Photo credit: Saturnia By Roberto Ferrari from Campogalliano (Modena), Italy.

Sometimes a girl needs to escape the dog poop on the sidewalks of Florence and head to the countryside for a dip in paradise. In this case, I am referring not to the mediterranean sea or an infinity pool in Chianti, but rather the many fabulous thermal springs in Tuscany that make Italy an even more attractive place for those looking for that perfect blend of relax and adventure.

After a particularly hellish two weeks dealing with the purgatory of Italy, the questura di firenze immigration office, to renew my permesso di soggiorno {I cringe even writing that}, when the offer came in to join a blog tour exploring thermae & slow lifestyle in Tuscany, I said yes, si, oui in just about any language and did a happy dance, that’s just how excited I was.

This opportunity came from Play Your Tuscany – a series of blog tours aimed at promoting the region of Tuscany with an interesting mashup of ‘players’ {videographers, bloggers, photographers} who applied for the chance here. The best part about this blog tour is that we also get the rare chance to sometimes choose our own activities and essentially see the region, our way.

[ Of course I had to utilize the wild boar hat in my profile photo]

So who will be joining me on this amazing adventure? Along for the ride is Sophie from the biggest Dutch blog in Italy Ciaotutti.nl, Goncaldo, a photographer from Portugal, Gabriele a Sicilian director & editor of docs and last but certainly not least Alessio, who is also from Sicily and both a filmmaker and photographer. Just from reading their bio’s, I certainly am excited to be meeting these talented people in person.

What’s the plan?

Unfortunately I couldn’t take part of the entire experience and instead I am joining tomorrow late-afternoon in Buonconvento [near Siena]. Today, the players get to ‘urban trek’ through the charming city of Siena before heading to the incredibly beautiful Val d’Orcia tomorrow morning. Think hiking and thermal springs at Bagno Vignoni and later a trip to the Abbadia San Salvatore, where an awesome chemistry workshop awaits. Me and Sophie will be meeting up for dinner and then off for the rest of the adventure which includes a trip to the famous Saturnia thermal springs (pictured above) and horseback riding – YES!).

Follow the adventure! 

You can follow the official twitter account of Play your tuscany here to see our live-tweets during the day, and be sure to check out instagram, FB, and Google plus this weekend to see what trouble I’ve gotten into, anything is possible with my clumsy self. After all, I do have a wild boar in my head ;-). Anything is possible..

Stay tuned.. as always I will be blogging about my experience which will be especially awesome since I have wanted to update for 2014, travel advice for visiting Tuscan thermal springs. My stories will also be published on the Play Your Tuscany site here.