When planning our two-week trip to Tuscany, we knew that we’d be keen to do some wine tasting, along with enjoying the beautiful countryside and quaint medieval towns. But we hadn’t really looked too much into it until we arrived in Italy. In Australia, wine tasting is a pretty straightforward affair. You turn up at the winery, follow the signs to the cellar door if...
When we decided to spend some time in Italy on the European leg of our trip, I knew there was one place we shouldn’t miss out on. That was the Cinque Terre. What is the Cinque Terre, I hear you ask. In Italian, it means “the Five Lands”. You might not know quite what it is but you’ve more than likely seen it. The Cinque Terre is that famous stretch of Italian...
Have you taken two weeks off and decided that Tuscany is the place for your next dream holiday? Good for you! Tuscany is an amazing part of Italy and if you are going to all that way, you may as well spend as long as you can there. Two weeks is a pretty good length of time to spend in Tuscany because let’s face it Tuscany is not just about Florence and Siena. There...
Lucca is a beautiful old town in the north of Tuscany. Only an hours drive from the more famous Florence, Lucca is known for its Renaissance architecture and its fortified old walls. With its well-preserved, centuries-old buildings and churches, a visit to Lucca truly lets you step back in time. It didn’t take long for us to fall in love with this stunning little...
Siena is a medieval city in the heart of Tuscany, just an hour south of Florence. Although you’re unlikely to get sick of Florence (how could you?), given that you’ve come all that way, you may still want to explore a bit more of Tuscany. Siena is the biggest of all the hill towns scattered around the area and one of the most visited. Because its historic centre is...
Another place I remembered fondly from my first trip to Tuscany as a teen was the beautiful Tuscan hill town of San Gimignano. When we decided to spend a few days in Tuscany, I knew I had to revisit this beautiful medieval town. San Gimignano is a pretty little walled town situated halfway between Florence and Siena. Its historic centre has been declared a...
The Italian city of Florence is Tuscany’s most famous and most visited city. Every year, millions of visitors flock to Florence to get lost in its streets, admire its incredible churches and marvel at its museums and palazzos. Florence is the world’s art capital and whether or not you’re an art fanatic, you can’t help but gasp at the beauty of...
Simon and I have been travelling for years. So when we told people we’d never been to Rome, many of them were rather surprised! We had both been to Italy many moons ago before we even met, but we were both yet to visit its capital. I had loved Italy when I visited Florence and Venice as a teenager. I had even sworn to myself that I would one day return to this...