We sandwiched a 10-day Italian road trip in the tiny window between one daughter finishing 11th grade midway through June and the other daughter going back to university at the beginning of July. We chose Tuscany because it’s, well, Tuscany, and we wanted to cross paths for a day with some American friends on their own family adventure. With that we rented a car in Rome and headed north.
Our first destination was Campo dei Fiori, a campground about a kilometer from a Mediterranean beach near the town of Mazzanta. It was an easy 4-hour drive on mostly toll roads. We selected this campground because they allowed dogs and because we wanted to experience camping at a classic Italian beach resort (e.g., not wilderness). It has a mix of shady tent “pitches,” electrical hookups for RVs, small family bungalows for rent, and semi-permanent structures for folks living at the beach all summer. It has all the modern conveniences (mostly new) including a restaurant, grocery store, beach store, swimming pool, tennis court, showers, and goats. Yes, goats! Our pitch was shady and had more space than I was expecting, and was only a short walk to the pool. We had a free welcome cocktail at the bar and a typical pizza/pasta dinner in the restaurant. At the beach the next day, we avoided the cost of renting umbrellas at the local beachclub and enjoyed the warm shallow water from the free area. Limiting our sun exposure, we ended up back in the pool in the afternoon, only to return to the beach for a beautiful sunset dinner. We were all awakened early the next morning by a cute little voice singing “Baby Shark” with a nice Italian accent from the tent next door.
On the car ride to Siena we made two stops. The first was at a fantastic agriturismo restaurant in the middle of nowhere, where we ordered lunch solely from the recommendations of the server. And the second was San Gimignano, a beautiful hilltop town overrun by tourists. Apparently, a summer Saturday is not the time for a visit. The rural drive on windy roads and up and down hills, however, was spectacular. In Sienna our AirBnB was a 10-minute walk from Piazza del Campo, yet provided a parking space and a small yard for our dog! The next day we walked around town, including climbing to an overlook above the Duomo. In the evening we drove out to Monteriggioni, a quaint walled village about 20 km away. If the town had been plagued by tourists earlier in the day they had mostly left, and we were able to have a fantastic dinner at one of the outdoor cafes in the square, surrounded by medieval walls.
Did I mention that this trip coincided with a heat wave where daytime highs were in the upper 30s? For a little relief, the following day we found the Sentierelsa Trail in Colle di Val d’Elsa for a short hike up the river and quick dip under a waterfall. It was amazingly refreshing and hard to leave, but we still had a long way to go to get to Lucca. On the way we stopped to see a cool (and I mean that both ways) cave above Montecatini Terme called Grotta Maona, and ride the funicular up to see the view from Montecatini Alto.
In Lucca we also had an AirBnB, centrally located just off of Piazza Anfiteatro, which afforded us easy walking access anywhere within the walls. I had to park the car on a street a couple of blocks outside, but it was free. Each morning I got up early to run along the wall before it got too hot, and it was fun to see the city awaken and get fresh-made cornetti from the baker before the other visitors got going. I’m not sure if it was us or the city, but Lucca has a great vibe. Sure there are lots of tourists, but Lucca seems to handle them better than other places and has not lost its character. We walked all over inside the walls during the day, going to churches and palaces and climbing the tower that has trees growing from the top. Of course, we also sampled numerous gelati and graniti.
After two nights in Lucca, we headed northwest for a couple of hours to meet friends for lunch in the small village of Pontremoli, along the banks of the Magra River. Can I say now that it might be impossible to find a bad Italian meal in Tuscany? Here I discovered testaroli, a flat baked pasta usually served with pesto. Fantastic! Then we all retreated to the pool at our hotel in nearby Mulazzo to continue catching up while attempting to stay cool.
The final destination on our Tuscan tour was the Campeggio Le Sorgenti in Palazzuolo Sul Senio, in the Apennine Mountains between Bologna and Florence. Initially leaving Tuscany by driving north from Mulazzo into the region of Emilia-Romagna, we headed east into the industrialized plains before turning south into the mountains and back into Tuscany. The winding mountain roads were fun to drive and provided awesome landscape views, but there were so many cyclist taking on the hill-climb that I had to stay very cautious and assume that there was an obstacle around every corner.
The campground is below the road in a steep valley, along a cold mountain stream. In fact, we pitched our tent just above the creek near a trail providing a short walk to waterfall with a plunge pool perfect for swimming. Like the camping at the beach, this campground provided a variety of options, from small RV sites to rental cabins to longer-term “lodging.” There was a small store that sold cold drinks and received fresh baked goods every morning. And the folks running the place were particularly friendly and helpful, even directing us to another waterfall for swimming on the other side of the village. In the evenings, as we sat listening to the trickling stream in the fading light. As the sky darkened, we were treated to the most amazing display of lightning bugs that I have ever seen. Thousands and thousands of soundless flashes providing fireworks along the stream and up the opposite hillside. Unfortunately, it was impossible to capture with the camera on my phone. The beauty of the moment made it hard to retreat to the tent to sleep.
The unexpected beauty of waterfalls and lightning bugs was a perfect ending to our first Tuscan car excursion. All that was left was a 5-hour drive back home on increasingly busy roads that all lead to Rome. We’d learned a lot; we CAN have fun camping in Italy, over-tourism can damage the experience of some places, Lucca is fun, and the agriturismi options require more exploration. And, best of all, summer has only just begun!
