Italy with Kids: A Family Friendly Tuscany Rental

 I planned our trip to Italy for months. I even canceled rentals and re-booked after doing “even more” research. I was a little nuts about it. Then… while we are already in Italy, I decided last minute to add a couple days in Tuscany. After about 10 minute of browsing, I spotted a house that looked great and went with it. It is SO hot in Florence right now and we really wanted to jump in a pool. So maybe I was sold on renting the house by the pool photo but I am sure glad I did because it was the most family friendly Tuscany rental and I am so glad we went. 

First off, the reason I left Tuscany off the itinerary was that it seemed unreachable without renting a car or hiring a car. Second, I underestimated how crowded and hot the cities would be in the summer. Don’t get me wrong, we are loving Florence (it will always be my favorite city!) but the kids needed some space to run around a bit and we were all craving a pool day.

Finding Podere Vignola

So a few nights ago, I started browsing the web for a house that was available for just a night or two that we could reach from Florence. Here’s the link to the rental: Farmhouse Near Florence – Limonaia 

I also found out when I was there that they have a website about the house too: Podere Vignola

It’s a large farmhouse broken up into a number of apartments. Although, at least the one we rented, felt like a private house. We had a private garden area and except when we were at the pool, we didn’t see other guests. Also, if you are looking to go to Tuscany with a group, it’s a great location because you can all rent your own space but still share the pool. I am already working on trying to convince some friends or family to return with us next summer!

OK so why was it so family friendly?

Family Friendly Tuscany Rental

1. The location: From Florence you take a 20 minute train ride (for less than 3 euro) to the town of Sieci. From there you can walk up the hill to the house OR Giovanni, the home owner may be able to give you a ride. He kindly drove all of us to and from the train. If you drive, it’s a quick ride from Florence. It was so easy to get to and from Florence to this rental.

2. Sieci: is the little town at the bottom of the hill from the house. After a week with massive crowds of tourists, this little town was the exact Italy experience we were looking for. It’s a very small town and the town center has a grocery store, a delicious pizzeria (where a whole pizza is 5 euro), a gelato shop, coffee shop and a few other spots. Our favorite spot was called “The Wine Shop” where you bring your own bottle and the man at the shop fills the bottle with local chianti for 2 euro. Don’t worry, if you don’t have a bottle, he’ll sell you one for 50 cents!

3. The Pool: the pool was the perfect size for kids and very nice and clean. There was a large area of stairs for the boys to play and splash around in and then plenty of room for the girls to swim. The view around the pool was beautiful. We spent the entire day (and into the night) poolside. As I mentioned the pool is shared amongst guests – which turned out to be really fun because we met new friends from Norway and Australia.

4. Games: there is ping pong, fusbal and even a little “knome” you can ride around on if you put change in.

5. The space: our apartment had 3 bedrooms and they added a crib for Miles. There was a big living area and awesome kitchen layout (fully stocked). I never like cooking on vacation but loved cooking in this kitchen and eating dinner outside.

6. Fenced in space: if you have wild little kids, you will appreciate the fenced in garden area for the house. It was small enough that they could all play out there alone and big enough that they could run around and play while we enjoyed coffee in the morning and wine in the evening. Plus the view from the garden area was gorgeous.

7. The host: Giovanni was excellent Air B&B host. He really went out of his way to make sure we had a great time and had everything we could possibly need for the kids. He’s very knowledgable about the area and also Florence as they have rentals there too.

I am so happy we decided to add Tuscany to our itinerary. It was a really memorable part of the trip so far.

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