This year for Thanksgiving we met up with our friends Erin and Andrew for a Tuscan get-away. We learned early on that finding a place to stay in Tuscany for Thanksgiving is almost as hard as finding that needle in the haystack. First of all, the Tuscany region is huge...MUCH larger than I first thought...which made choosing an area difficult. Second, November is most definitely the off-season in Tuscany so many places were closed. Right off the bat we were stumped, but thanks to our other friends, Marisa and Justin, who put us in touch with a wine connoisseur, author and local tour guide, we finally found the perfect spot: Casale San Lorenzo is a darling villa in the Chianti region of Tuscany, just 20 minutes from Siena. When we first pulled in to Casale San Lorenzo it was pitch black so we didn't fully appreciate its beauty until the next morning...
The main house...
Our darling villa...
The beautiful view of the Chianti countryside...
Other scenes from around the Casale...
The family that owns the Casale San Lorenzo made us feel at home from the start. The sweet mother and wife of the family made us delicious, farm fresh eggs with Parmesan every morning in addition to the scrumptious Italian breakfast spread (which included two homemade tarts). The darling father and husband always offered a big smile and wave whenever we were outside as well as embracing Toby into his temporary family and the cute, spunky daughter took on the interpreter role and made sure we had everything we needed. We had somehow stumbled upon a magnificently beautiful area, with equally wonderful people.
Case in point: Remember those farm fresh eggs that were scrambled for us each morning?? Well, they came from their chickens who usually roamed freely around the property...
Well usually there isn't a bird dog in town. Toby tried his best to exercise the chickens anytime they were out and about. Those poor chickens were constantly sprinting and jumping around the yard. Luckily they didn't introduce their HUGE talons to wild Toby's face. You'd think that maybe the owners would have gotten a little annoyed with Toby's antics, but nope! They just laughed and would make a point of telling us when the chickens were in the coop.
On top of that, during our first full day in town, the daughter brought us two bottles of wine explaining that her dad wanted to treat us to his local favorite...
Two bottles of wine...on the house! Sweetest people on Earth.
If you ever find yourself in the Chianti region and would like a cozy, friendly, charming place to stay, please...PLEASE visit the Casale San Lorenzo. You'll love it!
Up next: The Feast
