August 2018 – 8 days with the family
This is part of our Italy Summer Road Trip – check out the rest of the trip.
After leaving Florence, we set out to explore the surrounding region of Tuscany. What was meant to be just a short few days turned into an extra couple of weeks because of a delay with our belongings that had been shipped from Chicago. Italy was meant to test our patience and flexibility and it was already coming through on that end! Our shipment from the US arrived just before the major August 15 holiday (Ferragosto) in Italy, but there was a delay for unknown reasons at the port (which conveniently meant we had to pay an extra port storage fee for them having to hold our shipment during the holiday). Anyway, we didn’t want to return to Turin without any furniture, so we made a last-minute hotel reservation and stayed an extra week in Tuscany. That was ok!
- Tenuta Poggio ai Mandorli – This was a small family-run winery with a nice pool and basic apartment-style accommodations. They didn’t speak much English but we figured it out and we enjoyed tasting the wine.
- Verrazzano Winery – This was one of our favorite experiences. We had been here years before on our honeymoon and loved their family atmosphere and the focus on the whole experience, not just on tasting some wine. It’s a little more professional and organized now, but like a lot of things, we liked it better in the old days when there were fewer visitors and a more simple tasting of meats and cheeses rather than an entire meal. We still loved it though and would do it again and again.
- Experiencing the Palio in Siena In the Piazza del Campo – Even though it was only the trial run the day before the actual event, the piazza was packed and the kids were loudly singing in support of their ‘quarter’. This was amazing to experience and Rick Steve’s has a nice interview about it.
- We love just walking around and exploring the adorable medieval towns of Castellina in Chianti and San Gimignano.
- Medieval festival in Volterra – This was slightly different than Medieval Times or a Shakespeare Festival in the US, considering that we were taking it all in – in an actual medieval town. There were games and archery for the kids, hawks flying, and good food. Italy loves festivals and has so many celebrating local products and customs. We really are looking forward to going to the Orange Festival in Ivrea (in Piedmont near Turin).
- Family Cooking Class at Al Gelso Bianco – We loved this cooking class. They were incredible with the children and we learned to make delicious recipes with fresh pasta that we still use years later. The adults also enjoyed a nice wine tasting while the kids played in a park.
- Azienda Agricola Diacceroni – This was the hotel we added to our itinerary at the last minute when we “needed” to spend an extra week on vacation while waiting for our household goods to be available. The kids loved horseback riding and took daily lessons. They had a beautiful pool and all the meals were included. It was like a summer camp for the whole family and was a lot of fun and very reasonable.
- Quick stop in Pisa for photos of the Leaning Tower. We would visit Pisa again a couple of years later on our trip to the island of Elba because we thought that we could climb the tower together (since Joy was now the minimum age of 8), but we didn’t buy tickets ahead of time and we didn’t have time to wait for the next available time slot, so we have yet to do that. Aside from an amazing sandwich at L‘Ostellino, the tower (and town) can really just be a stop of the car and a “look-and-see”.
- We also made one final quick stop to ride bikes along the top of the wall surrounding the city of Lucca.
Next time: We always want to visit more wine regions and Montepulciano and the entire region of Umbria is still on our list!
This is part of our Italy Summer Road Trip – check out the previous stop on our trip – Florence – or the next stop – Home to Torino
Update: we would thankfully return to this region a few times over the next several years including a great long weekend in Montepulciano and another long weekend near San Gimignano. Updates to Come!!
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