Gratitude is the heart's memory...

🎶🎶  I love you, baby...
And if it's quite all right,
I need you, baby
To warm these lonely nights
I love you, baby
Trust in me when I say...  🎶🎶

 By now, most all of us have returned back to the good ol' USA and hopefully you're adjusting well to the time zone changes... We're reminded that while it's wonderful to travel, see a bit of the world & experience different cultures, it's really nice to come back home, see our loved ones, our kittens & puppy dogs, and sleep in our own beds!

Terese & I feel so very lucky to get to do what we do... and with our Tour Groups being so small, we tend to make friends and we love to keep in touch with our guests... A few of you in this group, we've known you for years... so these friendships run a little deeper... And for those of you who we've more recently met, we truly hope this trip is just the beginning of a long friendship, and we hope you'll keep in touch with us and with each other! We've all shared something pretty special, and we like to think of you as part of our Adventures to Tuscany Family... We try to keep in touch with all our guests by sending out a short newsletter a couple times a year with updates on what we're doing and news on recent & upcoming Tours... 

We always say that, to share your vacation pictures with your friends is nice... but to actually share your vacation with your friends is something that creates memories that will last forever! A virtual bond that survives thru time knowing that the group of you have taken off traveling around the globe together, experiencing some of the most awesome adventures and beautiful sights the world has to offer...

Angela's home-made Arrancini...

These magical moments are not necessarily measured by the experience itself, but often by our reaction to it! And when as a group, we can share those experiences and our reactions to them together, the memories increase a hundredfold! These most recent adventures to Tuscany, were by all accounts, magical experiences... We had a truly magnificent Villa, some really great foods and wines, an outstanding group of people, and truly, a ton of fun!

And when we savor these memories and joys over the years, it's important to realize what these experiences mean to us, and the real joy and total impact they have on our lives... Whether tasting a new food, a different wine, a foreign language,  or something as simple as dancing with someone from another culture... experiential travel expands our horizons and expands our lives to make us more dynamic individuals... We truly believe it changes your life forever...

At Adventures to Tuscany, we market our Tours as truly unique, authentic & immersive, escorted & guided, experiential adventure expeditions to Tuscany! This is a lot of adjectives, and can be a hefty promise, so we truly hope the Tour was everything we promised you  and everything you were expecting...  From our exclusive personalized BLOG... to our very unique & authentic 400 year old Tuscan Villa... to immersive experiences within our group of local Tuscan friends that we've developed over the last 24 years...  We always say: what makes us different makes all the difference in the world!  We work hard to live up to the promises, and we truly hope you recognized & felt these differences!

As we love to say: 
The wine from our back yard!

A big Thank You goes out to everyone on our Adventures To Tuscany Team; many of whom you met including Angela, Giuseppe, Stella, Davide, Francesca, Irena, Lisa, Elenora, Antonio, Veronique, Isabella, Lorenzo, CarloAlberto and Roberto... and also to the many folks behind the scenes without whom our programs and immersive experiences would not be possible! From our wine consultants & travel insurance affiliates to our car rental affiliates, Tour Operator insurance providers, and our legal counsel at The National Tour Association, none of what we do would be possible without the incredible of help we receive from all these folks!

We of course, we just want to take this moment to say Grazie Mille to all of you, our guests, for having the sense of adventure to sign up for this truly alternative experience! We know you have choices when it comes to travel; Thank You for choosing us, and we we hope you'll consider traveling with us again in the future!  Our Guest return rate is 58% and we love to reward our returning Alumni with a whole host of perks & discounts;

Alumni Loyalty Program; we offer you a $75 per person ($150 per couple) discount for every prior trip you've taken with us. 

Referral Discount Program; once you've traveled with us, we offer you a courtesy referral bonus for anyone (new) that you refer to us. ($100 discount per double room booked)

Real Reviews from Real People: write a short review/testimonial for our website within the next 30 days and get another $75 discount off your next trip with us! - (one review per room).  Just email it to us and we'll copy & paste it to our website... (see examples at: https://adventurestotuscany.com/reviews/ ) 

Early Sign Up Program - sign up for your next Tour within 60 days of the end date of your last Tour and receive another $50 per person / $100 per couple discount.

Thank You from "the bottom of our heart" 😂

Discounts are cumulative & limited to a maximum of $500 per person / $1000 per couple (per trip)*** 

And with that being said, We have very limited availability in 2025 & 2026. We have five Tuscany & Provence Tour dates scheduled in 2025 and they're all filled, except for only 2 rooms available on our June 28 - July 5, 2025 Beautiful Villages of Provence Expedition. 

