Tuscany - The whole story

Back from Italy since a couple of days and I havent given you the news on the holiday as promised! But right now I am sitting on the train to Salzburg and am listening to incredibely cheesy music (can’t help … it is fitting my mood at the moment – and that’s good) – about the right time to let you know more about the Tuscany holiday.

First day of the holiday was a day of travelling. It was about 2 pm when we knocked at Sues door in Bologna and picked her up with all her stuff after her semester abroad. Of course we did not leave Bologna without having taken a walk through town and having had some drinks at Scuderia (which is already well known as Birgit made it her temporary home during her year abroad there).
A rather tiring 2 hours later (the road led us through winding mountain streets and we also had to stop for some food shopping) we finally reached our destination: San Giacomo in the rolling hills of Tuscany. Our host family (the parents Piedro and Angela and their three sons Marco, Nicola and Antonio) were already waiting for us. We were warmly welcomed to a really lovely arranged farm. Our holiday house was just breathtaking and the pool which was lying beneath our balcony looked tempting at night. Best thing was to come: we should be the only guests for the whole week (with some Americans to arrive on our last night). So basically we were free to do whatever whenever we liked!

The shoes of the travellers: Käthy, Phil. Aleks, Sue, Me (starting clockwise at 6)

The following days were relaxing and a great holiday. After the initial food and drink shopping we discovered the surroundings a bit. Had a little rainy afternoon in San Gimignano, found various places to fly the trainer kite for the first time (and it was great…constant wind and rather strong gusts later on made it a challenge!). Of course we also spent a day at the beach and rounded that day of with great food in an Osteria in a nearby village.


As we were offered to use the barbecue on the grounds of the farm we of course did so. Sitting in front of the barbecue fire, having food with friends, sipping red wine and watching the sun set was just brilliant and really a treat! Towards the end of the week Marco offered to take us to the vineyard of the singer (and obviously winemaker) Andrea Bocelli who was actually born a rough 10 km from where we stayed. Everybody was up for the wine and so we met the brother of Andrea and also bought some wine.

Barbecue evening

Last evening of our stay was a special one because we had dinner with our host family. The offer to have dinner was up all week long and of course we had to pay for it – but we decided to do that on our last evening. And yes, this was an experience. We started off with Antipasti which was a mix of melon, prosciutto, crackers, olives, mixed pickle and mozzarella. Next was Truffel pasta by Piedro and then pasta with boar. Both dishes were just delicious. We would have been absolutely full at this time but then Angela popped up with tender pieces of boar that she had cooked with fresh herbs and redwine for hours in the afternoon. We were only able to try a little piece as we already had enough food – but somehow we still managed to do the cake and the grappa and coffee afterwards…

We all enjoyed spending time together, chat, catch up, cook and drink together. Time flew by and well – we are all back in Vienna again! But everybody agreed – this holiday got to be repeated at some point. San Giacomo we will be back!

Tune I listen to while writing these lines: The Ark - This piece of poetry is meant to do harm and Andrea Bocelli - Vivo per lei