My Vernaccia is gone. Time to turn in. Ciao!

[Paula]

Paula, Yes. SG is a fabulous charming hill town with lots of delightful cafes and shops. We like to rent a villa there overlooking the town and valley.
Cool idea about a SoWal wine label!

My father's family is from a small town near Barga, north of San Gimignano. It's near the Alpinini mountains and the Garfagnana. We go there every 3-4 years or so to see family and friends and to make sure our children get to know where they come from. Next year several of our family members from the US are going there for an Italian family reunion.

It's a lovely medieval hill town with the classic wall around it. It has a lot of Scottish people there because many people from that area left for Scotland who knows how many years ago and today they come back to visit. It's also known for resort "Il Ciocco", L'Opera Barga which has outdoor opera in the old town in the summer, many summer food and music festivals (a lot of saint holidays throughout the summer), and the Garfagnana for hiking. It is about 1 hour from Pisa, 1.5 hours from lovely Lucca, and 2 hours from Florence.

Know it? If not, it's worth a short trip next time you are there.

 

[seagrovelover]

that sounds so wonderful

 

[Paula]

It is. My two favorites places I'd like to be are Barga in the summer and SoWalton anytime. There are many beautiful places in the world, but these two are familiar beauties to me which is always comforting and relaxing -- and we have friends in both places (and family in Italy). My dream in about 8 years is to spend a month in Barga most/every summer and much more time in SoWal because we have our own place here so it definitely feels like home. And perhaps we'll get to San Gimignano again during a trip. My favorite Italian movies are The Night of the Shooting Stars (about seeing WW2 through the eyes of a little girl who was about the same age as my father when he was growing up during the war and it is filmed in the area that looks like San Gimignano and many similar looking towns) and Cinema Paradiso (best ending to a movie EVER -- EVER). Both are old Italian movies with subtitles.

 

[phdphay]

If you're going to Italy, e-mail me for my diary from one of our trips to Italy to see hotel and restaurant recommendations, as well as other travel suggestions. All of my friends use it for suggestions whenever they take a trip there.

 

[Cil]

From Rome to the tiniest village, Italy is a favorite, cherished place.
Love the antiquity, the food, the people, the land.
I first went there as a twentysomething, but some of my favorite visits were with spouse and kids. We've been around it quite a bit but of course we'll never see all there is to see.
In recent years we've had a kid moving back and forth from France so this has been our destination.
Paula if we ever get back to Tuscany I will try to put Barga on the itinerary; it does indeed look absolutely lovely.
The only thing I have a tough time with is the crazy drivers.

Favorite Italian movies:

The Bicycle Thief

Swept Away (the original version)

Bread and Tulips

Anything by Fellini, but Roma is wonderful, as is Amarcord

movie that is silly but makes you want to go to Italy:

Only You

Scary atmospheric Venice movie:

Don't Look Now