Family Travel Guide Europe Western Europe Italy Central Italy Tuscany Snapshots from Italy: A Five-Family Vacation in Tuscany

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Snapshots from Italy: A Five-Family Vacation in TuscanyTen parents and friends rent a villa in Tuscany in hopes of snagging a bit of family-centric dolce vita.

By Linda Samuel

THE ALMOST-PERFECT SHOT: Trying to capture a photo of five youngsters at onceproves a much more difficult task than expected (Linda Samuel)

We had been talking about this photo op since day one. Ourfive beautiful subjects sitting on the sprawling green lawn,framed against a backdrop of the stunning Italiancountryside. The photo itself sounded easy enough—withso many perfect elements, how could it go wrong—which isprobably why we put it off until the end of our week-longstay at a villa in southern Tuscany. But my husband, eight ofour closest friends, and I soon learned that trying to getthree toddlers and two infants to sit still and smile for aphoto is next to impossible. Nevertheless, we weredetermined. In our minds, we knew it would become thepicture that would represent our five-family vacation, the

one that we would show our kids one day and ask, "Remember when we all spent a week inTuscany?"

Of course, they probably won’t remember. At ten months, 11 months, 16 months, two years, andalmost three years old, they were too young. In some ways, this was why we planned a familyvacation geared toward adults. (News flash: Tuscany isn't exactly known for parades of cartooncharacters and kiddie rides.) While we wanted the children to enjoy themselves, we knew this wouldn'tqualify as the trip of a lifetime for them (even with their short lives thus far). But that also explains whywe organized a group venture; no matter where we went, the kids would have each other.

And so would the adults. It doesn't take a seasoned parent to know that vacationing with children can

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and pressures to keep the little ones happy, while also attempting to weave in some grown-up timeand a decent dose of rest and relaxation. Traveling as a group would solve some of these issues.With ten pairs of eyes on five children, someone would always be looking out for the tots, allowing usall a little more breathing room. And the camaraderie would provide built-in evening entertainmentafter the babes' early bedtimes—and, even better, provide a chance to rekindle friendships that hadsuffered the time-consuming roles of parenthood. On the flip side, whenever we wanted someindividual family time, we could take off without leaving anyone by themselves. And as for the kids,they would have a week of consistent playmates.

Nine months out—when we first started to weave this trip together—this approach sounded wonderful.Whether or not our logic would hold up remained to be seen. The long lead time was necessary—there was the villa to book, airplane tickets to acquire, hectic schedules of ten adults to align, andthe glorious minutiae of things like international driving permits and debates about which kid (young orold) would be the first to pee in the pool, the latter hashed out by voluminous email exchanges.

Entrusted with finding our vacation digs, my gateway to the wide world of villa options began with asimple Google search. After much scrutiny of what seemed like every villa imaginable, we made ourselection—a six-bedroom, two-level, 17th-century manor house in the Val D'Orcia region called IlCasato. From the online description and photos, plus discussions with our rental agent Franco, IlCasato met all our criteria: It had at least five double bedrooms, enough square footage for ten adultsand five youngsters to spread out; child-friendly interiors; an outdoor play area for the kids; a pool farenough from the house for child safety; and a location accessible to daytrip destinations. On top ofthat, the villa owners agreed to provide cribs (at no extra cost) and offered home-cooked meals, for afee, at our request.

Last Updated: 5 May 2011Published: 3 Sep 2007The details, dates, and prices mentioned in this article were accurate at the time of publication.

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Family Travel Guide Europe Western Europe Italy Central Italy Tuscany Snapshots from Italy: A Five-Family Vacation in Tuscany

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A VIEW FROM THE TOP: The Tuscan countryside from one of the village vantage-points (Linda Samuel)

Months later, from our first tour of Il Casato, the houseexceeded my expectations. The bedrooms appeared evenlarger than depicted, the manicured grounds included along stretch of soft grass perfect for child play and adultlounging, the infinity pool sat about 50 yards from thehouse, down a stone path overlooking a valley of gentlyrolling hills quilted with green- and peach-hued fields,thriving vineyards, and clusters of red poppies. The airyinterior, with white walls, terra cotta floors, oak beam-linedceilings, and sweeping archways, was tastefully decoratedwith elegant-but-sturdy antique furniture. I breathed a big

sigh of relief—having picked the villa, I'd felt pressure to come through with a gem. Now I could finallyrelax and enjoy.

We kicked off our vacation with a family-style meal, arranged in advance and prepared by the villa'scaretaker, Roberta. Platters of thinly sliced prosciutto and salami, fresh mozzarella cheese, gnocchismothered in pesto, and slow-roasted chicken made their way up and down a long wooden table inthe stone loggia that opened onto the villa's courtyard. Two of the children sat at the heads of thetable and declared themselves the king and queen of the evening. As we feasted on the scrumptiousfare, consumed a few too many glasses of wine, and shared conversation as rich as the food, wecouldn't help but muse—despite the risk of jinxing ourselves—that we’d made a pretty good start tothe week ahead.

We spent the next six days alternately hanging out at our home base and exploring the nearby hilltowns. When the kids' schedules synced up, we toured the towns together, but each family took atleast one day to journey on their own. We rolled our strollers up and down the hilly streets of Siena,

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passengers. We took in the Piazzo del Campo scene, sampled the famous Brunello wine, andenjoyed impromptu picnics at ancient palazzos.

During our days at the villa, we hung out by the pool with the kids, tossing a Frisbee on the lawn,unwinding with books, and enjoying both the company and the place. The children stayed busy withtoys, each other, and the vast property to explore. They were obviously delighted with their extendedgang of playmates, both young and adult. We all were, in fact.

No matter how we filled our days, we reunited by late afternoon each day for a dip in the pool, leisuretime on the lawn, and more family-style dinners in the loggia. We capped the evenings with laugh-inducing games of charades, Scrabble, and chatter about both our wilder, pre-children times togetherand the amusing adventures of life with kids.

As always seems to be the case when you’ve managed to stumble onto a little bit of vacationparadise, the week came to an end faster than we wanted, but we all left with excellent stories andphotos, including the now-iconic shot of five babes tumbling on the lawn.

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