A wonderful article. My family is pictured at Trattoria Osenna (I am the father in the blue shirt).
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These have been my favorite Tuscany trips:
ours in 2015,
and yours!!!!
If you write a book, I’ll read it!
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We have had pici al cinghiale at Trattoria Osenna. We actually had it 3 days in a row. it is that good. Loved Sunday night dinner when the trattoria was filled with local neighbors.
Our apartment (the best we have stayed at in Europe) overlooked the garden around the corner.
Such a beautiful essay about food travel with toddlers, where everything is exactly right. Bravissimo!
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Our two week Italy dream ended on the last night eating wonderful Chinese cuisine in Venice, of all places. We were completely “pastad” out. In Florence, we stayed in the little gem of a hotel located by the Galileo Museo but never went in. We did go to the Academmia Gallery to see the David, but was thrilled to see the hidden treasures of musical instruments. We went for the tourist stuff and were hooked by everything else.
A charming account. A few extra notes from me being married to an Italian and living in Pisa for a year.
There are many great family-oriented places to stay in Toscana to use as a base. At all costs, get one with a pool (especially in the summer). After pasta, a pool is your best friend.
The article barely touched on the neighborhoods in Sienna which are like catnip to kids. Each has a specific animal attached to it with a flag containing that animal. Walking thru those neighborhoods, you can make it a scavenger hunt to find those animals. (I, too, love the zebra-striped Duomo in Sienna.)
Florence can be a nightmare but Boboli gardens can be a cool (heat-wise) and fun place to visit.
Lastly, Italian restaurant owners know that the first question is always, “What can we do fit the children?” because the don’t want hungry, wailing children either.
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I love the humor - one must have to survive toddlerhood - the reflection, and the gorgeous illustrations. THIS is a travel piece of humility and luxury! (Wine, red and other sauces, with one's lovelies on a successful whim!)
(Please accept one suggestion - boys are only into machinery because we have positioned them so. Children are too, when the social constructs are less . . . constructed!)
Thank you!
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This a beautifully written example of open-minded travel writing. Thank you. So glad all of you enjoyed your Italian pasta.
Beautiful, heartwarming and fun story. Did the author do the drawings? Italy is a country where you really CAN draw what you eat.
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I know Italy and it was a shock to me finding the food overrated. In fact other Americans confirmed that Italian food is better in America than Italy so is pizza? Add the astonishing price difference and no contest.
You are sadly mistaken
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Mr. Larsen could have come up with a better English version of the ancient Latin motto he found in every town: "Red sauce is a delight to everyone." "All love red sauce" is clunky, awkward usage, and I suspect an obliging local Italian with a quaint grasp of colloquial English provided it to a tourist who knoweth not Latin. All the same, I want to go to Tuscany for some 'ghetti.
Charming article which brought back happy memories of many Italian adventures. From which I learned that it’s almost impossible to follow plans in Italy even if you don’t have kids in tow. Electricity doesn’t work, cars aren’t ready, roads don’t follow the GPS, and directions, while given enthusiastically, are often wildly wrong. That’s part of what makes Italy special - the serendipity.
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One of the best places I ever visited. On every level Italy is the best.
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I always love reading about family trips in the NYTimes. Wonderful writing! And, I can totally relate. My husband and I have been dragging our 2 kids around on 4 week travels every summer for years. It's not for the fearful! A Tuscany trip was my plan for next summer. Thanks for the inspiration!
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Thank you for the memories. We stayed in a tiny village (rented an apartment) called Panzano... can’t really see it on maps.. between Florence and Siena... it’s pretty central so you can travel all of Tuscany quite easily.
There is an oasis of beautiful, clean, spring-fed swimming pools north of Siena and south of Panzano, surrounded by the gorgeous hills, the name of which escapes me. We spent an afternoon there. Almost had the place to ourselves. Magnificent.
And you’re right about wild boar. Unbelievable. Panzano has a small Osteria that was so good we ate there three evenings of our trip.
We were there for the Palio. It’s a crazy race where the “rules” are scarcely adhered to.
Tuscany can be a “cliche” but it is so wonderful to visit. What a great lifestyle.
