A Slow Vacation in Tuscany

Sep 21, 2013 by

When vacationing in Tuscany, it is not enough to stay fat and happy in Florence. One must venture out in the rolling hills, grape terraces, winding roads and ancient villages with towers and castles. Occasionally you will drive by the ruins of a castle that has been left behind to disintegrate. You could do worse than get lost in the gorgeous Tuscan countryside, certainly one of the most romantic places on earth. Life moves slowly here and so should you. This is not a vacation to rush through.

If you go to Tuscany in the springtime, which I recommend, you will find many towns hosting food festivals during harvest times. Montespertoli has a huge wine festival, for example. We also found mushroom festivals, cherry festivals, zucchini festivals, garlic festivals and piglet festivals. These are merry occasions with all manner of foods and entertainment. These festivals are a little tricky to find because they are for the locals, and not on the tourist track, but with some diligent Internet research and asking around, you can locate them.

The open-air markets are something else too. Olives of every type are gathered in large bins and these are the best olives I have ever had! There is fresh produce, prosciutto and cantaloupe samples, whole roast pigs and a large variety of other oddities, including donkey sausage and beautiful marzipan cookies. You can spend an entire afternoon just browsing all the amazing delights at the market. Watching the Italians negotiate prices is interesting too.

One thing the Italians pride themselves on is their food. The like to eat and they like good food. There is a very strong movement called the “slow food” movement in this area. Instead of succumbing to big processing plants and industrialized foods, they are keeping the old ways. So wheels of cheese are still kept in dark cellars and turned by hand every day. The emphasis is on neither quality not quantity nor quickness of production. So a visit to Italy is filled with gastronomical delights. Don’t even get me started on the seafood!

When you are read to return to Florence, take time to enjoy a strawberry gelato. Florence has the best gelato in all of Italy. When you need a slow, easy day on your vacation, go to the Uffizi Gallery. This is one of the premier art galleries in all the worlds. Florence was the hub of culture and art in the 1400s and the great masters of Italy all lived in Florence. Even after the bonfire of the vanities when so much art was burned, a lot of amazing pieces still remain. In the Uffizi you will see many paintings that you have seen in books. It contains Roman and Greek statues, medieval art and many of the masters from Sandro Botticelli, Giotto,  Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, and Tiziano, etc. The building itself is also impressive. It was completed 1581 by one of the powerful Medici family as a palace. The artist and architect Vasari designed it, and it boasts a beautiful view of the Arno River.

Tuscany is a place of romance and history. It would be a fine place to enjoy a honeymoon or an anniversary. So go to your local bookstore newsstand and find some excellent travel articles with photos to start your research into his magical land of castles and vineyards.

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