Thomson Al Fresco holidays sent us to a three-bedroom mobile home at their wonderful Norcenni Giralose Club site - perched on a mountain above the traditional Italian town of Figline Valdarno. The luxuriously kitted-out, air-conditioned Vivaldi was all we needed for a comfortable base. We looked on to a hill opposite stocked with deer, goats, horses - and a lone ostrich. To the left and down the hill was a mountain range where you could watch the sun rise of a morning, colouring this gorgeous paint-by-numbers landscape. And just along the way was free adventure for the kids - a gorge carved by a tumbling stream, its banks full of little caves and enticing nooks and crannies.

The site itself offers enough action-packed activities to ensure you don't leave. Two pools with a lazy river and spa baths, three fantastic restaurants (we didn't cook a meal all holiday), pizzeria and takeaway. The Thomson reps will help you hire bikes, arrange fishing, pony-trekking or golfing - and they're brave enough to grapple with the little 'uns at the childrens clubs. And for adults in this Little Europe of caravans, tents and camper vans, there's a club.

But, if like us, you go abroad to explore and experience, Norcenni Girasole is perfectly placed for daily manoeuvres. For a start, you're only about 90 minutes away from Pisa Airport. So, Pisa it is then. Strangely attractive little city, this. Yip, crossed another landmark off my list of buildings to see before I die - the Leaning Tower. It's awesome walking down a little modern Italian street, then turning the corner to see this freak of architecture.

A two-mile ride down the hill from the site and into Figline Valdarno, there's a main train station. This is a hub that can whisk you the length and breadth of Italy. Rome's only a three-hour jaunt away - and it's less than half an hour to Florence. I have always wanted to see glorious Firenze...its Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, the winding River Arno. I like to think of myself as a bit of a Renaissance man (geddit?!) - and this city didn't disappoint. However, I much preferred munching my Cornetto as we meandered round the ancient thoroughfares of Siena - before picnicking with the rest of the locals stretched out on the steaming hot bricks of the Campo, surrounded by history. Into the time machine again - well, the Fiat Multipla we'd hired - to travel further back into the past. San Gimignano and Radda in Chianti - fortified hilltop towns. The buildings still house the merchants and locals' homes asthey have always done. Only the goods have changed. Designer gear and jewellery, art and collectibles that will give your euros a pounding.

In a sweet little town called Greve we stumbled on a huge crowd packed into the main square. There was an expectant hush - all eyes on a wire stretched from the church at the top to a monument at the bottom, maybe 500 yards away. Noon struck with a loud explosion, and a stuffed paper dove with fireworks shoved in its posterior rocketed out of the church, hit the monument at the botton, reversed and went all the way back again - to great clapping and cheering. Box ticked on interacting with the locals in traditional festivities. But my wife and daughter always feel the need to shop. And even in the midst of this stunning rural idyll they managed to find a 21st-century mall. Put the fear of god in me. The mall is a modern day monument to Gucci, Prada etc - at affordable prices they say. Affordable if you're married to Madonna, maybe. Still, I did get a nice pair of Gucci boxers out of it - they were only (gulp) thirty quid. But no matter where the day took us, it was always back to our little mobile home on the hill. I'm popping a cork right now on one of the region's most velvety bottles - just for memory lane's sake...And dreams of my Chianti Classico caravan.

Go. Tuscany. Scottish Sun World travelled with Thomson Al Fresco. Prices start at Pounds 382 for two adults and up to four children staying in a Rossini mobile home at Norcenni Girasole Club, Tuscany, for seven nights between May 1 and May 22, 2008. Flight options available with Thomson at a supplement. Call 0870 166 0366 or log on to thomsonalfresco.co.uk