Keeping a teenager, two toddlers, and the adults entertained in the Tuscan countryside

A view from our tuscan house

Scarperia a San Piero is historically well known for its exquisite knife making. And yes, upon our departure, we did purchase some handmade knives in town and even met a knife maker himself at a shop. But that was about 30 minutes of the 7.5 weeks in Italy and that didn't entertain the kids at all. In fact, it annoyed them that they couldn't get out of the stroller in the knife store and Julie (the 13 year old) had to take them on a walk to keep them joyful. But again, this was all at the very end. Until then, we had a challenge on our plate - keeping the kids busy in our old, rustic, farmhouse. 

Approximately an hour away from Florence (aka Firenze), this little village had a dozen stores and a park. 15 minutes further, and you get a town with three times as many shopping possibilities. But walking distance, you get a couple of hammocks, chickens on a farm, fields of flowers, and fruit trees. So we enjoyed all of the above. 

Carefree sunny days

The babysitter

Our babysitter reading to the kids - as we work in the little house.

Our rental home actually had two "homes:" one large farmhouse and a little studio-like house. We originally chose it because we were going to bring our date-night babysitter but she ended up not being able to travel with us. We were bummed. Devastated. But we were also very determined to make this trip work. We decided to keep this rental property as the main home for our Italy trip since it would allow us to work in the studio - while the babysitter and kids could stay in the big farmhouse. And that worked well, actually.

We found the magical lady via International Babysitters based out of Florence.

Prior to our departure to Italy, I searched endlessly for best babysitter agencies, references for someone personally. I event sent private messages to people on TripAdvisor who have used a babysitter in Italy to ask them (no replies). International Babysitters were quick to reply and easy to work with. After providing them details of my ideal babysitter (Italian mother tongue, hours we needed her and hours we were flexible with, and other details), they recommended the perfect one. And after receiving references and a background check, we hired her without ever meeting her! Crazy, right? It didn't feel so - it felt right. We saw her picture, read her story, and felt that good intuition. Good news, I'll spare you of any concern. We made the right decision! More on the babysitter later - plus she wasn't starting until week 2.

Adjusting to Italy

paper towel rolls are really big in Italy!

So in week 1 - we kept a low key itinerary (remember, we didn't have much planned in advance anyway, we needed time to plan!). We quickly realized the kids were going to be grumpy for a few days as they adjusted with the sleep that they lost on the flight, the timezone chance, and the new daily structure.

And it really did take a full week to get our normal kids personalities back (all 3 of them). This reminded us why it didn't make sense to travel so far for a short period of time. I really don't suggest it. You'll spend the entire time battling something that you can't win - they simply need the adjustment period. And you need less headaches and time to enjoy the wine.

Scarperia Main st (Villa Roma)

After the scorching heat later in the summer, we found many sunflowers were dead.

Eating out in Scarperia

We found our way to a local restaurant (il rustico) on our second night in Italy. We thought it was delicious but, extremely salty. We even started to think that maybe Italian food is just very salty. Days later, we realized that was going to be the worst food we had in Italy. We were thrilled. It was slightly better than the average pizzeria pasta dish, so you can image the delicious-ness scale of the other places.

The best pizza in Italy was actually right in Scarperia: Pizza Paramatta. Crispy, thin - perfect sauce and cheese. And amazing spot for kids. We sat at an outdoor table (which was actually in the street, but barricaded with fence). Ready in 15 minutes with beer. We tried A LOT of pizza and often found ourselves wishing we were here. Occasionally, we'd take the pizza to go (aka take-away in Italy) and enjoy it with byo wine and eat it at a piazza down the street. Piazzas are everywhere in Italy. They're simply squares of paved land surrounded by buildings on 3 sides - creating a free running space. Sometimes there is even a water fountain in the middle. We spent a lot of time in piazzas, but I wish we spent even more time. Something happens when you're there- you're not as worried about cars, you can let go, and breathe a bit. You really feel like your vacation.  It's no wonder that Italian culture encourages daily family trips to the local piazza. It's a community casual gathering.

Plus, down the street from this piazza was an incredibly delicious gelateria (artiginale - which means homemade).

And finally we have them all.

Keep in mind, pizzerias and even restaurants in Italy that serve pizza only serve it during specific times (e.g. after 6pm) since they allow their dough to get ready (pay a price for homemade!). Always call ahead regardless of what you see on their facebook or website. This is especially true for summer months - as many businesses literally close for weeks while they go on vacation (aka holiday). Similar to the US, restaurants often close between lunch and dinner. Well, in Italy, that time difference is bit larger. Between 2:30pm-7:30pm, in many cities and villages it's practically impossible to find a place to eat in that timeframe. What does a family do? Get used to it. Each lunch at 1pm. Eat a snack at 4:30/5pm. And then have dinner at 7:30pm. It's not that bad. In fact, I'm having trouble getting un-used to it now that we are back in the US.

