Tuscan Coast Getaway

We’ve spent six months a year in Umbria for the past four years now, and the first couple of years we worked hard and rarely traveled outside of Umbria as there always seemed to be something that needed to be done. Between keeping up the landscaping on our fairly large property, taking care of our farmhouse guests, and the usual daily chores, we always felt guilty taking a break. I’ve since learned however that although we love living here in Umbria, we need to get away once in a while and enjoy this amazing country we live in. Otherwise known as “stopping to smell the roses”! This year we managed to visit Venice twice, fit in a short trip to Gaeta, and just returned from a quick getaway to the Tuscan Maremma area especially the coast.

Living in central Italy, there are many places that are just a few hours drive from our place which makes it easy to sneak away for two or three days when we have a break between guests. We decided to head over to Porto Santo Stefano along the Tuscan coast recently as it is an area of Tuscany we really haven’t explored much and we do love our seafood! Days before we headed out, we realized that the rain we had been praying for throughout the summer was scheduled to arrive during our trip and although we briefly hesitated and reconsidered going away at all, we decided in the end that a break would be good for us both and that rain or no rain, we would enjoy our trip. We did indeed have some rather impressive rain showers during our trip, but we ate some wonderful seafood meals and thoroughly enjoyed exploring an area of Italy that was relatively new to us.


Pitigliano


Pitigliano – A Tuscan Tufa Town


Porto Ercole


Orbetello


Orbetello


Porto Santo Stefano


Porto Santo Stefano


Porto Santo Stefano


Porto Santo Stefano


Porto Santo Stefano


Porto Santo Stefano


Porto Santo Stefano


View From Our Hotel Room In Porto Santo Stefano

Deborah Mele
September 2012