It’s been nearly a week since I returned from our Tuscan break with Bookings For You. And I’ve thought a lot about what to write about when it comes to exploring Tuscany. I think for this post, I’m going to give you an overview of where we stayed, what to expect and how to get about. Then in the next post I’m going to focus on our day trips, the food, art and culture.
So first things first, if you have’t caught up with my socials, here’s the deal. Myself and nine other wonderful women embarked on a 5-day break to to Tuscany. The break was organised by the incredibly talented Violet Glenton. As part of the break we were gifted several experiences, which I’ll go into later; as well as our accommodation, courtesy of the lovely folk at Bookings For You.
**Features gifted accommodation and experiences**
The perfect base for exploring Tuscany
We stayed at the stunning Villa Le Tornaie, based on the outskirts of Monte San Savino. This seven bedroom villa is the perfect base for exploring the beautiful region of Tuscany and beyond. The villa itself is equipped with a gym, Sauna, steam room, hot tub and the all-important pool. The place is quintessentially rural and rustic; everything you would expect from a Tuscan Villa. It’s decorated in a traditional style with a big open plan dining area, incredibly well equipped kitchen and lots of gorgeous nooks and crannies to relax in.
Myself and Em shared a twin room with en-suite shower room. It was basic but had plenty of room for the both of us and all our rubbish! There was a variety of other rooms including doubles, twins and suites with sitting areas. Altogether the villa can accommodate up to 16 guests very comfortably.
If you’re looking for somewhere to celebrate a special occasion with family and friends or simply get away in a large group then Villa Le Tornaie is perfect for both relaxing and exploring.
The villa is part of the Mansalto Group – a collection of Apartments and luxury villas in Tuscany. Nestled amongst the family-owned vineyards where they produce the most incredible wines.
Travelling to Tuscany
Being northern girls, we all flew from Manchester Airport into Pisa, Italy. The flight itself was a little over two hours and cost just under £100 return. Thankfully within our group we had four designated drivers, so we were able to hire two cars and share the driving and the cost. If you are thinking of travelling the region, I would recommend hiring a car; it can be very rural and difficult to navigate otherwise. Although if you’re sticking to the more populated regions and cities, the public transport is quite good I’m told.
Food and Drink Budget in Tuscany
I’m going to talk a LOT more about the food and drink of the region in my next post, BUT, I was pleasantly surprised as to how affordable food and drink was in Tuscany. I think I had it in my head that Italy was for rich people. Only middle class folk went there and enjoyed it, and that us plebs could just forget about it. But even in the most touristy of areas, food was incredibly affordable. More so than a lot of places in the UK to be honest! The supermarkets were incredible too. Em and Violet went out and did the big food shop, and for ten of us it was a little over €150 and we had an obscene amount of food left on our last day to be honest.
Is Italy for me?
I’ve done a fair bit of Europe and had always wanted to visit Italy, but as mentioned above, I genuinely didn’t think it was for me. Not working class Becky from Grimsby, who has always lived in a terrace house and whose parents worked in factories and supermarkets. Don’t get me wrong, I really wanted to but I just thought I wouldn’t be able to afford it. Turns out, I was wrong. I was surprised at the cheap flights, the reasonable car hire prices, and the abundance of affordable and devastatingly yummy food. Our accommodation was of course gifted, but if you did have enough people to make up the numbers this too would be more than affordable and absolutely worth it.
I throughly enjoyed our Italian experience and would love to explore the country more, for me the stand out experience was the food of which I’ll be going into way more detail about in the next post, so please do check back for that one.
Again a huge thank you to the folk at Mansalto and Bookings For You who made our stay so amazing and of course Violet who organised the absolute bejesus out of it!