We spent 11 nights at the magical Agriturismo San Giacomo, a farm stay between Florence and Pisa, right outside the town of Volterra. Our first full day there was a Friday, and, after school, we just relaxed and enjoyed the sunshine, beautiful views and space to run, play and spread out. They had a few adorable and friendly dogs, cats and lots of goats to keep us company. During the high season, all of their vacation apartments are full, but we were the only ones staying there. It was so peaceful!

The first weekend, Steffen and the girls went to Pisa for the day while I stayed in bed. Our first visit to Italy as a family was for spring break 2017, and we spent about a week camping northwest of Florence. We had a rough day as a family visiting one of the Cinque Terre towns (lots of bickering among the girls), so the next day they stayed at the campground with Steffen while Luisa and I explored Pisa. Of course, she doesn’t remember that visit (she was about 18 months old) but we have some fun photos. So they decided to recreate some. My, how time has passed!

They also had some fun creating new photos, that now need to be recreated in 10 years. LOL

Then, after 5 days of staring out this window (with a beautiful view, I must say), I felt ready to get out of the house. The girls and I went into Volterra to walk around and grab an ice cream. It is a beautiful walled town on a hill with a Roman Theater complex that includes the ruins of 3rd-century baths. Of course. Because it’s Italy and there are amazing ruins around every corner.

The next day we just soaked up the sun at the farm and caught a sunset. Hannah also woke up very early one morning and caught a beautiful sunrise. It’s hard to describe how gorgeous and calming the place we were staying at was. Really lovely! We did go into town for dinner.

On Saturday before we left, we spent the day exploring Siena and all loved it. It turns out it was a national holiday that day (Liberation Day), and as we exited the parking lot, we came across this beautiful scene of huge tables set up right in the middle of the street. Love it!

From there we walked to the main square, Piazza del Campo, where we walked around and had some lunch. We were hoping to go into the Palazzo Pubblico but all the tickets were already sold out. Italy is definitely more crowded than other places we have visited and requires some planning ahead, which isn’t really how we travel (as far as pre-booking activities). The good thing about Siena is there is plenty of beautiful things to see just wandering the streets.

Then we arrived at the Cathedral, where we were able to get tickets. As we walked into the complex, we saw some people walking up above us on the thin platforms above the arches which I really wanted to do. So we bought a pass where we could go in the Cathedral, the library within the Cathedral, the museum with the Facciatone viewpoint and a few other places. At some point, the girls started to lose interest, but Steffen, Olivia and I did use every piece of that pass! The Cathedral was stunning and every inch of it covered in some sort of art.

The library inside the Cathedral was also stunning.

Then it was time for the museum with the lookout point. Amazing!

Then we made one more stop before leaving town, the Baptistry of San Giovanni Battista.

On our drive to Siena, we spotted a castle with a rooftop restaurant, and I thought it would make a nice spot for dinner with a view of the sunset. But when we got there, they told us the roof is only for lunch, so we found another spot for some dinner before calling it a day.