10 Days in San Quirico d'Orcia, Tuscany

Our research trips in Italy and Ireland and elsewhere help us keep current with the information that we share with our clients – restaurants, shops, sightseeing spots – as well as being a nice excuse to revisit some of our favorite places. We’ve just returned from a 10-day trip – with our cats and all! – to one of the most beautiful and iconic areas of Italy: The Val d’Orcia.

The landscapes are familiar to anyone who has ever seen a coffee-table photo book of Italy: Rolling hills, winding roads, cypress-lined driveways to stunning villas and gorgeous hill-towns. Even in the onset of winter, the scenery is breathtaking – in fact, we prefer the cooler temperatures and the reduced numbers of tourists.

It’s the perfect time for, among other things, visits to thermal spas. Many of our clients want to experience thermal baths or hot springs, so we’ve made a point of visiting many spas of different types. We’ve sourced out what we consider the best ones based on cost, cleanliness, accessibility, vibe, and location, ranging from super-fancy resort spots to wild outdoor parks. (This past week was a good time for us to do a couple of these visits, too – Zen has been battling tendonitis in her shoulder recently, and the doctors prescribed a cortisone shot and a visit to a therapeutic hot springs facility. It was literally what the doctor ordered!)

Also therapeutic are the many fantastic walks that the region offers – from strolling town streets to remote country roads. The Val d’Orcia is full of scenic roads and paths, and we recommend to our travelers our favorites – the best views and the fewest instagrammers.

We’re not big shoppers, but we do love to buy local hand-made goods from local artisans. Whether it’s leather goods, copper pieces, ceramic art, textiles, or consumables like cheese, beer, or liquori, we send our travelers to a few choice artisans, many of whom are based in the Val d’Orcia.

Of course one of the most important aspects of our trip planning is figuring out the best places to eat. Most of our clients ask us to book two meals a day, lunch and dinner, except for a few special circumstances. But almost always they email us on day 3 or 4 or so, and beg us to cancel one of them: “We ate so much at dinner last night, and we’re still full this morning! Can you please cancel our lunch today?” When we’re on our research trips, we’re no different – it’s practically impossible to eat two meals a day in Italy for an entire week or more.

So we generally place ourselves in a lodging with a small kitchen, and part of our day out is shopping for local ingredients to make simple but and we make simple but good plates with special local foodstuffs. Lunch out, and dinner in, all with excellent food – it’s no hardship. For our clients, we even suggest a handful of easy recipes to take advantage of the bounty of foods found in this region. And when dining out, of course, we recommend our favorite places for certain special seasonal and local dishes – in special places.

If you want us to plan a trip for you and you’re interested in any (or all) of these things – special foods, particular landscapes, historical sites, or artisans of various types – you can let us know in our itinerary service questionnaire. Luckily for most travelers, when we put together a trip for you, you don’t have to bring cats with them like we do!