Myself and my wife love Italy. We headed to Rome when we first dated and fell in love with the food primarily. Thats the good thing about being European. Weekends away to different cultures only an hour or two away.
The Italian way of eating takes a bit of getting used to. You have you Primi which is a starter then your anti-pasta or salad then your pasta and then you have your secondi or meat dish!!! Jesus! That is alot of food. I saw a guy eat a bruschetta , then full plate of pasta and then tuck into a large pizza and not a pick on him. Carb central and this guy had a six pack.
We received a tip off our local priest in our town in Ireland. Eat where the priests eat in Rome because they know where the best food is for the cheapest prices. They avoid the tourist traps also. This was and still is a great tip. So after Rome we went to Venice and Milan and every year we try and go somewhere new in Italy. I wanted to go on holidays to Tuscany which would include taking in Florence and Pisa as they were nearby. I always wanted to go there also after reading a Dan Brown book that was based in Florence and I was mad to see the basillica.
My wife is the planner and organiser of the family. However she gave me the Tuscany job to book flights and hotel. I really wanted somewhere nice to stay and I wasn't coming up with anything on Tripadvisor. So I took to Twitter and tweeted "Has anyone stayed in anywhere in Tuscany that you would recommend?" A hour later a journalist replied to me. Try Borgo di Colleoli in Colleoli. Its beautiful. It looks amazing and thats where I bring people for dinner parties. So I looked it up and it looked really nice so I had a look at the prices and amazingly they weren't that expensive so I booked straight away. Borgo di Colleoli lies deep in the Tuscan mountains and it a classic complex consisting of an old house and little bungalows. We stayed in one bungalow. There were two restaurants on the complex and beautiful pool. Below are a few photos.
The complex itself is in the middle of nowhere so you needed to rent a car to get around. Fine with us. We visited a few vineyards in the area and drank their wine. Big wine drinker here. One of the women that owned a vineyard told us that not drinking wine with a meal was a shame on humanity. You might as well die. I wouldn't go that far but I do like wine with my meal. There was a lay-by high up in the hills where you could look down on the valley and it is there we set our eyes on San Gimignano.
It was like something from Lord of the Rings. These towers rising out of the town, we had to go there and have a look. When we drove down to it we passed by the town of Volterra where they filmed that vampire film that the tweenys love. Twilight. Fields and fields of sun flowers. I was class and I regret not getting a photo
We entered the town and were amazed by the architecture , the towers, and the atmosphere in the town itself. I love discovering new towns that are not on the map so to speak and this was by far the best place we came across.
We had a look around and it got even better. We stumbled upon the ice cream parlour that had just won the worlds best ice cream award. The place was packed. We didn't care how long it took to queue. We were having one.
We ate our ice cream in the square where a band from the Netherlands were playing. Two beautiful girls and two guys. And they were really good. I have them on video doing a song about a fisherman sailing in the sea and it was a great song.
We travelled up to Pisa for the day as we heard there was not alot to Pisa other than the leaning tower which was true. So onto Florence we went and we were not disappointed. I cover Florence another day. City is just steeped in history. Deserves its own story.