Tuscany the beautiful

Breathtaking landscape and simple village life simply refreshing.

OUR 1,445km road trip began at 6 oclock on a sunny Saturday morning mid-July.

The journey required two days drive, departing from the east of Holland and heading towards Tuscany.

We aimed to cover 900km on the first day, driving on the German and Austrian autobahns (highways) and making pitstops every two to three hours along the way.

We arrived in Sterzing, the Austrian-speaking part of Italy around five in the afternoon, in a town called Vipiteno where we spent the night at a bed-and-breakfast inn frequented by travellers from northern Europe heading for holidays in the south.

The second day on the road was mapped out to be a more relaxing drive, as we were only about 500km from our ultimate destination a villa in Arsicci, a very small Appenine village in Tuscany situated at about 850m above sea level.

We arrived there at around 5 oclock in the afternoon, long before sunset that happens around 10 in the evening in the summer in these parts of the world.

For a family group with four couples and five children in total, we rented a seven-bedroom villa for one week.

The three-level stone farmhouse included a 5,000sq m private wooded park, a swimming pool, childrens playroom, recreation room with a bar, dance floor and a platform for a band.

It was absolutely beyond our expectations.

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Tuscany the beautiful