Lis and Tyler in Germany

I’m realizing there are two main types of traveling. Sightseeing and relaxing. Certainly the two can be combined, but sometimes you have to pick one or the other. I’m still not sure what I like more. I think sometimes I like seeing things to say I’ve seen them, or to have it under my belt for some later purpose.  Sometimes taking a relaxing vacation seems like a waste of a trip when there are sights to be seen. In Italy we struck a perfect balance between sightseeing and relaxing. The more I reflect on our trip, the more I think about Tuscany. And the more I think about Tuscany, the more I want to go back.

We stayed in an agriturisimo, a program started in the 60′s to encourage farmers to stay on their land, to keep producing food and to provide accommodation to tourists.  Rick Steves says “think of it as a rural Italian B&B.”  Our “agriturisimo” was on a farm about 45 minutes from Siena, among a bunch of tiny hill towns in Tuscany.  It was a huge house with gracious hosts, three little dogs (Joc, Jill and the other one), and a pool.  Driving along the windy country roads you pass one sunflower field after another, grand-looking entrances to modest farmhouses lined with mile-high cyrpus trees and fields the color of “burnt Siena.”  We went to just a handful of the perfect and unique little hill towns nearby.  Each one has a beautiful church (or two), the best restaurant you’ve ever eaten at, wine tasting, shopping, cobblestone paths, and picturesque alleyways.  We’d spend our days exploring the neighboring towns, swimming in the pool and picking our jaws off the floor.  In the evening we’d come home and sit out on the deck, welcoming the cool evening air, with a bottle of wine and watch the sun set behind the rolling hills.  I know, it’s almost too much.  A lazy morning and a hot cappuccino and we were off again!  What a way to spend a vacation.  I think the jury’s back.