ITALY - San Gimignano and the Tuscan Countryside

Nestled in the heart of Tuscany, San Gimignano is a enchanting medieval town that captivates visitors with its rich history, stunning architecture, and breathtaking landscapes. Known as the "Medieval Manhattan" for its iconic skyline of ancient towers, this picturesque town is like stepping back in time. 

Similar to Carcarsonne in France, the walled city is free of cars and visitors are free to wander the cobblestone streets, exploring its towers, and enjoying the breathtaking views of the surrounding Tuscan countryside make it an unforgettable destination. Driving to San Gimignano was a highlight in itself, The road winds gently through the Tuscan countryside, offering glimpses of terracotta-roofed farmhouses nestled among olive groves.

We first enjoyed a delicious lunch of spaghetti, accompanied by a local red wine. It was at this restaurant where the American tourists who were sitting next to us, made the point to say how well behaved our girls are. I think it was because Rooney was making us all giggle with her impression of ‘Sassy Girl’ one of her personas. 

After lunch, we explored the streetS and had a look in the many shops, some were more touristy than others. One highlight was stumbling across a local modern Art Gallery. It was free and filled with some really unique art works. Farley particularly liked it, after visiting the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, which was full of Renaissance masters, it was a nice contrast and interestingly more engaging for Farley. 

Gelateria Dondoli is a gelato shop that sits in the central Piazza della Cisterna. It boosts it’s award winning status and had a continuous line of people lined up, spilling out into the piazza. We bought into the hype and had to try some gelato for ourselves. The gelato was definitely worth the wait! Really delicious, with lots of flavours to choose from.

Spending a day in the enchanting town of San Gimignano felt like stepping right into a beautifully preserved piece of history. I was immediately taken in by the stunning medieval architecture, the delicious food, and those breathtaking Tuscan landscapes that seemed to stretch endlessly.

On a more humourous note, when we told the girls that we were doing a day trip to San Gimignano, the conversation when like this:

Me: San Gimignano is similar to Carcassone.

The girls: What’s Carcassone?

Me: You know, the medieval walled city we visited in France?

The girls: Oh yeah, the place were we got those candy necklaces.

Me: hmmm, yes, thats the place. ** slightly disappointed and slightly amused that was the most memorable thing about Carcassone**

The girls: Can we get another candy necklace?

ITALY - Art History for Kids in Florence

Florence, the capital of Italy’s Tuscany region, boasts numerous masterpieces of Renaissance art and architecture. Among its most famous landmarks is the Duomo, a cathedral featuring a terracotta-tiled dome designed by Brunelleschi and a bell tower crafted by Giotto. We took a day trip to Florence while staying in Tuscany, as it was just a brief train ride from the closest station to our holiday park, Figline Valdarno.

Here’s our itinerary for a family-friendly day in Florence.

We made our way from the train station to the stunning Cathedral di Santa Maria del Fiore, known for its striking red dome and the intricate Giotto’s bell tower.

Entry to the main area of the Cathedral (Duomo) in Florence is free, allowing visitors to explore the interior without needing a ticket. However, access to certain attractions within the complex, such as climbing the Bell Tower or Dome, or visiting the Crypt, Baptistery, and Museum, does require a ticket.

Even with free admission to the Cathedral, we encountered a wait of at least an hour, which we felt was too long for the kids. Instead, we decided to relax at one of the many nearby cafes, enjoying coffee, juices, and croissants. The exterior of the Duomo is so intricately detailed that it remains a breathtaking sight. Although I’m sure the Last Judgment frescoes by Vasari and Zuccari inside the dome are undoubtedly worth the wait and the price if your kids are up for it.

We booked tickets to the Leonardo Da Vinci Interactive Museum, which I knew would be enjoyable for the girls. This museum is dedicated to recreations of the machines and mechanisms that Leonardo Da Vinci designed and documented in his renowned codices.

Visitors can interact with and operate many of these creations, making it a truly hands-on experience to learn about Da Vinci. There are even puzzle tables and areas where you can design a bridge, construct a self-supporting dome, or assemble the Polyhedrals. Additionally, there are rooms featuring reproductions of Da Vinci's famous paintings, including the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. The ticket prices were quite reasonable at €7.90 for adults and €6.90 for children, and the timed entries ensured it didn't feel overly crowded. It was a fantastic way to introduce the girls to Leonardo Da Vinci and the Renaissance history of Florence.

