gas station negronis
Gas station negronis are a thing. Surprisingly good and ridiculously inexpensive.
Maybe not so surprising though really – isn’t everything you eat and drink it Italy good? How do they do it all so right? Baffling.
What’s also baffling is that a family trip to Italy with 11 big personalities, ages ranging from 4-76, and a mix of families and generations worked out so perfectly. We all stayed together in a huge house for a week in a tiny Tuscan town called San Giovani d’Asso. With us were 4 grandparents (including my parents, my mother-in-law, and my sister-in-law’s mom), our family of 4, and my brother-in-law with his wife and son. We were a CREW. The inevitable difficulties that come when you’re traveling 11 people deep seem so small and insignificant. All I remember now is the gorgeous landscape, mind-blowing food, splashing in the pool with kids, and carefree family time.
The one and only picture of everyone together.
Everyone flew into Rome and 3 cars were rented. It was an almost 3-hour drive to the small town. Looking back, I’d say this was probably the most difficult part of the trip and only because of lack of sleep. The roads, gas stations, and drivers in Italy are fantastic. I’m usually a great sleeper on airplanes but sitting next to two young kids did not allow for much sleep. My MIL and parents caravanned behind us in a second car. Everyone was exhausted and irritable.
We quickly realized that we weren’t going to make the 3-hour drive without stopping for food. We pulled off at a random country roadside restaurant (no idea where we were exactly, the link is to a very similar place). They “only” served paninis and ice cream – both of which happened to be exactly what we all needed. The bread was insanely delicious, I bet baked that day. They had deli meats and cheeses that you could pick and choose from. No one in our family speaks Italian, and no one in the restaurant spoke English. We got by perfectly fine smiling, pointing, and saying “grazie” repeatedly. (NEVER travel to another country without knowing how to say hello and thank you.)
They did not warm the paninis in a press (maybe because it was so hot out?) or put on any condiments or veggies. It was simple: bread, meat and/or cheese. Our kids just had ice cream and with full tummies, fell asleep in the car for the remainder of the journey.
The days in San Giovanni d’Asso were perfectly lazy. We had a very lax itinerary set up by my sister-in-law, which provided one activity or meal per day and left some days completely open. Some of the activities were: truffle hunting, at-home cooking class, winery tour (just 4 of the adults – grandparents stayed at home with the kids), and a daytrip to Siena.
Each morning, as we all woke leisurely on our own schedules we walked to the one café in town for coffee. To get to the café and main part of town, you had to go through this enchanting old door in the castle wall that felt straight out of a fairy-tale.
At the bottom of the hill that San Giovanni d’Asso sits on is a gas station…a far cry from an American gas station. We were able to pick up delicious meals to eat at home for lunch and they had a bar. They made negronis that were just as good as what you’d find at any fancy Chicago cocktail bar. This was just a few minutes’ drive from the rental house, so obviously this meant poolside negronis.
Apparently I’m not alone in the Italian gas station obsession.
We swam in the pool on and off each day – some days the moment the kids woke, haha.
We had dinner either in San Giovani d’Asso (just two restaurants to choose from) or neighboring small towns. It somehow almost always worked out to have 11 people dine together. The Italian hospitality was remarkable. We were greeted with kindness and grace everywhere. If a restaurant couldn’t serve us (because of our group size) they’d get on the phone to call another or give us recommendations.
Dining out was very affordable compared to big cities in Italy. Bread and pasta were always fresh/homemade, there was high quality local ingredients in every dish, and delicious cheap local wine on every menu.
It’s a pretty easy trip, that gives you more than what you pay for. Rome and Florence are both lovely. I live in a big city, so I understand the draw of the hustle and bustle. But there really is something special about the countryside too. If you have an Italy trip on your horizon, this could be a fun mix. Spend a few nights in Rome to see all the sites then drive to a small Tuscan town to slowdown and unwind.
After our stay in San Giovanni d’Asso, my parents went to Rome for a week, my mother-in-law, brother-in-law and his family went home (they’d been in France prior to Italy), and our family flew from Rome to Kefolonia, Greece to meet some friends. We stayed in Greece for two weeks and I can’t wait to write about it. From Rome, you can fly to a lot of very cool European destinations for cheap - so a lot of very fun options to add-on to a Rome/Tuscan trip.
