tuscanybound

Spent two lovely weeks in Tuscany at a villa just 20 mins. south of Florence. Here's what I would have done differently - taken less "dressy" clothes. We ate out a lot of lunches and our villa was so nice that we ate simple meals outdoors at our own place. In any case, not many places required one to dress up. Take sunscreen. Interchange two pairs of sandals. Take anti-perspirant spray for shoes. My husband bought a pair of shoes in Siena and almost blew out the store with his stinky feet! Take a "facecloth". Forget the curling iron. Cotton, cotton, cotton. I made the mistake of taking t-shirts with lycra in them - it was too hot. Shorts everywhere on men and women. Bring a good hat. Drink wine-lots of it. Have at least three gelatis a day. Buy leather at F.I.N.E. leather shop in Florence-great quality,great price and great folks. Take empty suitcase. Take high SPF sun lotion. Don't go to Viareggo but do go to Forte de Marmi. Do book museums ahead of time-you can do it from your villa a few days ahead. Best market in Greve on Saturdays. Market in Siena huge disappointment. Cane e Gatto everything everyone says it is. To be continued.

Julie

Tell us more about your villa and how you booked it, please.

tuscanybound

We stayed at Podere Torricella which is just 15 km. s. of Florence. We had a lovely two bedroom spacious apartment with kitchen. Also a lovely pool and a great restaurant on premises. I booked directly with the owner at Tuscany.net and after speaking with other guests there, we saved quite a bit by cutting out the middle person.

Nancy

Hi Tuscany! <BR> <BR>Did you need to wear "dressy" clothes for dinner at Cane e Gatto? We are planning dinner there sometime during the week of 10/7-10/13. Did you have reservations in advance? If so, what time were they for? We were thinking about this for our last evening, but with 5 hours dining and needing an early morning start...Thank you for any help.

Kats

We are planning atrip to Italy and will be spending 9 nights in Sarteano, did you happen to travel there and if so how was it?? <BR>Thanks for the packing tips, did you drive much around Tuscany? <BR>Thanks <BR>Kats

tuscanybound

Actually we had the whole restaurant to ourselves as there were 17 of us! There was no where in Italy where you had to really "dress" up. I wore a nice jersey skirt with co-ordinating t-shirt and was fine. Men wore khakis. We got there around 8pm and left around midnite. It was a leisurely 6 course dinner and was marvelous. We tried to do the "slow traveller" thing and only travelled within an hour from our villa, venturing out further a couple of times - once to Forte de Marmi and once a lovely day spent in Pienza and Montalcino. Even though we didn't drive far afield we still put 2,000 km. on our car. It really took ages to get to places with the winding roads etc. We only took the highway when we were really pressed for time. Our best times were spent on the back roads with no traffic but very narrow winding roads. We didn't get to Sarteano..not even sure where that is! We went to Siena, Volterra, San G., Chianti region, Monteriggioni, San Casciano, Montelupo (excellent grocery store there), Colle Val d'Elsa...often we would have lunch out and have our dinner in because our views from our villa were breathtaking. Lots of opportunity to buy pesto, antipastis, etc. for simple meals in.

Bev.

How much time did you spend in Florence?, and how long did it take you to drive in, or could you use public transportation? If you drove in, where did you park? What were your favorite towns. Sorry, I'm not familiar with Cane e Gatto!

tuscanybound

If you can believe this, we actually did not go into Florence this trip (we've been twice before) although we were less than 20 km. from there! However other members of our group drove in on several occasions and found it surprisingly easy particularly if they went early. Cane e Gatto is in Siena and you must make reservations as it is very small, only holding 22-23 people but the food is outstanding. I would say that I wouldn't go back to Montecatini (unless you're interested in seeing Benetton, Gucci, tons of upscale kids stores) but otherwise we truly loved almost everywhere we went. The day going to Pienza and Montalcino was lovely as was the day we travelled to Volterra and Colle Val d'Elsa and took the long (very long!) scenic roads back. Or our slow meandering down S222 through Chianti. We loved Siena but one disappointment which surprised us was the market in Siena. We got up early and went in on Wednesday but there was no leather, jewellry, pottery etc. and not even much food. It was all stalls of clothes - one stall looking much like the next. We enjoyed the Sat. morning market in Greve much more. There is an incredible famous meat store there on the main square that you have to visit just to look around in awe. There's also a nice shop with lovely hand made pottery. One other tip: if you know ahead of time what jewellry you want, try and buy it all from one store. We bought 3 gold bracelets at one store in Siena and then later in the day bought some more jewellry from two other stores. Because we were able to get our tax back on the first purchase, we couldn't on the subsequent ones. We wish we had purchased everything all together to get a better deal and to get tax back on everything. Just a tip: if you purchase a lot, it's worth it to get your tax back but they won't stamp your forms if you are travelling to another country on your way home (eg. the people ahead of us were going to England to get a connecting flight home and the customs guy told them after they waited in line that they'd have to get it stamped in England!). Basically, you check your luggage, keep the items you are claiming for tax in your carry on and right after you check in, you will see the customs office. You get it stamped. Then quite by accident, we saw another booth near the departures gates where they actually credited our credit card right there so we didn't have to mail anything in.

kim

Was your villa children-friendly? Sounds like it might be with the pool. Was it just one rental unit, or many at the same location?

Jilly

Going to Florence for the August Bank Holiday with my best mate......any suggestions for good sights, shops or restaurants? Thanks

tuscanybound

Kim..it was very kid friendly. There were 5 couples in our group and 7 kids ranging in ages from 6-13. They loved it. We each had our own 2 bedroom apt. and some of the units had 2 bathrooms. Very spacious. Kids swam and played ping-pong. Sorry Jilly...we just didn't make it to Florence so don't have any info for you. Only thing I would recommend from the other members of the group is they bought great leather at F.I.N.E. leather store - not sure of location but I think it was mentioned many times at this site.

ro

thank you for all the information. was cane e gatto expensive? are the prices any different in siena vs florence on jewelry. i'm also happy you mentioned a leather shop. my husband already said he'd like to look at a leather jacket. him saying he wants to look at anything is a big thing. thanx again!

weeb

checked out the Tuscany.net site and couldn't find the apartment you mentioned. Also, did you need a car if staying outside of Florence? Your info was very helpful. Trying to get our act together to go this september. <BR>Thanks

tuscanybound

Here's the link <BR>http://www.tuscany.net/torricel/index.html <BR>Also Cane e Gatto was quite expensive - approx. $75(US) per person (without wine) but worth every penny. We definitely needed a car - I would think if you rented a villa you would have to be "high up" to get the spectacular views and would need a car to get there. One of our group bought 3 leather jackets at F.I.N.E. leather shop and said the owner couldn't have been more helpful, even directing them to a great non-touristy jewellry store where they bought some gold jewellry.