Dress – H&M

Wedges – Castaner

Earrings – H&M

Well now that the 9 month (yes 9 month) bathroom renovation is officially finished, (if you missed it, you can see the reveal here), I’ve finally gotten round to sharing my Summer trip to Tuscany with you! Hooray! So yeah, my apologies it’s taken so long but it’s better late than never right?!

We spent a week in Italy back in July and it was everything I hoped it would be, I have visited Italy a few times when I was younger with my parents but sadly I didn’t appreciate it nearly as much as I should have back then, but you don’t when you’re young do you? So I headed back, and this time, I took it all in properly.

We hired a car from the airport (a Fiat 500 in true Italian style obviously) and split out trip into three parts over the week span so that we could see as much of Tuscany as we could, whilst I could lie by a pool all week and be loving life, my other half struggles to sit still for five minutes – I fear that every holiday going forward will be a jam packed holiday whilst I dream of lying by the pool sipping unlimited cocktails and only having to move to eat and sleep… But I’ll let him off this time, because as far as jam packed holidays go, this was a pretty good one (the main reason being Italian food is the best food in the world, give me all the pasta and pizza please).

The first couple of days we headed right into the the heart of Tuscany and stayed in the most beautiful, typically Tuscan villa – Villa Barberino, surrounded by hills and vineyards. The villa itself was rustic and exactly how I had pictured it, (despite the mosquitos attempting to ruin my holiday), we were able to have one day next to the pool, the next day we drove to Siena for the day and had had the most delicious lunch (pizza of course and a particularly tasty beer) overlooking the Piazza Square where the Palio takes place. The third day we spent driving around exploring the Chianti region, which was the most picturesque drive I’ve ever been, driving past vineyard after vineyard was just something else.

Things you should definitely do in Chianti – go wine tasting (and tour if you have time) in a vineyard & visit Siena!

Dress – Topshop

Bag – Zara

Dress – Zara

The second part of our trip took us to the beautiful city of Florence, and along with it, the most beautiful hotel – Hotel Horto Convento. Seriously, I highly recommend this place, it’s kind of fancy, but when you appreciate interiors as much as I do, it’s a sure winner. Plus there was brass everywhere so it was clearly meant to be. From the bar, to the restaurant, to the rooms, everything was impeccably decorated. Horto Convento was a little outside from the city centre but only a 15-20 minute walk (which I’m glad we were doing since I was basically eating for four whilst we were out there)! But of course you can always get a taxi, which we did in the evenings. Florence is stunning – its so beautiful walking alongside the river – oh and the shopping is great there too!

Things you should definitely do whilst in Florence – Visit the Ponte Vecchio, watch the sunset over the whole of the City from Piazzale Michelangelo viewing point, eat at La Giostra, explore the gardens in Giardino Bardini.

Dress – Topshop

The third and final part of our Italy trip was spent in Lucca. We were flying back from Pisa airport a few days afterwards so we wanted to be near enough but had been advised to stay further out as there is not a great deal to do in Pisa, and I’m so glad we listened and stayed in Lucca for a few days instead. It’s only about a 15 minute drive into Pisa itself so it’s ideal if you want to spend a few hours being super touristy and visit the leaning tower and all that jazz (which we did, and of course had our super cheesy photos ‘holding up’ the tower), it really is quite something in person though I must say, but if I can give you any advise, it would be to head there as early as you can, it will still be busy but by lunch time the place is heaving! But back to Lucca. Lucca is such a gorgeous place in a completely different way to the other two places we stayed, it’s a medieval city which is surrounded by tall city walls, you can hire bikes and cycle the whole way round and through the city – it’s a beautiful way to get to see it all and it’s so peaceful so I would definitely recommend that. We stayed in a small B&B here which was all we needed really as we spent most of our time out and about, but I would definitely suggest staying within the city walls so you can enjoy a tipple in the evening at your own leisure!

Things to do whilst in Lucca – Visit the Leaning Tower Of Pisa, Cycle around Lucca’s city walls, eat at Ristorante Al Corso for the best cold meat you’ve had in your life!

Dress – Zara