When I was a teen I was so love (and still am) with the movie Stealing Beauty in which Liv Tyler goes to Italy for a summer. It was that movie that inspired me to go au-pair in Italy when I was 18 for 6 months. I lucked out and got to stay on the beautiful property you see in front of the hilltop town of Montiano in Magliano in Toscana, in this photo below. It was a wonderful family that had hired me to teach their 2 older daughters English in the afternoon and look after their adorable baby in the morning. The family was just opening up a brand new Agriturismo which is like a B&B/apartments to rent in Italian countryside that has a focus on some sort of agriculture on the property. The family I stayed with made organic olive oil.  The property had the family’s home, a barn, a neat old little building that doubled as a chicken coop and a home for their male sheep part of the year, as well as the agriculturist and a small little building that contained a nice big bedroom and bathroom, where I stayed for most of my time there. It was like something out of a movie. Everyday when I woke up, I could see sheep grazing directly outside my window and hear beautiful church bells ringing in the little hilltop town of Montiano only one or two kilometers away. It was really a magical 6 months for me that I have returned to many times in my memories.

My sister was able to come and visit me for a month in the summer which was so great and since then, I have always wanted to take my parents there. The family I stayed with ended up moving a year later and I had been waiting for someone else to open the agriturismo. Luckily, I did a google search for Fontelisa (the name of the home/property) a few months before my trip and lo and behold, after years of waiting, someone had reopened Agriturismo Fontelisa! I was so excited and my Dad jumped on board to stay there for a few nights. So from Venice, we hopped on a train to Pisa where we rented a car and drove to Agriturismo Fontelisa in the beautiful Maremma region of Tuscany. We found Fontelisa in wonderful hands with the new owner, Gennaro.

It was so wonderful to go back and walk down memory lane and show my dad all my old haunts. We especially loved looking around the cute little hilltop town of Montiano that was so close by with all its charming and friendly locals. Within hours we felt like we knew half the town and had made some new friends as everyone greets you and is happy to stop and have a conversation. I was able to practice my Italian, especially with all the translating I did for my Dad who often seemed to forget I wasn’t fluent. haha. It was great though as it pushed me to speak Italian more and, although I’m sure it was very broken, I was able to converse more than I thought I could in my favourite language to learn. : ) We would be having a conversation with one person, when someone above would open their window and join in.

In Montiano, we met a woman from Morocco, a woman from Egypt and a girl my age from Spain, living in Montiano. I was surprised they all knew about the town seeing as I never once saw a fellow English speaking traveler in the town while we were there. Plus, Montiano (or the one I’m talking about anyways) is hard to even find on an Italian map (or even google maps for that matter). haha.

Montiano is so small, it doesn’t take long at all to walk all of the small streets in the old part of town on the top. But we were happy to linger and take our time. There are beautiful views looking out from the top of the town and we also enjoyed getting lunch to go from my favourite bakery (the only bakery in Montiano) that I’ve ever eaten at in Italy. We returned there quite a few more times for slices of margherita pizza and more, during our stay at Fontelisa. ; )

We saw some gorgeous places on our day trips from Fontelisa which I’ll be sharing over the next few blog posts. This one is for the two nearest towns to Agriturismo Fontelisa, which are Montiano and Magliano. My Dad and I hope to go back to this area again someday and bring my mom and sister with us! I saw more than ever this trip how much I had lucked out when I got that job au-pairing in this particular spot back in 2004.

Follow the links to check out our day trips to Pereta, Sorano and Pitigliano, while staying in Montiano.

The photos below were taken in Magliano in Toscana.

This sunset shot was taken from the top of Montiano.