A Tuscan Holiday

One of the vacations we were most looking forward to this year was a trip to Tuscany, which we took at the end of May. Together with Ron, Lindsay and Lauren, we rented an amazing villa just a 5 minute drive from Montalcino. Both Ron and Nate turned 40 this year, within days of each other, and we thought it would be a perfect way to celebrate.

Before meeting up with Ron and Lindsay in Tuscany, we first flew to Venice where we stayed with our friends Vika and Martino in Padua (just about 40 minutes from the Venice airport). It’s a smaller town, but not too small, and a perfect way to start our Italian holiday.

What wasn’t quite perfect though was our journey there. Elaine threw up all over me on the plane (of course I didn’t bring a change of clothes for myself so had to sit there in vomit soaked clothes for close to 2 hours). She then proceeded to throw up in the car on our way to Padua and then one last time about an hour after we put her to bed that night. Other than the throwing up, she didn’t seem sick at all. She didn’t have a fever and acted and ate normally. So who knows what was going on. But it left a lasting impression on Josephine who was traumatized by all three vomit events. After that, any time Elaine would make a small whimper, Josephine would dart away from her afraid that she would throw up yet again. She even said to me “Mommy, I don’t want Elaine to come next time.”. Poor Elaine!! And I suppose poor Josephine too.

So we had a fairly mellow Saturday in Padua and got to wander around the city and eat at Martino’s amazing pizzeria. And then Sunday we were off on a 4 hour drive down to Montalcino.

As soon as we pulled up to this villa, I was in heaven. It did not disappoint!! The view was incredible. Exactly what I imagined and hoped for. It had a swimming pool as well. And we had a whole week ahead of ourselves. We didn’t plan too much as we wanted to make sure we could just relax. One of the days we arranged a half day wine tour. We visited the Terralsole winery and had a very thorough tour and tasting followed by lunch in Montalcino. We shipped some of their wine back to us in London and it tastes even better now than when we did the tasting.

And the best thing we did for ourselves was arrange for a private chef to come to the house. I don’t think we would have thought of this except that the Airbnb host suggested it. We did this on 2 of the nights and it was fantastic. The chef comes to your house with all of the food, prepares it, serves you a multi-course meal and then cleans up and leaves. We put the kiddos down for bed and then the four of us could relax with a restaurant quality meal. Again, the best decision we could have made!

Otherwise the week was indeed quite relaxing. We would venture out briefly in the morning….generally to explore Montalcino. Then back in time for Elaine and Lauren to take a nap while we’d all go in the pool. Josephine (and Elaine for that matter too) loved the pool and had a blast!

Everything was perfect. Doing a Tuscan holiday had been on our list since we first moved to Zurich and it completely lived up to the dream. And doing the trip with such good friends made it that much better.

Italy is such a great place to visit. The food is delicious, the people are so friendly and they love kids and it’s just beautiful. I’d go back to this same place again in a heartbeat.