Not everything you see in movies is accurate!

Trip Start Jun 04, 2012

Trip End Jul 03, 2012

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Map Options

Show trip route

Hide lines

Where I stayed

Borgo Poneta Barberino Val d'Elsa
Read my review - 5/5 stars

Flag of Italy Barberino Val d'Elsa, Tuscany, Italy
Sunday, June 17, 2012

We arrived to our beautiful villa in Tuscany last night. We are staying on a working farm in Tuscany called Borga Poneta. There are acres and acres of vineyards and olive gardens. The make wine and olive oil on site. Our villa is in a grouping of very old stone buildings set on a hillside overlooking the Tuscan landscape. The views were astonishing and I don't think the website does it justice. There is an infinity pool down below of the villa tucked into the olive groves. Absolutely breathtaking! The kids hit the pool on the first night we were here, and they were in it again this morning. Even Adam (who bought a swimsuit at a grocery store in Alsace) jumped in!

I don't think we realized just how hot it was getting in Italy, because we stupidly planned our afternoon to be outside. After checking to see what time the market closed, we headed on a winding and truly nauseating 30 minute drive through Tuscany to visit the hill town of Volterra

Street show at San Gimigmano

. Riley and I are huge Twilight fans and we felt compelled to see the Italian hill town that was represented in the second book New Moon! Alice and Bella didn't look nauseated when they drove to Volterra! Silly as it was, we enjoyed looking for references from the book. Sadly there were few, but it was an interesting town none the less. We took a tour of the medieval torture museum, which proved to be offensive and repulsive to Riley. Not a great family museum, but Bridger liked it!

We left Volterra and went to San Gimignano. This is an ancient Hill town that has the appearance of a modern day city when you look at it from a distance. There are numerous tall towers throughout the city giving the appearance of a cityscape. It was the epi center of trade 1000 year ago. We can actually see San Gimignano at a distance from our Villa. We arrived at 5 pm and we walked around town for a couple hours. We ate gelato and watched a Sunday parade of sorts (complete with marching band and horses and medieval dress) and Bridger did some shopping for a new italian knife.

We left in time to go shopping for dinner, but as usual we got a little lost and found ourselves at the market at closing time with all the other people that were not smart enough to go in the morning! Grocery stores in italy actually start to run out of food at closing time! We had to settle for some prepared chicken cordon bleu cutlets that were highly processed and plain rice to go with it, cheap wine and chocolate. We will have to do better tomorrow! I keep saying this. A month in Europe. We will get it right eventually.

Slideshow