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Forgot to mention, the Uffizi can be crowded but if you go to Skip the Line website you can get tix in advance and walk right in.
Also worth seeing in Florence is Michelangelo’s house... which is usually not crowded. The ceiling he painted there may rival the Sistine.
So much art in Florence your head may explode.
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Oh to read an article that is not about a pile of spaghetti. Pasta is after all a first course, entree, in an Italian rrestaurant which is only loosely related to an authentic American Italian restaurant.
And for a writer who knows another Italian word than Tuscany.
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Grazie Tante signore Larsen! It was a real pleasure to read your piece with good tagliatelle, lovely kids and, beautiful, historical gone eras. While reading your piece, it was a wonderful escape from the real world of ours in which there is no room for enjoying life in its simplest form and as we should.
Ciao!
Note. Hope Nov. 7th I would be able to enjoy and celebrate with tagliolini basilico e pinoli a better world without so much racism and intolerance as we are experiencing now and for way too long.
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Wow, Reif Larsen. What an amazing travel writer. This article is like terrific Italian pasta, gelato, a Tuscan sunset, locally made olive oils and wines, . . . , a sensual delight.
More from him, si prega.
Grazie!
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Spent three weeks in Italy, May 1976. Stayed w/ a Prof and grad student wife (1/2 Jewish and 1/2 Sicilian, Oi!). She introduced me to Marcella Hazan's "Classic Italian Cooking"--back then, most Italian restaurants in the US were S. Italian (red sauce). Hazan introduced northern Italian cooking to the U.S.
She and husband had a wonderful cocktail table book, "Treasures of the Italian Renaissance." Every night she cooked a great dinner, and I planned my itinerary for the next day. An English major, never had a course in History of Art. In May the weather was mild, and I was there before the tourist season. Saw all the great art in Rome.
Went to Florence and was knocked out by art, architecture, etc. Toured San Miniato Al Monte.
Went with some friends to Naples, and had a great time.
Italians have always loved kids, nothing to do w/ falling birth rate.
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Loved my 1st anniversary, 10 days in Florence neighborhood of Santo Spirito in apartment across from farmer's market. Loved eating gelato 1x-2x per day. Loved taking the train to Siena. Marvelous beauty everywhere on the Arno's south side. But now, I must go back solely for the pasta. Thanks for this wonderful trip with your children!
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We stayed at La Foce in 2007, a fabulous experience! It’s a great location fo day trips to towns such as Pienza, Montalcino, Montepulciano, even Assisi.
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This is some of the best travel writing I've read in a long time. Funny - verrrry funny - lots of good suggestions on where to eat what, where to stay and what to do - and what to better not even think of trying - when traveling with kids. Fabulous!
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"...shaped like a spiral, or the path a propeller would make in the water, Holt enjoyed this information. Like many boys his age, Holt is fascinated by systems, shapes, how things work and don't work..."
Would it not be equally true to substitute "children" for "boys"?
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@Beth Williams
Loved this article, got hungry
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Spent 2 weeks in Sienna and still dream about it. Lovely town in a beautiful region.
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I love Italy - now, after having read this article, I simply shall have to visit again . . .
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We just got back from Tuscany and found the place to be magical in all ways. The medieval towns, food and people were wonderful. Bravo that you were able and willing to give your young kids such a terrific experience even if it meant giving up the Uffizzi this time!
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I cannot remember when I have enjoyed an article more. A la famiglia!
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excellent piece, spent the best night of my life with wife & kids in sienna, eating & drinking & listening to jazz drift out of a small club in the main piazza, when suddenly there was a big parade of all the jockeys, in their colors, from the race the week before...pretty much the entire city showed up & taught us how italians party...
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That's a fine read! Greetings from Liguria!
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I am pretty certain Iris inherited La Foce from her aristocrat husband who was half Italian and half Russian. She did not buy the property.
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@Jl You are very mistaken. Both she and her husband bought it together and together with patience and hard work transformed the derelict property into the glorious estate that you see today. They helped the farmers on the property to improve their lives immensely by providing education and health services.
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They bought and developed it together, according to her book and biographies.