Exploring supermarkets, markets, and places like "the butcher" 

Burrata from the SUPERMARKET! I can still taste it in my memory!

During that week, we found a supermarket (Coop). Compared to other local supermarkets, such as Conad, you'll find more local items and larger selection of organic choices. It also had an incredible inventory of wine at amazing prices. Plus, you don't feel guilty shopping at Coop because you know that all of their items are local to the region (in our case it was Firenze) and then Italy if regional isn't possible. I love this concept and it eased my mind about not visiting the smaller, local shops during the supermarket days. When you have three kids, you have to find shortcuts to groceries. Not always. 

We went to weekly market in Scarperia on that Friday and then the Tuesday market in the following week. We ate a ton of fresh fruit and less vegetables and loved spending time walking through and taking in the sites of the local market. And of course, we patroned some local stores, including a butcher (by the way, the meat cuts don't translate since Italy has a whole different way of identifying cuts!), a baker (closes early for the day), and a pharmacy for ibuprofen (super expensive in Italy) for headaches (I had bad jet lag syndrome). 

How the adults kept busy.

The simple life

The local park was an amazing way to be around other children and that was a favorite among our toddlers. While it was in a sunny spot, I embraced it since we made our way to the nearby gelato shop almost always when there. 

Swinging in the hammock

As for things within walking distance (all of the above is driving), the home had some hammocks that we identified as swings when talking about them to the kids  - they were placed in areas of the most perfect views. We enjoyed walks around - especially to collect some pears and figs off the trees. Filled up a kiddie pool with water and put the kids bathing suits on. And my husband had the best times just cooking inside or on the charcoal grill outside - while drinking wine, of course.

Keeping cool!

Dinner under the pergola.

The incredibly clean swimming pool in Borgo San Lorenzo

My husband hates the heat. I really hate it. And never thought I'd meet someone who hates it more. Well there he was, talking about how amazing it would feel to take a dip in a swimming pool. Apparently the hosing down wasn't enough.

So when the weather got even more excruciating (record breaking heat - and drought), we discovered a town swimming pool that had a kiddie pool and a large regular size pool with a huge slide in (big win for the 13 year old). I hoped she could make friends there as there were plenty of teens there during the daytime, but she couldn't get herself to talk to anyone because she was afraid they wouldn't speak English (I get it). 

Never leave home without the essentials

We brought along books, blocks, and other toys and of course and we purchased other toys (e.g. bubbles and Italian speaking dolls, balls) while there. And yes, we most certainly downloaded movies for the kids and made sure the teenager had internet access to her friends (to facetime, text, and instagram). We did a ton of pretend play (circle time) and often stayed up late.

Even the anti-screen parents need screens.

Daily timeline

Naptime. EXHAUSTED!

With dinner at 7:30/8:00pm, we wanted to adjust to that since restaurants really don't serve dinner until then (no, really, it's true).  So we knew that bedtime for kids had to be at 9pm (versus 7:30pm in NY) or later, during this trip - hence our bedtime goals on the first day. This meant naps were to be between 2pm-5pm. Since the kids were extremely tired during the first few days, this was fairly easy for them (especially with their sound machine and classical music, haha). And we LOVE naptime! Wouldn't you?! Julie loved it as well.

Keeping the naptime and bedtimes in check 99% of the time allowed us to have the trip we did. I don't want grumpy kids - so we did our best to schedule things around this nap time as best we could. Sometimes, they slept in the car, other times at the home (or the apartment we were renting for getaways). Occasionally, nap time happened later - around 3 or 4pm, but almost never did we opt to skip it. Traveling to a new country is exhausting. Even if the kids are doing nothing but hanging around the property, the new sights and structure can overwhelm children, so naps were a priority. Bedtime, on the other hand, was a little more flexible and occurred anywhere between 9:15-10:30pm. We did try to stick with a similar bedtime routine (bath, book, music, goodnight kisses). It worked.

We also did many daytime getaways to nearby Florence, Bologna, as well as overnights to other places - more on this in future posts :-)

So in other words, most of our activities weren't just for the kids or even, just for us. We mostly (the adults) did things WE wanted to do, but found a way for the kids to enjoy them as well. This is very much like our life in the US - so it worked out well. 

Every drive was a tour in itself.