SAN GIOVANNI D’ASSO
Where to eat:
Osteria delle Crete – one of only two restaurants in town. We ate here twice, each time outside. It was excellent. They were able to accommodate our family of 11 both times.
La Locanda del Castello - The other restaurant in town. It was harder for us to get a reservation for 11 and the service wasn’t quite as good. I think they might be more “well-known” in the area, and I think a Michelin star was mentioned. A little more fancy than the other, so a little less conducive for young kids. Its directly across the street from the house we rented.
Good food in neighboring small towns:
La Torre di Monte Oliveto – A great lunch at the Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore. Fun to walk about the Abby after lunch. Wine tasting available at the Abbey too.
Where to stay:
Large Historic Home with huge pool and beautiful grounds
What to do:
Winery – beautiful private tasting room, excellent service, stunning estate – voted #1 in the area on trip advisor
Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore – really fun to explore and let the kids run around
Drive to Siena for the day: have lunch, shop, and explore the picturesque Tuscan town. It’s much larger than San Giovanni and fun to get lost in the little winding streets.
Truffle Hunting – To my surprise, this can be done even in the warmer seasons. We’d visited Tuscany another time in the fall, which I thought was true truffle season and it was hard to book a private guide. During this July trip, my sister-in-law was able to book a private tour with a hunter and his dog. This was booked the first morning after we arrived, and I decided to not set an alarm. I slept in my kids’ bed that first night and we all slept 13 hours straight, which I think was more important for the three of us. Truffle hunting will happen one of these days. But my BIL SIL and their 4 year old went and loved the experience!
Cooking Class – The menu was planned in advance over e-mail. Two women came to our rental home and brought all the food. They knew the house and kitchen well as they had done this same thing for other guests. The main chef did not speak English so the other woman translated as needed. We made pasta with her from scratch, which was the highlight for me. It also happened to be my mom’s birthday that day and she loves tiramisu. We prepared that as well with the help of the Italian women. They decorated the cake with roses from the garden, which happen to be my mom’s favorite flower. I brought candles from home so we all sang and celebrated my mom – it was really special.
SIENA
We took a daytrip to Siena when we stayed in San Giovanni d’Asso. It was about an hour drive and well worth the time in the car. We also stayed in Siena many years ago on a different Italy trip, in which we did Rome and Tuscany. During that trip we were only going to stay two nights in Siena and move to another smallish Tuscan town, but it was so amazing we extended our Siena stay. It’s remarkable and the hype is well deserved.
Where to eat:
Get pizza or Gelato at one of the many options on Piazza Del Campo
Where to stay:
Castello Delle Quattro Torra – one of the coolest places I’ve ever stayed at in my life. I cried when I saw that our room was up in one of the towers with 360 views of the countryside. It was the definition of breathtaking. No elevator, they used a pulley system in the main courtyard to get bags upstairs. Homecooked breakfast in the charming castle dining room.
What to do:
Wine Tour – Monika is incredible, kind, easy to talk to, and very knowledgeable. She picked us up at the castle (linked above) and dropped us off that evening. We made multiple stops at cool wineries. She also took us to an incredible lunch, and even though it was 10 years ago I still remember she helped me order ribollita, Italian bread soup, that I’ve been trying to replicate ever since.
Cooking class – we set this up through the people who ran the castle. It was just a few homes over, at a local Italian woman’s home. Her friend was there to translate everything for her. It was private, just my myself and my husband. Much of the food we cooked came from the woman’s home garden. The experience and the food were extraordinary. I still make one of the crostini she taught me.
Truffle Hunting – Monika the wine tour guide knew a guy (and his dog) but he was booked our entire stay. We researched a little more, but decided we would do it another time.
LUCCA
Where to stay:
Villa La Principessa – Felt a bit Wes Anderson-ish, in a good way. Has a nice big pool. We stayed here at the end of August one summer, so the pool was important. Our trip to Siena, mentioned, above was a separate trip in the fall, so a pool in Siena was not necessary for us.
What to do:
Explore the charming town of Lucca
Visit the Coast (about 30 minutes by car) and Florence (about 1 hour by car) – Lucca is a great Tuscan small-town choice if you want to visit the city of Florence as well as get some beach time in. On this particular trip, we picked up a car in Germany and stopped in Lucca on our way to the Amalfi Coast (which deserves a separate post). It worked well for this purpose, but also would be a great add-on to a Florence visit.
