The Seed of Slow Travel: Tuscany for a 60th Birthday

Five years before her 60th birthday, I was hiking the Amalfi Coast with my mum, dad, and a few of their friends. We were somewhere between two tiny cliffside villages when she said, almost offhandedly, “I’d love to bring everyone here for my 60th.”

It felt like one of those dreamy travel thoughts, something you say on a good day in a beautiful place, without expecting it to land. But this one did. Over the next few years, she brought it up again and again, always with a smile, as if to test whether the idea had roots. Turns out, it did.

Slowly, she started imagining what it could look like: who might come, how it might feel. Eventually, as the resident travel obsessive in the family, I became the unofficial trip planner. Then the official one.

What unfolded from that single comment was a two-week trip that redefined how we travel as a group, and quietly planted the idea that would one day become Lento Studio.

From Idea to Itinerary

What began as a dream slowly turned into a project. Mum would mention it here and there, in passing, often with a spark in her eye, “Imagine if we really did it?”. Over time, the group grew clearer: a handful of friends in their 60s, most of them long-time travellers, all of whom had already been to Italy before.

They weren’t interested in ticking off landmarks or repeating what they’d done ten or twenty years earlier. They wanted something else. Something slower. Something that gave them time to breathe between meals, to settle into the rhythm of local life, to share good wine and better conversation without watching the clock.

As the planner, my goal became clear: find a way to design a trip that felt fresh for seasoned travellers. A balance of independence and ease. Experiences that weren’t polished for tourists but still comfortable and considered.

Eventually, I proposed a two-part journey: a few days in Florence to ease into the trip, followed by a stretch in the countryside at a family-run agriturismo. Then we'd head south to explore a lesser-known region: Puglia. I prepared a full itinerary, looked up local market days, checked which wineries welcomed visitors, and gathered photos to help the group picture what the trip could look like.

To my surprise, they didn’t just agree, they were excited. The idea had officially taken root.

Life at the Agriturismo

After a few beautiful days in Florence (more on that another time), we drove out into the Tuscan hills to a small, family-run agriturismo that would be our base.

It was the kind of place you settle into easily. Nothing fancy, but full of warmth and run by a local family who welcomed us like old friends. The pace slowed instantly. Each morning began with espresso in the courtyard, followed by day trips to nearby hill towns, long lunches, and countryside drives that turned into detours and discoveries.

Evenings were the heart of it all. We’d return to the farm stay, dusty and happy, and gather around the outdoor table. Some nights we cooked together with ingredients from the market; other nights we drank wine while someone else took a turn in the kitchen. One evening, we ate at the agriturismo’s small restaurant, where the family served us a meal that captured the beauty of local simplicity — hand-shaped pasta, garden herbs, olive oil from their grove. We finished with their own vin santo and cantucci, sweet and crumbling. The conversations stretched for hours. We weren’t rushing anywhere.

One afternoon we visited a vineyard in Chianti that had been run by the same family for generations. We tasted wines in amongst the vineyard, heard stories passed down over centuries, and watched the sun turn the hills golden. It became one of our favourite moments of the trip.

The beauty of the agriturismo stay wasn’t just the scenery, it was the ease. No constant packing, no hotel check-outs, no keeping pace with a rigid itinerary. It was the kind of travel that gives you space to feel where you are. The kind of travel I’d been craving without knowing it.

Our time in Tuscany was more than a visit, it was a slow unfolding of quiet moments, shared stories, and simple pleasures. From the golden hills to the vineyard tastings, and those long evenings at the agriturismo, it reminded us why travel is best savored, not rushed. Next, we headed south to Puglia, a place just as rich in history and heart, but with its own rhythm and surprises. Our adventure continued in Puglia; a land of sunlit coasts, ancient towns, and unforgettable moments.