We spent a wonderful two weeks with children and family in Tuscany with best of picture set and all sets of pictures. Our lodgings were Le Canonica di Cortine, a wonderful Villa just outside San Donato in Poggio which is halfway between Siena and Firenze. This was an excellent location as it is very central and easy to access the Si-Fi road.
We visited Siena
San Gimignano, Volterra, Colle di Val d'Elsa, Lucca, Pisa, Radda, Castellina, Greve, and a balloon ride
Highlights
We really enjoyed the time with the kids. They were simply amazing, very friendly to people and rarely unhappy. They travelled super well, especiailly on the return
The Italian people were amazingly friendly to our twins. We were constantly stopped with people oohing and aahing over the Gemeli (twins).
The kids had a great time by the pool in the Villa as well.
We were given free room upgrades, linens, booze, etc.
The wine was better than I expected. I'm not a big fan of Brunello or Chianti Classico, but the Syrahs/Chardonnays/Vin Santos were excellent. The Enoteca in Greve
with 100 wines on tap and over 1500 for sale was the biggest, and the best prices/smaller selection was at le Volte in Castellina. Shopping in Lucca was the best. We did a fabulous balloon ride. The statue of "the David" was incredible, he totally has that look of confidence and victory. The pictures do not do it justice.
Food
The food was simply amazing. We could go into just about any small town and any restaurant and have an amazing meal. Contrasting that is a typical restaurant in a small town here would be a Dairy Queen. The restaurant staff were uniformly very welcoming to the children. I don't think there are many restaurants in Vancouver with comparable quality of food that would welcome the site of 2 6 month olds for dinner.
The Food and Wine Lover's guide to Tuscany was a fabulous book, we liked almost every recommendation they mentioned. Some examples, in Greve is a meat and cheese shop:
Arnolfo in Colle di Val d'Elsa was one of our top 5 dining experiences, I think better than Lumiere. Radda in Chianti's Ristorante Le Vigne (east towards Gaiole) is surrounded by vineyards and good place for families. Castellina in Chianti's Albergaccio (towards the east and San Donato) was super good and we had a 2nd meal in the cellar of Isole e Olena. La Vecchi Mura in San Gimignano (on the east side)had a vew and boar to die for. Greve in Chianti had Bottega Del Moro. Even our local little town of San Donato had good restaurants in La Toppa (wonderful pasta) and La locanda di pietracupa (towards the east and Castellina). They had amazing pears, with pork as a main and then as a desert. We did a veritical of Il Bosco, 2000, 2001, and 2003. We stumbled onto the best gelato in Italy at the Gelaterie del Piazza in San G. Panzano had Il Vescovino with another lovely meal overlooking the "golden bowl".
The restaurant in Badia a Coltibuono was ok but didn't impress. Il Cibreo in Firenze didn't live up to the hype. Robert's across from the Uffizi looked interesting.
Lowlights
The return home was insanely stressful, though it ended well. In short, we got denied boarding to our flight but ended up home 2 1/2 hours earlier and we got some Air Canada cash coupons. Pisa signage is terrible, I never want to go back there. We've got the tacky tourist picture:
Another useless sign:
The Mall was a total waste of time. They had nothing interesting and it was still highly priced. Trying to get baby formula was quite the ordeal. They don't really have easy shopping, ie no big stores, so it was quite a process. Except for Robert's, the restaurants near Uffizi were terrible. The Gelato near Ponte Vecchio was very disappointing.
Summary
The trip was wonderful, we couldn't imagine a better place to travel with family and children than Italy. We can't wait to go again.