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I’ve lost count of how many similar articles about a vacation in Tuscany I’ve read in the Times over the years. Pasta and again pasta and more pasta; delicious as it undeniably is, it is almost offensive to my country to center a story on it. And Oltrarno a Brooklyn-like neighborhood, really?
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@Ilaria dagnini brey Agreed in full.
@Ilaria dagnini breym I could not agree more. As if Italy was nothing more than pasta, or Tuscany for that matter. A silly article, peppered with trite observations, and bathed in a warm sauce of reheated preconceived notions.
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i am so looking forward to exploring this part of italy...that said, for something completely different, you must leave your northern dreams behind and head south to the basilicata area. now THAT is out of the box - and the orrechietti is superb!
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@AMA ...ORECCHIETTE are delicious, particularly in Puglia from which they originate.
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Mr Larsen,this was an absolute delight to read,all about the country that adopted me 40 years ago.Your son,Holt,fell under Italy's spell,may it stay.When my son was young,he was not enamored of pasta al pomodoro, for years he only wanted extra virgin olive oil and parmigiano on pasta.It was the same for his friends,too.Now my son likes all kinds of pasta sauces,but will sometimes ask for his old favorite.
It is true that the Palio di Siena is held on 2 July and on 16 August of every year. However,sometimes there are special ones to celebrate an important event.On the 20th of October this year there was a special Palio to celebrate the end of WW I.I had heard about a horse winning without a jockey, because the jockey had fallen off,but I had never seen one. This year I was treated to this rare event when the horse from "Tartuca" neighborhood won without the jockey.It is the horse that counts,even if the jockey falls off.I did not see it live,I watched it live on TV.One can find a replay on YouTube.
I cannot recommend more highly all of Iris Origo's books, not only "The War in Val d'Orcia. Although she inherited tons of money from her father,the estate in Tuscany was bought with her husband,a titled Italian,marchese,and she became titled,too, a marchesa. It is probably due to the fact that she was married to a titled Italian that she made it through WW II unscathed, given her Irish/English/American background.
PS: Italians do not eat pasta with a spoon! Tante belle cose...
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wonderfully well written. bravo.
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The umpteenth article on a short visit by a (presumably) American family to Tuscany. The drawings by a long shot the best aspect of the article. Although the eating and viewing in Italy are more or less fabulous everywhere, there is much more to Italy and its spectacular history than tourist haunts.
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I highly recommend staying at La Foce and spending your time exploring the many villages and serene countryside in the Val d’Orcia. Classic Tuscana with gorgeous scenery and a lovely slow pace. You can also visit Siena, Cortona, and Perugia from there on day trips, always returning to your cozy home base at La Foce. Enjoy pasta, cheeses, and Brunello and Vino Nobile de Montepulciano wines along the way. La Foce can even arrange for a chef and/or cooking lessons ... our group made lots of pici for our dinner!
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Living in Vienna my family traveled to Italy for a 10 day vacation. It was pasta all the way, every day. We took the railway back to Austria and arrived mid-day.
Everyone was "starving", I Boiled up an outrageous pot of pasta. We ate every last swirl---claimed it not as good as---but a fix.
We had become addicted.
The parents were 4 kilos heavier for our grand tasty experience. The children null, zero, nada. Well it's just not fair is it?
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Tuscany is not where you find the best food in Italy, pasta or anything else.
The best food in Italy is Bologna and Rome and the Amalfi
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@Passion for Peaches...So so untrue...one can eat extremely well almost everywhere in Italy...one just has to avoid the typical "tourist" restaurants in the big cities...Italy has well documented regional cooking, my Italian cook book of regional cooking is two inches thick and certainly does not include all recipes. And what does your "anything else" mean? I guess you mean to exclude Renaissance and Medieval Italy. I know, I have lived in Italy for forty years.
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I smiled from the beginning to the end of the article. I was in Florence this summer. I needed my David" fix. When I was there with my 4 year old nephew, he would only eat one flavor of gelato- crema. "Tom, do you want to try another flavor? "Crema" came the reply. And so, crema it was. Thanks for conjuring up these memories.
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I visited the La Foce garden and had lunch at the restaurant...totally awesome! I won’t say where we stayed during our Tuscan visit, I’m keeping that a secret.
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I loved Tuscany more than I’d imagined.
