Our Family Trip to Italy Itinerary: Tuscany (What to Do)
It’s been so fun to retrace our steps on this trip and bring so many of you along this time. For those who have joined us the whole way, thanks for sticking around! And for those who might have missed a few stops and want to go back, here is where we’ve been so far…
As I mentioned, we stayed in Tuscany for 4 nights, which gave us enough time to see and do all that we wanted! Everything we did was within a short drive of our stay in San Gimignano, which I shared in the last post.
We spent our first day in San Gimignano, exploring the streets and shops and restaurants, eating lunch and of course, gelato!
There is art, leather, pottery, chocolate, and more to shop along the narrow streets of the 13th century walls.
It’s no surprise there is fierce debate as to who makes the best gelato in town, and I tried the Gelateria Dondoli with half of our family because the owner was outside wooing us in! He claimed to be the best and it tasted amazing to me so who knows, he may be right!
After shopping all we wanted, we decided to enjoy the afternoon at our pool back at our house. We had picked up the items we needed to make our own simple pasta dinner and we loved it! For several of us, this was one of our favorite days of the trip.
Day two was another absolute favorite of the trip… the day we went to our pasta class. Abby had found this experience for us via Airbnb and we booked a private class with Giulia in Regello, a little over an hour’s drive from where we were staying. Find the listing HERE and book it if you are in this area. We had such a great time with Giulia, it will remain in our memory forever.
Giulia and Louis’ home where they live with their little boy is a working farm where they strive to live from farm to table. And the house, furnishings, and simple (yet laborious) lifestyle gave us a glimpse of a very different world that ours, but very beautiful as well.
Giulia’s collections of kitchen tools and furnishings are amazing, but her personality is the most welcoming aspect.
She was very thorough and helpful in the teaching, and we all enjoyed learning almost as much as we enjoyed eating!
It was amazing to think of the meals cooked on this modest antique stove.
After lunch, we had a little tour of the farmyard and then we were on our way!
Such a fun and memorable part of our trip!
On this same day, we made a stop in Siena to do some site-seeing there.
The Cathedral of Siena, or the Duomo di Siena, is a gorgeous work of art…
And there are many beautiful shops and restaurants all around.
This is where we had a pear pomegranate salad that we loved and I shared this reel of how we re-created it at home!
For our 3rd day in Tuscany, we visited Florence! It was about an hour’s drive once more to get from our house to the city. And we spent a good amount of the day in Florence, and got in a lot of steps!
Most people love to see Michelangelo’s David in the Galleria dell’ Accademia and the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and Piazza Duomo, and since these are so popular and crowded, keep in mind to get plan ahead to get your tickets ahead of time. There is a replica of the David in the Duomo Square if you prefer not to see the entire museum.
We also came across an adorable eclectic shop and restaurant called La Menagere, which was just gorgeous! We stopped for a little snack and coffees and I got the urge to get a bottled Coke because it felt like the cutest place to drink one! Ha!
Another highlight of our day was this leather market we came across and this is where I ended up finding the best prices on a leather duffle I was searching for! We found that you will see many of the same styles of leather pieces in each city we visited, but the prices can vary, so it took a little shopping around and it paid off here. I was too busy shopping I guess to get a pic inside of the market, but it was just rows of stalls of different leather goods to search through. Fun!
We also came across more jewelry and other goods in stalls all around…
Another “must-see” in Florence is the Ponte Vecchio, the beautiful bridge full of shops crossing the Arno River.
So many cute gifts are sold here, including stalls selling these popular Pinocchio puppets!
One last recommendation we loved in Florence was the Santa Maria Novella Pharmacy, known as the oldest pharmacy in the world. From the entrance, it draws you in with the dried florals on the ceiling and ancient marble flooring.
The architecture alone is fascinating in this space, and the products are amazing to see as well.
As you can see, it was very difficult to narrow down our visit to Tuscany to just a few things– there was so much to see and do! And now there is one stop remaining on our itinerary which I will share soon! Thank you for coming along so far!