Tuscany: Captivating Landscapes & Historic Towns

The first stop on our European tour was a week-long visit to Tuscany in Italy, where we combined exploring a new region with a get-together with friends from Berlin. We stayed out in the countryside in Palaia between Pisa and Lucca in a beautiful old villa, offering amazing views of the impressive mountains and the green lush valleys.

Embracing agritourism and staying off the beaten track meant that the drive up to the house was an adventure in itself. Narrow streets through sleepy villages, steep mountain roads and not least gravel roads tested driving skills and nerves – especially, when meeting cars going in the other direction!

While we had visited Tuscany before, it was the first time we visited with kids and we had to find the right balance between meeting adults’ wishes to explore the historic towns and stunning scenery and children’s wishes for pool and play. The result was a combination – we spent a couple of days in the house, enjoying the sun, pool and playing lots of games – Monopoly and Uno are always a hit with children and adults of all ages! On other days, we visited Lucca, Siena and Pisa – and hiked in the local area. It worked well to have one day with a day-tour followed by a day with no planned activities or just a visit to the local ice cream shop or supermarket.

Lucca: Biking on the City Wall

The historic town of Lucca with its medieval cobblestone streets, beautiful old buildings and impressive city wall was a must-see on our list while in Tuscany. We all enjoyed walking through the old town and imagining the atmosphere of days passed – and of course eating delicious Italian ice cream while watching the many people walking through the narrow streets. A great thing about Lucca is that traffic is limited within the city walls and distances are short, making it easy to leisurely walk also with children.

One of the main sights of Lucca is the well-preserved city wall and we decided to explore this 5km route on a quadracycle (a 6-seater bike with four pairs of pedals). You can rent the bikes all across Lucca and the city wall has a perfect path all way around for bikers and pedestrians alike. The trip on the quadracycle was a big hit with the kids who found their competitive spirit and aimed to overtake all other bikers. And we of course had to do two full rounds of the city wall to see if the second round would be quicker than the first!

Siena: Stunning Architecture and Historic Horse Races

Our second day-trip was to the historic town of Siena, also famous for its medieval city center which was names a UNESCO world heritage site in 1995. Siena is also well known for the Palio Horse Race, an annual horse race taking place at the main square Piazza del Campo. The kids were fascinated by the story of the horse race and imagining how it looked like in the past and what it looks like today. Walking through the old city center, it was fascinating to see the narrow and steep streets, where many restaurants had built levelled terraces. The well preserved cathedral with its impressive dome was another highlight.

Pisa: The Leaning Tower

Our last bigger trip while in Tuscany was to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower. Arriving on a very hot day, we decided to make it a short trip to mainly see the Leaning Tower and the Square of Miracles and then quickly return to the pool! The Leaning Tower is always worth a visit and in true tourist-manner we had fun doing photos where we were “pushing” or “holding” the tower.

Pisa was also full of markets selling everything from over-priced souvenirs to local crafts. The kids had a blast discovering how easily prices could be bargained when buying a cap – simply saying that the next stall had offered it at a lower rate did the trick. And we are now proud owners of a Pisa cap!

Overall, we had a great week in Tuscany with many memorable experiences, fun with friends and a first good attempt at exploring a region in a children-friendly fashion. While there is much more to Tuscany and many others things to see, we got a very good impression and feel for the area and still have plenty to see when coming back another time.

After Tuscany, next stop is the Italian Riviera in the San Remo area. This will be the topic of the next blog which will follow early next week.