Our last "hurrah" vacation, was to probably the most obvious destination in Europe: Tuscany. On our 8th (!) trip to Italy, we figured it was time to do it up right. And, this time, finally, I fell in love with Italy.
Tuscany is the part of Italy to see. It is not dirty, over crowded, or too touristy. It is relaxing, and peaceful, and beautiful. Even Pisa wasn't bad. Although you do have the souvenir stands, they are set away from the actual tower and not so in-your-face as they are in Rome or Venice.
We started out with 3 nights by the beach near Pisa. We extended the German long-weekend by tagging this part on, per Jason's request. We relaxed at the beach and took the kids to see the tower. Jason and Aidan climbed it! When Jason and I were here the last time (in High School) it was closed for renovation. Lainey was too young, so she and I just played with the pigeons. The boys loved the tilted climb!
After Pisa, we headed for San Gimignano, about an hour further into the Tuscan countryside. We rented a villa near there with 2 other families. Here is our first glimpse of San Gi.
San Gi is a gorgeous mid evil hill town. It is known as the "Manhattan of Tuscany" because of it's skyline of bell towers. We enjoyed wandering the town, shopping and eating yummy gelato!
We checked into our villa Wed afternoon and jumped right into the pool! We didn't even want to leave for dinner the first night, so we made our own Tuscan feast and ate on the terrace!
We spent the first half of each day at our pool. It's a hard life, we know!
After a rough day by the pool, we'd shower up and go into some cute town to wine tastings or shop or eat more gelato. Then we all met back up for dinner. Here I am with my friends, Monica and Tricia, toasting to what may be the best dinner I ever ate
Besides the super good pastas, we all devoured Florentine T-Bones! How about 3 pounds of meat!!
One of the coolest things we did is visit Bran Caia vineyard. The reason it was so cool is that we know the owner! Our upstairs neighbor in Switzerland owns this vineyard! The apartment in Zollikerberg is just his Swiss "crash pad" for when he's there on business, which is often. Unfortunately, Martin was not at the vineyard this weekend, but his employee gave us a great tour and let us taste tons of wine, even some of their 50€ a bottle wine!
Here we are among the vines and in the tasting room
After Bran Caia, we went to another great restaurant. You have to give it to the Tuscans...they know how to cook (and eat!). Lainey loved her gnocchi!
The men enjoyed the Limoncello :)
We had such a relaxing and indulgent long weekend at the villa. We thought about becoming squatters and refusing to leave! Unfortunately, we made the honest decision and left Sunday morning. Then we spent 15 hours driving home to Germany. It should have only taken 9 hours, but thanks to winding 2 lane roads, tunnels, and all of Europe having a long weekend, Switzerland was a big parking lot. At least we had nice scenery and the kids and dog were good!
All 3 of them slept a good part of the way.
We saw this sign A LOT as we inched our way home. But, Tuscany was worth the drive!
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