And we have just one room available on our September 5th - 12th, 2026 Tuscany Tour.

We're waiting right now for confirmation on our Villa Lease for our Late June / Early July 2026 Beautiful Villages of Provence Tours, so we're taking names on a "no obligation" waiting list if you're interested... Just email us or call us to get put on the list!  Once we get the lease confirmed, we call people on the list based in the order they signed up to see if they're still interested.  Info on Tour dates are always available on our website at www.AdventuresToTuscany.com

Thanks for the memories!
We are so grateful!

We really appreciate the trust you placed in us by signing up to come with us on one of our Adventures To Tuscany... We hope you could tell how much we love Tuscany, and how passionate we are about it... And like anyone who loves something dearly, we hope that the people we show it to, fall in love with it as well... We hope the trip lived up to all the promises we made you... and again, Thank You from the bottom of our hearts... You make it possible for us to live a life we are so very grateful for...  and we never-ever take it for granted.  Remember; "The way you choose to see the world, creates the world you see"

All our Love, Tommy & Terese, and the whole team at Adventures to Tuscany... It's where the Magic is!

***(Adventures to Tuscany reserves the right to change our prices and the terms of our discount programs at any time... but those prices & discounts are always locked-in once you sign-up for a Tour).

You're gonna love the Autostrade!

 One last post: Someone has reached out and asked us about The Autostrade...  If you you're coming to the Villa from Rome in the south, or from Milan in the north, you're likely going to be on one of Italy's Autostradas...  The Autostrada is a system of toll roads very similar to the many of the "pay for use" Toll roads or Turnpikes here in the US.  

You may have heard rumors that there's no speed limits on these large European highways...  That was kind of true decades ago, but this is no longer the case... The speed limit on the Autostrada is 130 km/hr (81mph) in most places, but there are sections that are 110 km/hr, so you should always look for speed limit signs.  Speed limits also may be lower in curvy sections or areas with road construction. So much like here in the states, where speed limits on our highways are usually around 70mph and everyone's driving 75 to 80... on the Autostrada the speed limit is 130kmh and most people are driving 140 - 145kmh (87 -90 mph).  If you're travel any great distance on The Autostrade, you'll undoubtedly come across a Ferrari, Lamborghini, or the like coming up behind you in the left lane  at very high speed blinking his lights... ( his blinking headlights basically asking you to get out of. the passing lane) be careful, if you're going to change lanes, be sure you put on your turn signal and give them enough time to understand your intention to change lanes and let them pass... These guys are sometimes driving at 140 mph or more , and if you're in the left lane, they'll sometimes try to pass you in the right lane... (your turn signal is your best defense)       

They do monitor speeds on the Autostrada...  The autovelox is a machine on the side of the road (usually grey, and usually on the right) that measures your speed as you pass (at that instant) and takes a photo of your back license plate if you’re speeding. You’ll see a sign warning you of an autovelox speed camera before you get to it.  You’ll also see brake lights as the cars in front of you slow down to avoid getting a multa (fine).   The warning sign will mention Controllo Elettronico della Velocità.  When you see that sign, be on the lookout for the machine.  The law requires as least 1 km notice for these.

The police can also use handheld speed guns BUT they are not required to give 1 km notice.  So, there could be a warning sign and 20 meters later the police measuring your speed.

You may have heard about or seen the signs for the Safety Tutor (aka Sistema Tutor or just Tutor).  The Safety Tutor measures your speed between two points on a section of Autostrada, so you can’t avoid a fine just by slamming on your brakes when you see the sign for it.  There are over 1400 kilometers of Safety Tutor in Italy, and the introduction of the Tutor has dramatically reduced traffic accidents and fatalities on the Autostrada.

Here’s how the Tutor works:

• When you’re driving on the Autostrada, you’ll get between 250 meters and 4 kilometers notice that a Tutor is coming up.
• You pass under the Tutor Point A and its camera takes a photo of your license plate and sends it to a database.
• You pass under the Tutor Point B (it could be 10-15 kilometers later), and its camera takes a photo of your license plate.
• Your total time on the section from Point A to Point B is totaled and your average speed calculated.  You receive a 5% leeway on your speed.
• If you are speeding, you’ll receive a fine.  If you’ve rented a car, the car rental agency will receive the fine and pass it along to you (usually with a hefty added administrative fee). 
• note: If it’s raining on the Autostrada, the speed limit is reduced by 20 km/hr (for example, from 130 km/hr to 110 km/hr), and the Tutor automatically adjusts to the lower speed.