After the Leonardo Da Vinci Interactive Museum we walked to the Piazza della Signoria where a replicate of the Michaelango’s Statue of David stands in front of the Palazzo Vecchio (the real Statue of David is inside the Accademia Galleries which you can visit with an admission ticket) Next to the Palazzo Vecchio is the Loggia dei Lanzi where you can observe a number of other marble statues free of charge. The girls recognised the names of Hercules (who is depicted fighting a centaur named Nessus) and Perseus and Medusa from their interest in myths and legends. However, upon reflects these statues are very gruesome, and depict some shocking things, you may want to gloss over the descriptions for younger kids.

From Piazza della Signoria, we took a short stroll to the Ponte Vecchio, the famous bridge spanning the Arno River. This iconic structure is adorned with jewellery and art shops. While walking across is free, be prepared for the crowds that make capturing good photos quite challenging.

I bought tickets for Farley and me to explore the Uffizi Galleries, located near the Ponte Vecchio and Palazzo Vecchio. This remarkable venue houses some of the most renowned artworks, including Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus and Primavera, Leonardo Da Vinci’s Adoration of the Magi and Annunciation, as well as Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo. Farley has a passion for painting and drawing, so it was really special to introduce her to a slice of art history in Florence, the home of many Renaissance masters. Plus, spending some one-on-one time together is always valuable.

I’m certain Hallie and Rooney would have enjoyed the art gallery as well, but we had to weigh the cost of admission against their level of interest. Instead, they spent an hour or so exploring bookshops and toy stores with Braino.

One location we overlooked, but I would highly recommend to others, is Piazzale Michelangelo. Here, you’ll find a bronze replica of Michelangelo’s David along with a breathtaking panoramic view of the city—arguably the best vantage point for the Cathedral di Santa Maria del Fiore. While it requires a bit of a walk across the river, it is accessible via the hop-on-hop-off bus route if you choose to go with that option. The sunset view on a sunny day would be absolutely stunning, though a zoom lens might be necessary to capture a stunning photo.

In summary, while I believe we made the most of our day in Florence, providing the girls with an educational experience, it was here that I thought, "Wow, the crowds are overwhelming!" Of course, we are tourists ourselves, so we can't really complain, but I was taken aback by the sheer number of people queuing at the cathedral and in the streets around the Ponte Vecchio. We visited in the later part of September, which is typically the tail end of the busy tourist season.

ITALY - Grape Picking and Wine Making in Tuscany

Tuscany is famous for its vineyards and wineries, with wine tasting tours being a very popular thing to do while in the area. The holiday park, Norcenni Girasole, organised weekly wine tours with a bus driver, travelling to all the nearby wineries in the area. However, neither Braino or myself are big fans of wine, so we were thrilled when we found a family friendly winery experience. 

Palagina, a nearby winery that is also home to a restaurant, accommodation and event space, was holding their annual grape harvesting festival, where families could come out for the morning, help harvest grapes and learn about the wine making process. 

This was such a fun, unique hands on learning experience for the whole family, it’ll definitely be remembers as one of the highlights of the trip. The girls loved being able to cut the grapes off the vines, taste them and then learn about how to squeeze the juice out with their own hands. 

After about an hour of harvesting the grapes in the vineyard, we went down to the shed where we saw all the grapes that had been harvest get put into a machine that separated all the grapes from the stems and leaves. We were able to have a look at all the vats and all the other equipment used to make wine. 

All the kids in the group were able to design their own winery labels, where they could then fill up a bottle of wine from a barrel, cork it and then stick the label on. We got just the one bottle and girls shared the task of designing the label. 

Probably one of the most memorable parts of the day was chatting to another family in our group who were from Chicago and who were doing three months abroad in Italy. Their kids, 2 boys and a girl, were slightly older in age to our girls, their youngest daughter was probably Farley or Hallies age. They were incredibly chatty and it was great to discuss travel plans with a like minded family. But it was somewhat strange to just part ways without exchanging details or making plans to meet up again. 

In an ironic turn of events, I drank some the wine for dinner, maybe only a glass and a half and woke to the next day with a shocking headache. I’m guessing the winery didn’t use their top quality wine in the bottles the harvest festival guests purchased for cheap.

