My Dream Family Getaway

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Cheerios® is giving you the chance to win a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, your ultimate family vacation. As part of a paid promotion for their “Do What You Love” Sweepstakes, Cheerios® is sponsoring my post today about what my ultimate family vacation would be. Read mine, Enter the Sweepstakes for a chance to actually win your own fantasy family trip or one of a bunch of other great prizes.

When I first committed to write a post about my ideal family vacation, I really had no idea what that would be. Lots of vacations are good, right? But few vacations are AMAZING. I mean, come on -- an ideal vacation. That's a tall order.

So I spent some time mulling over what would be the "essential components" of any such trip. We would need to be someplace we've never been before (someplace warm), doings things that we all liked to do, in a non-hotel setting, all the while dining on fabulous food.

Where on earth could we find all of those things?

Then the answer came to me: Italy.

My dream family getaway would be to rent an Italian villa for a whole summer. Ideally, this property would be located in the Tuscan countryside -- allowing for easy travel to both northern and southern Italy. This one looks pretty nice, doesn't it? Although this one isn't too shabby either. Choices. Choices.

We'd need to have a house large enough to accommodate our visitors throughout the summer (grandmas, grandpas, cousins, aunts, and uncles). We'd hang out alone for a few days, and then welcome a new wave of visitors for a few days, and so on.

Our villa would be comfortable, but not so fancy-schmancy that we wouldn't feel at home. We'd need to have a little pool for cooling off on those hot Mediterranean afternoons. And a garden to provide fresh produce for our meals. And, I know this is a lot to ask, but I'd also love to have a nice old Italian lady on site who could teach me how to make delicious pastas and sauces.

We'd take some day trips and learn Italian. We'd cook amazing food together and gather around a large outdoor table for our leisurely meals. We'd go swimming every single day.

We'd be together -- really together -- for an entire summer. Sounds pretty darn ideal to me.

Don't forget to enter the “Do What You Love” Sweepstakes, for a chance to win your own ultimate family vacation. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.