From Ulm, it took us about ten hours (two extra hours due to heavy traffic on the mountain passes) to drive to San Gimignano, which is a small town south of Florence. Since our last vacation was to Rome, I thought it would be a good idea to stay in the country somewhere so the kids would have space to explore, and I chose an agriturismo called Il Borghetto.
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| The main building at Il Borghetto |
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| The kids had lots of space to play and explore. |
It was an absolutely beautiful villa set among olive groves and vineyards, and we were able to have an apartment with a private garden where we drank coffee in the morning while the kids climbed fig trees.
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| Morning coffee and chess in the garden |
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| I wish my fig bush was this big! |
The owners offer dinner at the agriturismo a few nights per week, and we ate there twice during our visit. The food was ridiculously delicious, and had us making all of those oohing/aahhing/groaning/moaning sounds associated with a fantastic meal. I regret that I was not able to attend one of the weekly on-site cooking classes, because I would love to make food that good.
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| Dinner at the agriturismo |
From Il Borghetto, we made day trips into San Gimignano, Florence, Volterra, and Sienna. While we enjoyed visiting these towns, hands-down we preferred to spend time at the resort. If it had been warm enough to use the pool, we probably would have never left!
In coming posts I will share more pictures and stories from the trip. Looking at all of these pictures reminds me how beautiful that area is, but to be honest, I never found that Zen feeling that one expects from a vacation. I think that I tried to pack too much into one trip, and that we should have saved Venice for a separate trip. We had been planning this as our last trip to Italy for a while so that we could explore some other areas in Germany and Europe, so I was trying to cram in as much as I could. Hopefully I have learned my lesson, and will remember this in the future!
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