The Caniato family is back from our annual pilgrimage to Tuscany, where we stayed at the beloved Le Torre Alle Tolfe estate just outside of Siena. It’s named for its tall tower that was once the highest look-out point between borders during some of Italy’s greatest battles. Today it is simply a paradise to us and we are lucky to share it with family and friends.

How great is a life that revolves around the table?  In Tuscany there appears to be a table ready for dining around every corner, inside the villas and outside. I am now striving to preserve that mindset and weave it into our everyday life – in some small way.

Our table by the pizza oven that looked out over the hills.

I have in mind Douglas Gayeton’s beautiful book published last year Slow-Life In A Tuscan Town. It’s a reminder of how fast we are truly living back in NYC, and how beautiful it can be to slow down and celebrate where our food comes from. And how energizing it is when it comes fresh from the earth around us (olive oil and vino included!)

Travel Tip* Did you know that having a dose of local honey when you arrive to a new destination lessens the impact of foreign allergens? Worked for us!

In Italy, when we are eating, we are talking about food mostly, the subtle superlatives of one dish verses the last; what we plan to eat at the next meal; spending hours and hours discussing. Then, just when we are finished cleaning up from one meal, it’s time to prepare for the next.

And when the meal is held next to the pizza oven – that is minimally a four-hour communal affair. It’s a summit full of great philosophical debate that everyone has a stake in, from the 3 year-olds to the 73 year-olds. White pizza? Chocolate on pizza? Carcioffi or Classico? Oh the very important decisions that make a vacation…a vacation. It’s the kind of dialogue that is quintessentially Italian.

And with such important things to worry about, we begin to understand where the expression comes from – Al tavolo non si invecchia mai (at the table nobody grows old)!