Romantic Lunch Suggestion for an Anniversary.......Cruise Passengers.

[Beth_Wild]

Hello everyone. I just found this wonderful forum today and I hope you can help me with our plans. My husband and I will be in Tuscany for only one day on a cruise. We will be renting a car from the port in Livorno and were thinking to drive to San Gimignano for a small stop and onto either a farm or winery for a lunch and wine tasting. We would then like to just walk around and relax before we head back to the ship. If time allows, maybe stop in Volterra for a quick peek. Our cruise is in port from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

We will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary so we would like our day to be special. I have found a few places for lunch on the web, but I am open to suggestions. . Ideally, we would like to have lunch outside on a terrace with a view. I've also been seeing these beautiful photos of tables set up in a vineyard. Wow! I would like to make reservations ahead of time so I can map it all out.

I'm looking forward to going and I know that we will want to go back for a longer stay another time.

Thank you!

(We will be on HAL Nieuw Amsterdam sailing July 23)

View of San Gimginano on a farm.

http://fattoriapoggioalloro.com


This one has rave reviews but a couple of people say it is a bit touristy? It looks beautiful.

http://www.verrazzano.com/en/the-castle/#nogo


Another option:
http://www.vignamaggio.it



This one looks like it is just a winery where we could do a wine tasting on the terrace or in the vineyard?

http://www.aziendamontefioralle.com

Again, thank you for reading and I look forward to your replies.
Beth

 

[Lourdes]

All of the options you already found would work really well, except for the first one... where it is just for guests of the farmhouse... but they are all in Chianti, further in and maybe a bit too far to consider for lunch on your very limited time frame.

So my suggestion is to head to San Gimignano - you will both love it! Plan to spend the day there, with maybe that short stop in Volterra at the end on the way back to the ship.

When we were in San Gimignano last week, a local recommended we go eat at the restaurant of this hotel: http://www.hotelbelsoggiorno.it/Restaurant/ - they have a dining room with enormous windows and views onto the countryside. If you can reserve ahead of time a table right by the windows, I believe you will both enjoy it very much.

Otherwise with no view as it is in a cellar (and thus a beautiful atmosphere!) where we've had good meals on separate occasions is the Perucà restaurant on via capassi, 16. (www.peruca.eu).

Depending on the time, I'd recommend a visit to the Duomo - the frescoes inside are magnificent treasures - once you've seen them, you'll be amazed to learn they have never ever been restored.
Then head next door and climb to the top of Torre Grossa for a wonderful view of San Gimignano and the surrounding countryside.

If you head up to the Rocca (the remains of the fortress), you'll find a small museum dedicated to the Vernaccia of San Gimignano, the area's white wine, where you can do wine tastings!
You can do tastings at any of the "enoteca" as well - they'll have signs by the door reminding you of it.

Happy 10th anniversary and enjoy your cruise and Tuscany!!