ITALY - Leaning into the Tourist Vibes of Pisa

While we stayed in the Tuscany area, we planned a day trip to Pisa to see the iconic Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Originally, we planned to stop off in Pisa on our way from La Spezia to our accommodation in Norcenni Girosole, which would have been a good option but we decided to dedicate a full day to the trip during our stay in Tuscany instead.

Even though I have visited Italy before, that trip didn’t include Pisa. And I must admit, I had pretty low expectations. I envisioned Pisa to be underwehelming and very touristy. But I was pleasantly surprised by how much we did enjoy visiting the Leaning Tower and the town of Pisa overall.

Yes, there were a lot of our tourists all attempting to get the perfect photos of themselves holding up the tower. And yes we did it ourselves, the girls were really excited about it. It was actually pretty fun in a silly sort of way! I think Farley’s photos turned out the best.

The tower is a part of the Piazza del Duomo which includes the Pisa Cathedral and the Pisa Baptistry. The photos don’t really do them justice; all the buildings have a stunning amount of detail, so ornate and beautiful.

We decided to forgo any of the ticketed experiences like climbing the tower or going inside the cathedral or baptistry. Interesting, children have to be over the age of 8 to climb to the top of the Leaning Tower so it would have only been Farley who was able to do it. It’s upwards of 25 euro per person to go inside the tower and the cathedral, so the cost would have added up quickly for all 5 of us. It’s totally free to walk around the Piazza Del Duomo and view the exteriors of all the buildings, that was sufficient for us.

Afterwards, we had lunch at a nearby restaurant on Via Santa Maria where we all chose a delicious traditional pasta dish. Via Santa Maria is the street that leads to the Piazza Del Duomo and has plenty of restaurant options. Being so close to a tourist destination, we were expecting to pay a premium, but we’re happy to report the prices seemed quite reasonable.

We parked our car a little bit outside the main area of town, near Ponte della Vittoria and we really enjoyed walking along the river and through the shopping area of Pisa to get to the Piazza del Duomo. It’s a really walkable city centre and it felt quite safe and authentic - not as touristy and crowded as I had imagined.

ITALY - Two weeks in Tuscany at the Most Epic Holiday Park

After Cinque Terre and La Spezia we stayed for two weeks in a holiday park in the Tuscany hills. Norcenni Girosole is an incredible holiday park under the HU brand, located near Florence in the hills of Tuscany.

It’s a sprawling village of holiday facilities, including multiple swimming pools, restaurants, cafes, activities and even a small supermarket.  If you’re familiar with the Big 4 style of holiday parks in Australia, imagine that but times x 100. 

We decided to book two weeks there as we found a ‘to good to be true’ deal during the Black Friday sales in 2023 - we stayed in a 3 bedroom cabin and it was so cheap considering the prices includes use to all the pools. 

The park is only open from April - October and closes down for the winter. We arrived in mid September and were a little disappointed to discover that the park was winding down for the season, which meant that half the pools (the ones located in the top half of the village ) were closed. And there wasn’t a lot of the kids club activities, shows or fitness activities happening.  

But it did mean that there wasn’t a lot of people around, it looks likes it’s extremely busy in the summer months. 

The girls loved swimming in the pools and going down the slides. The water in the pools was a little too cold for me but we had some warm sunny days were we could enjoy the water parks and relax in the sun.

One of the highlights of our time at Norcenni Girosole was the low ropes course that included a zip line. Hallie was very keen to try it but we were surprised when Farley put her hand up for it too. Farley usually doesn’t like heights or wobbly parts of playgrounds so it took Braino and I by surprise when she said she wanted to give it a go. We were so proud of all the girls for completing the course, including the zipline, but it was very special to see Farley challenge herself and overcome her fears. 

While we were at Norcenni Girosole we did a day trip to Pisa, a day trip to Florence, a day trip to San Gimignano and then two nights in Rome, which we travelled to by train. We also did a morning at a local winery where we got to harvest some grapes and learnt about the wine making process, which was really fun. I’ll share more about these trips in  there down individual blog posts. 

ITALY - Cinque Terre, Rustic Villages Along the Rugged Coastline

Visiting Cinque Terre was an absolute dream come true. What an extraordinary, magical location. I’m so grateful we were able to spend a full day exploring as a family, the kids enjoyed themselves and had a great time despite it not being the most kid friendly place.

