Fattoria San Donato

While planning our vacation in Tuscany, I had hoped to go on a winery tour, but since we were travelling with our kids, I wasn't sure if that would be a family friendly activity.  I asked one of the agriturismo owners where we were staying (Il Borghetto Tuscan Holidays) if she had any recommendations, and she pointed us toward Fattoria San Donato.

This organic farm is another agriturismo outside San Gimignano, and was much more of a working farm than the agriturismo where we were staying.  We signed up for a tour followed by lunch.  I was a bit disappointed by the 'tour' as it was only a showing of one of the wine cellars, and a brief history of the farm.  At least we had a good photo-op in front of the wine casks. 

After the 'tour', we were led into a beautiful stone farm house, where lunch was waiting for us.  Everything served was from the farm, and included salami and prosciutto, cheese plates, a variety of marinated vegetables, olives, faro salad, and toasted Tuscan-style bread.

My disappointment in the brevity of the wine tour was quickly assuaged by the two large carafes of wine waiting for me- um, I mean waiting for us at lunch.  Of course both wines were from the farm, the red wine was Chianti, and the white was Vernaccia Di San Gimignano.  Of course, the kids were served juice :-)

Needless to say we chowed down like there was no tomorrow.  As I have mentioned before, my kids are adventurous eaters, especially when we are on vacation.  My son Ryan is normally an avid tomato-hater, and when he asked to try a sun-dried tomato I almost fell on the floor.  I was even more astounded when he declared that he loved them! 

 

Since we were enjoying the meal so much, we lingered for almost 2 hours at the table.  My kids have gotten used to European-style long meals in restaurants, and it was nice that they could play a bit since we had the room to ourselves.  Dan and I were served some Vin Santo at the end of the meal, which is a dessert wine that you dip biscotti in, then eat the wine soaked biscotti. 

 

The only other people there for lunch were two groups who came in after us, one group were Americans from Texas (of course I had to chat with them a bit since I don't get to talk to many Americans anymore), and the other group was European.  We found it interesting that the group of Americans that came in to eat an hour after us left before we did, but the European tour group stayed longer than we did.   

 

The kids really enjoyed visiting this farm because they had a couple of friendly dogs, and a few farm animals (pigs, chickens, and goats).  We took a stroll down one of the dirt roads and let the kids explore and pick flowers, which they later fed to the goat!

Dan and the kids played foosball under the wisteria while I shopped at the small store where they sold wine, faro, honey, and other items produced on the farm.  We got to try a few more wine samples and learned about how their wines are named after the women in the family.  I picked out three bottles of Chianti Riserva and three bottles of Vernaccia Di San Gimignano Riserva to take home as a souvenir, and Dan picked out a bottle of grappa. 

We loved our visit to Fattoria San Donato, and it was one of my favorite parts of our trip.  Even though I didn't learn too much about wine making, the good food, beautiful atmosphere, and hospitality of the owners more than made up for it! 

Tastes of Tuscany

 

Of course, the most important part of going on vacation is to spend quality time with your loved ones, and taking a few days to disconnect from the daily grind.  Another important aspect of travel is having the opportunity to try new foods, and not have to clean the kitchen when the meal is over!

Trattoria Chiribiri-San Gimignano
See the laundry hanging above the door?

I have to think that there is not a person alive who does not like Italian food.  Growing up in New York, I was surrounded by fantastic Italian restaurants and Italian friends, and I have been on a quest for good Italian food ever since I moved South.  Lucky for me (and my family), our trip to Italy gave us the opportunity to indulge in delicious Tuscan cuisine, and expand our gustatory horizons.

  

Tavernetta Della Signoria in Florence
Meredith is sleeping through lunch!

It is pretty easy to take kids to an Italian restaurant, because the choices of pizza and pasta are agreeable to even the pickiest eaters.  I am very grateful that my kids are not picky, and I am always impressed when they are willing to try new foods, especially when we are travelling. 

Yummy pesto!

Luckily the kids are finally to the point where we can have a pleasant, and almost relaxing meal in a restaurant.  The kids have grown accustomed to sitting in a restaurant for longer meals and can stay occupied with some pens and paper.  Having a meal in a restaurant is much more leisurely in Europe, and not at all hurried like it is in the USA.  Waiters will typically not badger you every three minutes to see if everything is okay, and will never pressure you to finish your meal so another group can sit down.   

Dinner with an amazing view!

One of the important factors is quality Italian cuisine is the use of seasonal produce and locally sourced ingredients.  In any great restaurant, the menu will change on a regular basis depending on what is in season.  Luckily, fresh pasta is always in season! 