Wish I skipped Rome, Florence, and Positano. They were overrun with tourists.
But we drove an hour off the highway to a small bnb run by an old retired couple and it couldn’t have been more dreamlike. We said we wanted to come back and stay with them again. They told us the region had strict standards on bed and breakfasts so almost anyone you stayed at would be nice. I was so impressed with their kindness, hospitality, and how they told us to see some other bnb’s in our next visit.
One last thing though, after 4 days of eating pasta I just felt like I couldn’t eat anymore. Never thought I’d say that. And I have to say I didn’t think there were many other options in the major cities even. When we landed back in NY we immediately went for Thai in Queens.
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@Manish...Italy, until very recently, is not a land of immigrants. Italy is not the USA, the land of immigrants. When I moved to Rome, forty years ago, there was one Chinese restaurant, one Japanese, one Spanish and one French. And they were all very expensive. Things are different now. Tons of international restaurants and very few are expensive. It is more international for sure, but some authentic stuff got lost. That is what happens…
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Manish, do yourself a favor and visit Italy between November and March. You can go to Florence, Rome, or Siena, and the tourist hordes will be gone. You will be able to enter museums with a minimal wait, and only need a restaurant reservation on weekends. It's wonderful.
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lovely thank you ! i wish i was on this trip i love spaghetti more than anything except espresso
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Mr. Larsen had me at the "beauty is in the miss." As someone who shows people an off script Paris, which is to say well off the beaten path, I know this to be true. But if he hadn't had me there, it would've been with the description of evening sunlight that "was loose and pillowy." Marvelous all around!
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Simple pleasures, enjoyed simply with family and friends. Food, glorious food... words magnificent words. Both have the power to settle the restless, calm the turbulent and restore the world to its rightful place. many thanks... Bon Appetito!!!
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I fill genuinely sorry for the 4-year-old Holt who had to eat pasta all the time, although his taste for "not with red sauce" is similar to mines. At least he had fun in Museo Leonardo da Vinci and learned about the brachistochrone in Museo Galileo.
Two photos show long pasta eaten with a fork and table spoon. This is probably a good table manner of eating pasta. Cylindrical noodles to not lend themselves to the Japanese style of eating with hashi (chopsticks), and swirling the long pasta around the tines of the fork does not keep it there on the way from the plate to the mouth.
@Tuvw Xyz.. Italians never eat any kind of pasta with a spoon. Just lift up a bit with your fork, some will fall off, then twirl what is left on the fork on the plate, lift and place in your mouth and eat...you will get the correct amount in your mouth!
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love love love the writing. Funny and clever. Holt’s commentary is priceless; and max pretending he is holt - you’ve captured the essence of early family life. My ‘kids’ are now 15&19 - oh how I miss those halcyon days! Thanks for this little gem.
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At the end of the article that had me chuckling away, I realized who the author was. Of course! He wrote that enchanting, heart-warming book „ I am Radar“. I, my cousin, grandmother and mother were taken on a Norway tour: age 13. The most beautiful train trip Oslo-Bergen was spent reading Mary Stewart mysteries. To this day, I can’t believe the waste. On the other hand, we were totally into King Street, London. I took it as a lesson when my kids were young. Living in Rome, I only dragged them to one church a week! Still, even though I „missed out“, my horizons did broaden as my father always told us we should let happen. Been 38 years in Europe!
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I just returned from a month in Italy (northern sights this time). To me there is an infinity of fascinating places to visit, no matter how many times one visits.
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Such a beautifully written article and amen to bypassing the tourist hotspots. I'm taking my 8 and 11 year old daughters to Sicily next year so was eager to read this article.
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Your trip with your young children reminded me of my family's first trip to Italy; my then-first grader survived Florence by focusing on a new gelato flavor each day.
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Thank you for this article. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I'll come back to this when planning my next trip to Italy.
Perfect. As blessed to travel many times to all of Italy, Val d’Orcia has my “home away from home” and Tuscany my heart. This reminds me I can take my youngest grandchildren. my children and grandchildren thank you as well!!