Cinque Terre translates to ‘five lands’ and that names derives from the five towns that are within the Cinque Terre National Park area. Five towns are: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore.

Vernazza

Where we stayed:

We stayed in La Spezia for two nights and dedicated one full day to exploring the towns of Cinque Terra by train. La Spezia is the nearest large town to Cinque Terre, with a main train station that is connected to other major towns like Florence. I quite liked the vibe of La Spezia, it was lively with lots of shopping, cafes and restaurants. We stayed in an apartment in a central location where we could walk to the train station, however, parking was a nightmare, we had to leave our car parked about a 20 min walk away.

Manarola

Monterosso al Mare

Vernazza

Manarola

Our itinerary for our day exploring Cinque Terre: 

We first caught the train from La Spezia to Monterosso al Mare, which is the furtherest of the five towns from La Spezia. From there we worked our way back towards La Spezia, visiting a total of four of the fove towns.

Monterosso has the best beach for swimming, with a long stretch of sand in front of the town. We dedicated a bit of time for swimming here and the girls loved swimming in the calm, warm water. There are a number of beach clubs where you can rent a beach lounge and umbrella but we found the public section and just parked up on the sand, along with many others. 

Afterwards we did a little walk along the shoreline and through the tunnel to another beach sections. We then jumped back on the train and went one stop back in the direction of La Spezia to Vernazza. 

Vernazza was a great spot to have lunch as there are a number of restaurants to choose from on the waterfront. Vernazza has a small beach which some people were swimming in but most were lounging along the rock walls of the harbour, enjoying the sun. We climbed up the hill behind the church, navigating the labyrinth like street, to enjoy the view over the harbour. 

Manarola

Riomaggiore

Monetrosso al Mare

Monterosso al Mare

Vernazza

Next stop on our train trip was Manarola, skipping over Corniglia as it’s the only town of the five that it’s not on the water, it sits high up on the cliffs. Manorola seems to be the town that is featured the most in photos of Cinque Terre, it has an iconic view over the small harbour with the colourful houses cascading down the cliffs. (although Vernazza and Riomaggiore looked quite similar)

There is surprisingly a great kids playground where you’ll find the best vantage point for photos of Manarola, so the girls had a great time playing while we enjoyed the view. There is a restaurant in prime position to take in the view but they don’t take reservations so there seemed to be a constant line up of people waiting to get a table. We didn’t bother trying but we did stop off for gelato in Manarola, which kept the girls in high spirits for our last stop in Riomaggiore.

Riomaggiore is probably the smallest of the five towns, with a little harbour and narrow streets. Here, we got a drink and sat on the rocks while Braino had a quick dip in the water. There is a rocky beach around the headland but he just jumped in off the rocks in the harbour where most people were swimming. By this stage it was late in the afternoon and the sun was starting to go down, it was very relaxing just sitting on the rocks, people watching and soaking in the atmosphere. 

Vernazza

A few things to note about visiting Cinque Terre with kids: 

The trains are the most convenient way to see all the towns. You can catch a ferry from La Spezia to the various towns but I didn’t really look into that option too much. You definitely can’t access the tows via a car. The trains left regularly and but were very busy. The streets around the train stations are also very busy and crowded. 

We purchases a train passes from https://card.parconazionale5terre.it/ We did have train officials check our passes too, so I’d recommended being prepared with a screen shot of your train pass on your phone.

It only takes about 15 minutes to get from La Spezia to Riomaggiore (the first town) and then it’s only 5 - 10 minutes on the train between each town.

While it is a lot of walking around and enjoying the view, the girls still enjoyed themselves. It helped planning to have swim at Monterosso and the promise of a gelato is always helpful. 

You can hike between each of the town, I would actually love to visit again and do the hike It does require a hiking permit and it’s very steep in parts so we didn’t priorize it with the girls being so young. 

While you can find accommodation in any of the five towns of Cinque Terre, we were pretty happy with our decision to stay in La Spezia and just catch the train out as a day trip. Catching the busy trains with your luggage would be pretty uncomfortable and then locating your accommodation in the steep, narrow, maze like streets would also be a challenge. We came across a lady who was lost and struggling to find her accommodation in Vernazza,