Picnicking at the agriturismo

Since we were staying at an agriturismo, we were able to have a couple of picnic-style meals.  We visited the grocery store and  bought some salami, pecorino, strawberries, artichokes, and Tuscan-style bread.  I have always loved artichokes, and I almost shrieked with delight when I saw the bins full of long-stemmed purple artichokes for sale for only 0.39 each! 

 

Delicious (and cheap!) artichokes

 

It goes without saying that Dan and I also drank quite a bit of excellent Tuscan wine, and the kids had quite a bit of excellent Tuscan gelato!  I am partial to cannoli instead of gelato, and I had to go engage in cannoli defensive maneuvers to keep the kids from pilfering my precious cannoli!

 

This place has won the gelato World Championship

 

 



 

So, in case you are wondering, my favorite meal of the week was at our agriturismo and here is what was served:  appetizer- tomato bruschetta; primi- homemade tagliatelle pasta with baby zucchini, peas, and carrots in a creamy saffron sauce; secondi- sliced pork loin topped with a carrot and leek sauce, and roasted potatoes; and dessert was a chocolate lava cake topped with raspberries. 

 

My afternoon indulgance

 

The one dish that I had wanted to try was pasta with a ragu made with wild boar, but somehow I went the whole week without ordering this local specialty!  Apparently wild boars are everywhere in Tuscany, and Dan and the kids were lucky enough to spot some one day while walking through the vineyards at the agriturismo.  The boars were very far away, so there was no danger, and they kids came running back to tell me what they had seen.  The kids now have a game here at home where they pretend they are hunting wild boar in our house, and when Meredith 'catches' one, she pretend carries it to the fridge, and tells me we are having 'wild board' for dinner tonight.  I wish!

 



Putting a coin into the fountain of the wild boar in Florence



 

I wish that I had been able to take the cooking class offered at the agriturismo, so that I could cook these wonderful dishes at home, but unfortunately the only day it was offered was the day of our departure.  It occurred to me that maybe exposing my family to authentic Italian cooking was not such a good idea, because my pasta dishes that I make at home will pale in comparison.  I guess if I hear complaints I will just plan another trip next year so that I can learn to cook like a Tuscan!



Road Tripping to the Heart of Tuscany

The kids have two weeks for Spring Break, so we packed up the Passat and headed south to Italy for a week.  For this trip we decided on Tuscany and Venice, with the dream of finding some of that Tuscan Dolce Vita we hear so much about. 

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. 

The main building at Il Borghetto

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.   

 

Morning coffee and chess in the garden

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. 

 

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!

Kid Fun in Rome

Ryan is trying to convince Dan he still fits in the stroller

Believe it or not, looking at piles of really old bricks isn't all that exciting for kids.  Of course for adults, the main reason we go to Rome is to marvel at all these piles of bricks and relish their historical importance! 

Luckily, every little kid can rally their tourist mojo for the Coliseum!  Kids are blessed with very active imaginations and when you can tell stories about gladiators battling to the death, they can finally get excited about seeing a really old building!  Especially after we made them walk 25 minutes in the rain to get there. 

Prior to our trip, Dan and I made use of the free audio tour podcasts that are available from Rick Steves.  We listened to all of the available podcasts about Rome so that we were prepared to offer tidbits of information about all the various sights around Rome.

 

To give the kids a break from all the 'old stuff', we headed over to the Borghese Gardens where there is a zoo.  To the kids' delight they found a playground on the way.  Most people go to the Borghese Gardens for the amazing art and sculpture at the Borghese Gallery-we went for a playground and zoo.  Travelling with kids definitely gives you a different perspective of a city!

 

The zoo was a typical city zoo with small habitats, and the kids enjoyed it.  We were grateful for the sunny day, and the chance to let the kids run around a bit. 

 

Ryan did really well with the amount of walking we did to get around the city.  Luckily, we realized that the best cure for tired feet is gelato, and Ryan was happy to keep walking along the streets of Rome with gelato in hand.  The kids ate gelato everyday we were in Rome, but to be honest, I don't think it is any better than American ice cream (gasp!)  I did find a place close to our hotel that had cannoli, which is right up my alley!

So, I think I may dedicate one or two more posts to our Rome trip, and then I am pretty sure everyone will be sick of hearing about Rome.  Luckily we will be going to Tuscany and Venice in a few weeks!  At some point I will get around to writing more about Germany and living as an expat...  

Exploring Rome- Vatican City and the Pantheon

Despite the rainy day, we hopped  on the city bus toward Vatican City.  Dan is Catholic and was very excited for the visit (he even wore a tie :-))  Ryan thought it was great that we were officially crossing into a different country, and had great fun hopping back and forth over the 'border' between Italy and Vatican City.

