The sea breeze rustles the pink and white rhododendrons as we mount our e-motorcycles to discover the Etruscan Coast. Our point of departure is in which the Viale dei Cipressi meets the thru Vecchia Aurelia.

Cycling

“The tall immediately cypresses in a double row run from San Guido to Bolgheri” was how nineteenth-century local author Giosuè Carducci described this legendarily poetic road. While the photo of these towering, age-old green guardians nevertheless lingers within the collective creativeness today, Bolgheri and the whole Etruscan Coast is moving past the picturesque into adventurous movement.

Bolgheri

The cypress timber street is the right warm-up for assisted motorcycle initiates, allowing us to grasp the tools transferring and gain momentum along the slightly uphill 5-kilometer path. Bolgheri beckons us in via the brick archway emblazoned with the Della Gherardesca’s own family coat-of-arms. Our e-motorcycles elicit hobby amongst vacationers, but the locals are aware of the two-wheeled mode of delivery. As a remember of truth, it seems like anybody arrives in Bolgheri via bike, one bicycle owner after every other ambling through the vintage gate. Wander around the manicured metropolis, sitting for a couple of minutes on one of the crimson benches, pausing perhaps for espresso or perhaps a glass of the famed neighborhood wine on the myriad enoteche.

Back on our motorcycles, we veer off on the winding via Bolgherese, the solar kissing our Lycra-clad legs and the wind caressing our shoulders. The e-motorbike lends a helping hand up the mild gradient as we ride alongside verdant vines planted with Merlot and Cabernet grapes, silver-inexperienced olive groves, and world-well-known wineries underneath cloudless skies. After ten kilometers, at San Giusto, the left turn twists and turns up to Castagneto Carducci. Extending out from around the Gherardesca Castle, the quiet medieval hilltop metropolis vaunts herbal terraces searching out to the sea, conventional trattorias, and pretty streets. The Palazzo Pretorio, which houses the town corridor, and the church buildings of San Lorenzo and Santissimo Crocifisso, recognized for its well-known 15th-century wood crucifix, are really worth journeying. Fun fact: the town, which changed into first referred to as Castagneto Marittimo, changed its name in the early 1900s in tribute to the poet Giosuè Carducci, who spent part of his life here. Carducci’s house museum can still be visited nowadays.

Baratti + Populonia

Having packed the bikes into the van, we force half of an hour down the shimmering coast, beyond San Vincenzo and the Rimigliano Park, to Baratti. Dropped off by way of the roundabout at the Strada Provinciale Della Principessa, our motorcycles experience the freefall descent all the way down to the dunes, in which the thick rubber wheels make quick shrift of the purple, iron-wealthy sand. Kids with kites harness the ocean wind, even as bathers and onlookers are dazzled with the aid of the low afternoon mild. Taking a dip is irresistible alongside this awesome shoreline, wherein the lengthy bay protects swimmers, and the consistent present-day makes wind- and kitesurfing secure between January and June.

End your day’s sports by diving into the beyond.

Strap to your taking walks boots and hike as much as the Archaeological Park of Baratti and Populonia, where a short stroll down a gravel route takes us to the ochre-hued traffic’ center. Weathered with yellow lichen and flanked by the eons, historic tumuli, and brick burial sites may be touched with the aid of modern-day hands as the occasional kitesurfer sails inside the sun shades of sea inexperienced inside the distance. Watching the sunset from the Populonia Fortress is a memorable, mesmerizing experience—all silver and gold—with the Tuscan islands of Gorgona and Elba silhouetted on the horizon.

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Abel Carl
Travel junkie. Incurable alcohol nerd. Pop culture ninja. Social media guru. Problem solver. Tv scholar. Zombie specialist. Communicator. Beer advocate.Had some great experience short selling bullwhips in West Palm Beach, FL. Spent 2002-2008 lecturing about inflatable dolls in Gainesville, FL. Spoke at an international conference about getting my feet wet with inflatable dolls in Jacksonville, FL. Garnered an industry award while training mosquito repellent in Ohio. Earned praised for my work building banjos in Gainesville, FL. Managed a small team exporting pogo sticks for farmers.