lunch at a vineyard or farm/agriturismo?

We are staying in Montepulciano, but will be doing day trip to Montalcino. I LOVE Brunello.

I realize there are so many to choose from. We will hit Enoteca la Fortezza to taste, but I want to do one vineyard tour. However, we want an experience. I've heard Banfi is large, impersonal - that's not what we are looking for. Yes, I want a good Brunello (is there one that isn't?) but I want more of an experience. We want a beautiful cellar (the older the better), views and a family feel. If I could compare it to Napa/Sonoma in CA - we loved Kuleto (not a very good tour, but the views were unbelievable) and Pride (amazing tour and in the cellars showed us the wines at different ages), but our favorite was a little vineyard in Alexander Valley where a family ran it. As one of the brothers told us stories and even gave us some vegetables from the garden.

We won't want to just taste wine - we want to remember the place, the people, the food, the wine and tell the story for years to come. I've read on TripAdvisor that Tornesi is family run and you can have a meal - seems right up our alley. Pordere il Cocco looked interesting.

What's the one experience/tour that you would recommend ???

Hi there!

I have traveled to Italy a few times, but have always stuck to the major touristy cities and relied heavily on the Italian train system to get me to and from the cities. I am planning a family trip to Italy and my family loves drinking wine and I would love to treat them to one or two nice tuscan vineyards.

I've been searching and trying to figure out the best vineyard itinerary and am unsure of how to get from vineyard to vineyard and where to stay / how to get to wherever we stay. The plan is to go from Milan >> Cinque Terre >> Florence (or a smaller city closer to vineyards, if I can figure out the optimal location).

If anyone could share their suggestions and if I need to rent a car, I would greatly appreciate it! Thank you in advance!!

I'm trying to not spend too much money. For example staying at Castello Banfi for the night, which is something I saw come up a few times is out of my budget.

We'll be in Florence at the end of June for 5 days. We would like to spend a few hours in the afternoon at a winery in the Tuscany countryside. We are not wine connoisseurs and are not looking for a tour, but are more interested in a very pretty winery with beautiful views so we may drink some wine and have a bite to eat. We are looking for a place that's within 45 minutes of Florence as we will take a cab. Thank you.

My mother and I will be taking a trip to Sicily to look into some family history in Bisacquino. We would like to hire a private tour for our 4 days in Sicily, preferably someone that can assist us with our genealogy search. I have done a lot of research on our family in Bisacquino and have been able to fill out a family tree going back several generations. However, we would like to add some color to my research and possibly find relatives or anything relevant to our family history. Any recommendations would be appreciated!

i am planning trip to Sicily . 21 Days. First let me say I like to drive and living in Texas I drive 100 miles most days. we fly into Rome Sept24, will drive to Casenza, stay overnight. The next day Cefalu two days, Palermo 3 days, Ragusa 3 days, Sirasua 3 days, Catania 2 days, Taormina 3 days, at the end 3 days in Rome. I have 3 days to fill. I was thinking maybe Messina or somewhere on the return trip. We have been to Amalfi, Sorrento but not Naples. Any suggestions? For those of you that don,t drive this may look crazy. We love seeing the countryside and I find driving a stick shift in Europe fun.

We are family with 10months old baby, looking for best town on lake Como. We are using baby stroller, but we love walking, therefore looking for place where we can walk and walk with stroller (promenade or from village to village, hiking paths suitable for baby stroller, streets) thank you :)

Hello, my husband and I (both fully vaccinated) will be in Switzerland for one month (Sept. 21-October 21). We are thinking of extending our trip for 1-2 weeks and visiting Italy because we end up in Lugano, and would be able to take the train to Italy. (We will need to return to Zurich for our flight home, so as to avoid change fees.)

We have been to Italy several times, but have never done anything other than the main cities and tourist areas. We did visit Cinque Terre from Florence on one trip, and did the hike from village to village, and we have visited Lake Como twice, but only on day trips. We also did a vacation in Italy one time that included the Dolomites, Verona and Sienna. We love nature, hiking, quaint villages, pretty beaches, biking. We have never done the countryside in Italy (Tuscany area), seen Portofino or Genoa. Based on when we'd be there (late October), and the fact that we will need to get back to Zurich for our flight home, we don't want to travel as far south as the Amalfi Coast, so we'd appreciate any suggestions for places to visit for 1-2 weeks that are more north. We prefer being able to use public transportation, but are open to car rental, if need be. Really appreciator any advice/suggestions!

Hi there,

My family of 4 (kids aged 9 and nearly 5) are planning a trip to Sicily for 4-6 weeks in 2023 (and other parts of Italy too after the 4-6 weeks are up). We will rent a car for most of our stay.

We are planning to come in mid-June, which is the earliest we can arrive that spring.

My main question is: We aren't certain though if we should stay through to the end of July (6 weeks)?

We don't really know what its like in July, as we've been to Sicily in different periods befo

* early-mid June a few years ago (a bit north of Catania, Ortigia, Agriturismo Silitti near Caltanisetta, Marsala, Scopello); and

* a few days in early October for our honeymoon about 10 years ago (Ortigia and an agriturismo called Zottopera near Chiaramonte Gulfi).

We would ideally like to have a relaxing time with the kids in Sicily - and are hoping to avoid extreme heat (e.g. over 33 Celsius) during the middle of the day, crazy busy-ness and the worst of the Italian school holidays.

We are planning to stay in 2 or 3 spots as bases (about 10 days each): something like beachside near Noto/Ragusa, another near Palermo; and possibly an agriturismo in a central region or near a nice village (in a different region) as a third base. With possible weekend stays in Ortigia, Palermo, Cefalu and San Vito lo Capo.

Most places in Italy we'd like to visit mention September/October as ideal timing to visit, which I believe is also true for Sicily. But if we can visit Sicily at the start of our trip, we can leave September for areas like further north like Tuscany, Urbino, Ascoli Piceno.

Just starting to plan 10 days in Tuscany for June 22 after two years of delays. Hoping we’ll be able to travel to Italy without issues by then.

Working backwards and had done a lot of research before but hadn’t got as far as looking at coastal areas in Tuscany and thought it would we good to finish up with a few days nears the beach. What are your favourite areas that you can recommend please.

Thanks

What are some things to do or interesting activities that don’t involve the beach and seaside towns? Looking for family/kid friendly activities - farm visits, sculpture gardens, monuments or museums (outside Genoa), wineries, anything else really.

Appreciate suggestions