Time for planning our Tuscany holiday

Although the financial world is doom and gloom just now life still goes on and its time to start thinking about next years holidays. Italy is our favourite destination, not least because it lets us both practice out Italian. My partner speaks like a native and mine is now good enough to have a good conversation. Speaking Italian is of course not a requirement for an Italian Holiday. You can get along in most of Italy and particularly in Tuscany without it but it does make the whole experience more interesting.

We tend to holiday in Italy either in the Lucca area of Tuscany or further south in Italy in the Rome area. Of the two my own holiday preference is very much for the Tuscany area. Tuscany has a lovely warm climate and wonderful scenery but I find Rome and southwards sometimes is a bit too much for me heatwise.

For anyone who hasn't been to Lucca in Tuscany I would strongly recommend it. Its within easy reach of Florence and Pisa and Lucca itself is an old Roman town and the old part of the Town still sits within virtually complete Roman walls that run right around it.

Personally my preference is to stay outside Lucca in one of the nearby villages but one of these years I think we might try actually staying in Lucca itself rather than just visiting it. Who knows maybe next year.

So the holiday rental hunt for a Tuscan Holiday has now started for us. We have been checking out holiday-rentals.co.uk who we have used before. Having a villa with a pool is a real must for us. I have stayed in Hotel type accommodation before over there but I much prefer renting an actual holiday villa. If it has a pool then there is not much can beat sipping the local red wine with a plate of local figs by the side of the pool and watching the world go by surrounded by the wonderful hills of the Tuscan countryside. Its no wonder so many people fall in love with Tuscany when they visit.

For reference, here is a link to the search page for Tuscan Holiday Villas with a pool . I am particularly taken with this one in the Lucignano area at the moment. (Two bed Villa in Lucignano, Tiscany with pool ) but there will be others that will catch my eye no doubt. As I said I would also be happy to get a holiday villa in Pianna di Lucca again. Such a hard choice!

Useful reference links for Tuscany include Tourism resources Tuscany. I always like to see if I can find out something about the history of the town or village that we go to before we go as I think it makes the holiday more interesting.