When you enter the AutoStrada, make sure you go thru a lane with a "biglietto" (ticket) sign above the entrance.. . the ticket should pop out automatically... If the ticket isn’t sticking out of the machine when you drive up, push the red button, and take the ticket that comes out.  The barrier will rise once you’ve taken the ticket and you can drive through. 

Just like on most limited access turnpikes, choose your on-ramp / direction of travel.  This happens quickly!  The directions are the next major cities in either direction on that Autostrada (for example Bologna and Roma if you’re entering in Florence), and you need to know which one you want to head towards (Google Maps and GPS will tell you).  Merge onto your chosen on-ramp...

Exiting the AutoStrada:

Uscita  means Exit

When you exit the AutoStrade, you'll need to pick a lane dependent on how you intend to pay... Do not go thru the "Telepass" Lane. That is like our EZ Pass (and if you brought your EZ Pass, it will not work)... pick a lane showing a drawing of paper bills & coins for cash payment or "Carte" to pay with credit cards...  See our video below... This is us going thru Toll Booth and paying with credit card.

As you get ready to leave, we wanted to give you guys some idea of what it's like to go thru the toll booths on the Autostradas here in Italy so we recorded a video of us going thru...  Looking forward to seeing you guys soon!  As always, if you have any problems, give us a call: 610-657-7894 (dial it just like you would at home)

We're Off!

 Well guys,  this is it... It's Sunday September 1st, we've started our "Tme Shifter" app today and we're leaving for the airport Tuesday morning, heading over to Italy to prepare for your Tours!  This is likely our last post here on the Blog...  If you've been following along over the last 9 ½ months, you know we've posted over 111 articles to help prepare you for the Expedition!  And if you've read them (trust us we know everyone doesn't), you're now much better prepared for Italy than 99.9% of all Americans that ever go there! 

we look forward to seeing you very soon!

We've really loved sharing all of our decades of experience & research about Italy, Tuscany, Chianti,  Castello D'Albola, Dievole, The Villa, the geography, our Tour Guides, travel tips, currency exchange, travel insurance, electric converters & adaptors, using credit cards,  cell phones, international calling plans, translators, phrasebooks, language lessons, hotel recommendations and reservations, luggage, ATM's,  debit cards, overcoming language barriers, Italian Culture and Etiquette, local weather, packing tips, Foods & Wines, differences in restaurant etiquette, dealing with jet lag, guidebooks, driving in Italy, Italian road signs, espresso bar culture, itinerary ideas, Tipping Etiquette, flights, car rentals, trains, winery visits, maps, gps units, our two-way radios, daily touring activities, Siena, San Gimignano, Greve, Radda-in-Chianti, Panzano, Castellina, and on and on, and on... and as many of you have told us you would be extending your trips, we also posted articles on Rome, Florence, Lake Como, Milan and so on.

We hope you've enjoyed reading The Blog as much as we enjoy writing it! And we hope you can tell by now, that Italy is a passion of ours... We consider it our second home...  and we truly enjoy showing our guests one our most favorite areas of the world!

While we probably won't be posting much more to this Blog, we invite you to skim back over the posts to refresh yourself on some of the topics... and of course if there's something specific you're looking for, try putting a few key words in the search box in the very top left corner..

A couple of things we want to remind you of for your arrival & check-in on Saturday:

• please remember you can not come to the Villa before 4pm on Saturday, and the password to get them to open the security gate is "gatto puzz olente" (gat-toe pu-zel-len-tay)
• please arrive with a full tank of gas on Saturday. The Tour starts early Sunday morning; we have a time schedule for tours, tastings & luncheons... And it's very difficult for us to stop the expedition because someone didn't fuel their car. (please don't be this person)
• If you told us you want to take Angela's cooking class, we need to collect the 30 euros/person from you on check-in, so please plan on having Euros with you when you arrive; Angela doesn't have a way to accept credit cards
• Also, if you're joining us for lunch in Panzano on Monday, you'll want to have euros to pay for your lunch; separate checks is very rare in Italy and this place, does not provide them. (prices here are very moderate, and we pay for everyone's coperto & lots of pellergrino for the table).

If you need help with anything, reach out to us by email, text, phone, or on your new "WhatsApp" group Chat... While we pride ourselves on trying to answer inquires as immediately as possible, we will be very busy over the next 7 days as we leave for Italy and prepare for the Tours,  so it may take longer than normal for us to respond... 

So Buon Viaggio my friends!  Travel Safe... We look forward to sharing great times with you in Tuscany! 

a Presto,

Tommy & Terese            

Adventures to Tuscany ~ the real Italian Villa experience!