I eased our little Volkswagen hatchback just slightly off the road until two tires slipped onto the gravel and the passenger door nearly touched the retaining wall. “This is a parking spot-ish, I think,” I less-than-confidently think to myself even though I clearly have no authority on this topic.

After a few days of driving around Tuscany my attempts at blending in with the locals still weren’t quite all the way there. Swerving along small, countryside roads, parking in questionable “spaces”, and raising my voice at the *obvious* foreigners who drive the speed limit in the left lane are all some of my favorite Italian traditions when driving.

At this point, a few hours of a break in a tiny medieval town nestled in the Tuscan hills was just what I needed to stretch my legs and give everyone else on the road a break from me expressing my inner Italian driver.

Little did I know that I was about to find much more than a stretch break.

Our research and development trips—as glamorous as they can seem to be prancing from one restaurant and luxury hotel to another in a foreign country—can be pretty exhausting.

Over the years I’ve refined my strategy for these trips: how to schedule in as much as possible, how to visit all the hotels in one day, how to make connections with the numerous people I meet, and how to find that “golden needle in the haystack” of an opportunity where I make the right ask from just the right person. The one that will open a door to an experience others wouldn’t be able to find without us.

On this day, it didn’t go quite the way I thought. The plan was all the same —to rush, to meet, to chat, to try out a restaurant, to tour a factory—but somehow, this place was different.

I paused as I got out of the car and the view of this small, stunning town caught my breath. I snapped back to reality, and took a quick picture—the one that now graces the cover of our webpage for this experience.

We met our friend Ivanka in the town square, taking a quick stroll through the narrow, windy walkways and stopping in for an espresso at a local bar before meeting the connections we had really come to see: Giovanni and Michelangelo.

The two sharply dressed men walked down the street, strolling with an air of confidence and comfort. When they caught our eyes—recognizing me immediately as the foreigner they would be meeting with— their smiles widened and they introduced themselves, welcoming us to their small town and instantly putting me at ease.

The day’s worries, stresses, and agenda washed away. I was here. I was present.

They led us down a small road, towards my haphazardly parked rental car, and we turned into a small shop along the way.

They led us to the downstairs and asked us to put on earphones as a protective measure. I looked, doubtfully, at Ivanka, wondering if this was really necessary, but obliged our hosts and threw on a pair of pale blue earphones as I adjusted them around my head.

Moments later, it was clear that Giovanni’s words of wisdom about the earphones were, in fact, words of wisdom. As we entered this basement of what simply seemed to be a “small shop” at first glance, a whole new world came to life below.

Giant looms clinked and clanked as they turned out beautiful, multi-colored pieces of material. I ran my hands over the finished products—perfectly woven tablecloths, fabrics, and blankets—as my mind fell into a peaceful state. This was it. This was incredible. I had never seen anything like it before.

Over the next few hours, what surfaced was even more incredible.

We heard the family’s story of running this factory since the 1700’s, working on some of these very same looms. We met Giovanni’s son who is now running the business and was just taking off for a business meeting in Seattle. We toured Giovanni’s former home above the factory, full of pieces of artwork he collected for years and photos of his young family all of which he narrated for us as we gazed in awe.

And finally, we visited Giovanni’s new home overlooking the town before he chuckled one more time, bade us farewell, and said he’d be looking forward to our return.

Hospitality. Relationships. Connection.

They aren’t just words. They are what bring us together. And they are what make our trips so personally rewarding: that we are fortunate enough to have a network of friends—genuinely kind and interesting people—who open their hearts and homes to us and our travelers.

We’re diving deeper into the world behind the carefully created Italian goods and we’re bringing our travelers a new and one-of-a-kind Table Less Traveled experience.

Join me, Giovanni, and Michelangelo, among many others, on our Treasures of Tuscany trip.

Learn More: Treasures of Tuscany Tour

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