 

View of St. Peter's Basilica in the late afternoon

 

We had pre-purchased tickets to the Vatican Museum for scheduled entry at 2 pm, and there was a long security line to get into St. Peter's Basilica, which meant we didn't have as much time to linger there as we would have liked.  



Ryan in front of the Bernini statues



It goes without saying that the church is beautiful and an amazing celebration of Catholicism.  It is hard to believe that a church that is almost 400 years old is considered pretty modern in a city who's history spans thousands of years!  Of course, people have been praying at that location where St. Peter is buried long before the church was ever built. 

We did our best to engage the kids in observing and appreciating various pieces of art and sculpture.  I still can't believe that Michelangelo carved the Pieta when he was only 24 years old, and it was the first sculpture he ever carved! We had hoped to climb the dome, but unfortunately didn't have time.  If we had been dedicated tourists, we would have gotten an earlier start. 
 

The Vatican Museum is HUGE, with something like 9 miles of exhibits.  If it been only me and Dan, we could have spent the entire day there.  Unfortunately, there is only so much you can expect of kids in a place where they have to stand still, not touch anything, and keep their voices down, so we did a quick tour of the most important sections.  The kids' favorite part of the museum was seeing a real mummy in the Egyptian section.  For most people though, it's the Sistine Chapel that is the most exciting part! (You have to chuckle at what kids find interesting-an amazing masterpiece by one of the greatest artists in history is not too interesting, but a dead body is ultra-cool!)

A view worth remembering

Like I have mentioned before, I can't imagine how crowded it would be in the summertime when tourist season is in full-swing.  The closer you get to the Sistine Chapel, you become wedged into a horde of tour groups, and end up missing a lot of beautiful art because if you stop moving forward you would be trampled by the tour guides behind you.  I am pretty sure that the long umbrellas that the tour guides use as group beacons could easily turn into weapons if anyone gets in the way of their group.

On to the Pantheon!

The Pantheon one of the best preserved buildings of ancient Rome, and was originally used as a place of worship to all of the Ancient Roman Gods, but was converted to a place for Catholic worship in the 7th century.  The dome is almost two thousand years old, and is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. 

The Oculus

So, in this post I shared two religious locations we visited in Rome, and in my next post I will share pics of some non-'churchy' locations we visited-the Colosseum, and the Zoo!

(Please forgive my lackluster I-Phone photography.  I intentionally left my good camera at home because of the rampant tourist-targeted theft in Rome.  There is no way that my mediocre photography skills can do justice to the beauty and character of this city!)

 

   



 

Our Trip to Roma!

On the corkboard in our kitchen we have a list of the top places we want to travel while we are lucky enough to live in Europe.  In the top spot we wrote Rome, and made it a priority to get ourselves there ASAP!

When I was 18 years old I travelled to Europe with my Mom and Sister, we spent a few days in Rome that were hazy from jetlag, but what I remember from that trip was thinking that Rome was definitely a place I wanted to visit again.  Finally 16 years later I finally found my way back with my own children and husband. 

 

We spent a week in Rome at a lovely hotel that was centrally located to all the must-see sights, and only a one minute walk from the Trevi Fountain.  We intentionally planned our trip to Rome in the tourism off-season, but the area still seemed very crowded, and I can't imagine being there in the heat of the summer when the tourist season is in full swing.

Sometimes I think to myself that it is too bad that the children won't remember all of our travels.  What I like about travelling with our kids is that it has taught us how to travel slowly and enjoy the time we are spending as a family.  It is not important to us to see every sight in Rome, but it is important that we come home from a vacation and feel like we have spent some quality time together. 

 

How much longer do we have to walk?

Much better!

Even though we travel slowly, we did see a lot on our trip, and it will take me a few blog posts to share what we saw, including Vatican City, the Colosseum, the Forum, the Pantheon, the zoo, and Ostia Antica.  Please forgive my lackluster photography skills-I only used my IPhone camera, and I am too lazy to improve them with Photoshop!

I do wish that I had taken more pictures of the restaurants we ate at, because of course, eating is the best part of an Italian vacation.  We found it very easy to travel around Rome, and many of the restaurants had  English speaking staff and menus.  Luckily, Italy is an easy place for kids to eat because of all the pizza, pasta, and gelato!  My kids are always more adventurous eaters when we are on vacation, and I was so surprised when they asked if we could order clams after they saw a woman at a nearby table eating a big bowl of clams.  I was even more surprised when they finished the bowl and asked if they could order more!  We also learned that Ryan's feet stopped hurting if he had a gelato while he walked.  I know that parenting guides say not to use sweets as a reward, but it really does help encourage good behavior while travelling!

In my next post I will talk about visiting Vatican City and the Pantheon.  Ciao!