As a cherry on the top, we laced my beauty case to the top part of the rack.
Here’s our set up:
Bikes
- I’ve got my trusty Cube Race One LTD 2014 , a 29er aluminum cross-country bike with 100mm front travel. Not exceptionally light, but very reactive and precise. Perfect for bike touring.
- Maria has her trusty Specialized Rhyme, full suspended and apt to every terrain
Gears
My setup is organised as follows:
- On the handlebar, just a small box to carry my sunglasses and power bank. I actually used my sunglasses case, it worked our perfectly as it had velco straps that made securing it to the handlebar super easy.
- On the rack, I had two 10L rucksacks attached to the rack frame, a nice proxy of the proper Topeak MTX rack unit which we are used to bring with us. We had one unit each to bring our dry clothes – we made sure to store them in waterproof plastic bags in case it rained.
- Beauty case . This was attached to the top of the rack,and was used mostly for spares, tools, and energy bars.
- Camelback. It served mainly because of its hydration pack, but had enough room for my rainjacket and warm seweater
Maria had the luck of having to carry nothing on her bike, just her Evoc backpack for some bike clothes.
Maps and Stats
Max elevation: 796 m
Total climbing: 4724 m
Trail video
Relive ‘Chianti Trail with Maria (3days)’