One of the joys of having been posted to Europe for work was being able to make trips like this as our boys (3 of them) grew up. Italy was always the easiest. Not only is the food so approachable for kids (and varied for adults), but the Italians have great affection for little children (perhaps because there are so few native ones these days). A number of times, we would dine at good restaurants, and while my wife and I tried to enjoy an extended wine filled meal, a waiter or someone else on staff was more than happy to amuse the children (feeding them breadsticks or just keeping their attention) allowing us to (nearly) fully enjoy an adult experience as the boys enjoyed their own entertainment
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I took a similar trip with my wife and two young sons a few years ago. I found that Italians love children and your children become your ambassadors. It’s easy to visit ancient sites, but bringing along children makes it much easier to connect with the locals.
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What a lovely article. We started taking our boys to Italy when our eldest was 20 months. Coincidentally, he had his first restaurant dinner at Alla Vecchia Bettola, and I remember to this day how kind they were to our wriggly toddler. Even though the boys once famously said to us, "Italy again! Why can't we go to Disney like everyone else?" they now appreciate those many summer vacations throughout Italy.
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"But you are always missing out with kids. That is kind of the point. The beauty is in the miss." I was laughing throughout your wonderful piece, and then came to this. I was abruptly stopped in my tracks as the tears flowed. Thank you for the wisdom, and for capturing so well the richness and blessings experienced, by the fortunate, in the miss.
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Great article. Visited Tuscany last year. Took train from Rome to Orvieto to pick up rental car. There I had pici pasta, one of the best pastas I’ve ever had. Tried to find in US but couldn’t. On to Montepulciano, Sienna, and Florence. Got passed lines at Uffizi with reserved ticket. Overcrowded, but worth the hassle. Thanks for reminding me of that beautiful region!
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Thank you for this wonderful piece of writing. We have boys about the same age - 3.5 and 2. And we love to travel. You captured the challenge, magic, exhaustion of going abroad with the very young beautifully. Some observations that resonated: the beauty in the miss; the joy of watching the young in old places; the tedium of tables. I hope to see more of your pieces in the Times. And I think Italy may have to be next for us!
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What a wonderful article. Bought back fond memories of my time in Florence ten years ago when my daughter did a semester at NYU Florence. Stayed off the beaten path and on foot the entire time. Museo Galileo is fascinating and the artwork on display in the smaller basilicas as well as the kindness of the smaller curators made for a rewarding experience. The local restaurants and most especially the markets forever changed the way that I approach dining and cooking. Thank you for sharing your story.
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Well written and far more amusing than most articles in this genre.
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Gem of an column! The visit to Florence without seeng the Uffizi reminded me of my own visit there, in which I made the same decision. Years later when visiting Paris with my daughter we sagely opted to skip the long lines at the Louvre. Both cities offer so many rich adventures off the beaten path!
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If you want to avoid the long lines at the Uffizi Gallery, join as a member for the year you plan to visit. It's a bit more expensive but you are ushered past the "horde of tourists".
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@JCal
One can also buy tickets at home in advance to skip the ticket lines. If you do this for every museum, you'll save a lot of time you would have spent in ticket lines. Of course, it constricts and directs your vacation. I prefer a more haphazard approach, but my wife prefers a detailed, timed itinerary. She always wins.
I want it and I want it NOW! Tired of politics, yes voting Nov 6 but I know Florence and Sienna almost as well as my home town of Boston. This is a beautiful article.
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Thank god I'm eating pasta today!
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Thank you for this most delightful interlude in my day. I have visited Milan and Venice (twice) and had similar unplanned walkabouts. After this article, Tuscany must surely be next.
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Mmm, that pic of the wild boar pasta brought me right back to Tuscany. I think we had it at three different restaurants as it's in season in the fall and not to be missed!
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We (2 couples) were just in Florence. Echo the DaVinci Museum for kids. Also staying south of the Arno River. It's a rabbit's warren of small restaurants & bars.
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Most delightful travel piece I have read in a long time.
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What a fantastic family vacation! I can't wait until I take my kids to Siena, Italy.
My husband and I along with our young kids(10 and 5) were in Dordogne, France in search of finding the most perfect strawberry jam in June this year.
Another excellent area to travel with children as there are so many things to with young kids like castles, canoeing and fine dining at affordable prices.
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