On the way back home from Pisa, we decided to stop at the nearby hilltop town of San Miniato, a beautiful place recommended by our friend Gabriele (he’s from Sicily in Italy) when we went around Italy last year.
Last time we visited, we spent a very short amount of time here but this time, we had all evening and so could slowly amble through the town in a pizza-fuelled summer haze.
When you arrive in San Miniato, be sure to start right at the top where the Rocaa (the castle) is and make your way slowly down through the town.
The view of Tuscany from up here are pretty great and if you arrive at sunset, you get double the pleasure – a Tuscan sunset and those rolling Tuscan hills!
San Miniato is best explored on foot as it’s fairly small and particularly easy to see the sights when you drop off the car. You also have the perfect excuse to stop over for gelato at any time you want here.
San Miniato is also one of those places in Tuscan that never seems to be over-run by tourists, not that having a lot of tourists is a bad thing to be fair (places with lots of tourists tend to have lots of people visiting for a reason…) but over here, things are a bit more laidback and feel a lot more like you stepped into an Italian dream.
I managed to somehow lose Lloyd for most of my time here (not even sure how) but in a place like this, it truly does matter as it’s the perfect size for ‘getting lost’ and you’ll be so distracted, it won’t even make a difference! (Unless he’s got the gelato money, of course!)
Eventually, it was time to say goodbye to San Miniato (for now – I’d like to see it in the morning/afternoon and see if looks or feels any different from the calm evenings) and we headed back to our Tuscan farmhouse to relax, refresh and decide where to head to in Montaione over glasses of prosecco…
Needless to say, today just reminded me that Italy, like a lot of other places in the world, is best seen slowly and sometimes, sans plans.
Read more: Best cities in Italy to visit
Check Out The Very Best Of Great Britain!
