While food & wine are the focus year-round in Tuscany, the annual wine grape harvest coupled with the region’s small festivals, called sagre, celebrating local foods, make late summer through early fall the ideal time to plan a vacation with friends or family that focuses on wine, food or both!

Visit our Local Cultures Page for ideas that will ignite your travel taste buds all year long.

Sips & Sagre: Aug - Sept 2024

• Calic di stelle (late July - mid August), which means “glasses of stars," features moonlit events with wine, food and music in some of Italy’s most evocative locations.
• Wine and history meet in Montepulciano’s spectacular Bravio delle Botti, (late August), in which teams dressed in medieval costume, struggle to push empty wine barrels (weighing nearly 180 lbs each!) on an uphill path through the town’s picturesque historic center.‍
• Expochianti classico in greve (early September) is a must-attend regional event for Chianti lovers as top producers from throughout the region are present to share their wines with the public.
• During Cantine Aperte, (September and October) wineries from throughout the region open their doors to visiting tourists, hosting tours of their production facilities as well special tasting events.
• The Grape Festival in Chiusi, the Festa dell’Uva in Impruneta and the Grape Festival of Castelnuovo Berardenga, all celebrating the wine grape harvest, also occur in September, offering more wine tasting, food and cultural exploration.
• For meat lovers, the Sagra Della Bistecca (late August) in Badia al Pino celebrates that most iconic of Tuscan meat dishes, the bistecca.
• In the ancient town of Monte San Savino in the last week of August and first week of September, the spotlight turns to roasted pork that has been stuffed with aromatic herbs and slow cooked in wood-fired ovens at the Sagra Della Porchetta.
• The Festa del Fagiolo,“the Festival of the Bean” (late August), held in the medieval city of Pescia, celebrates the prized Sorana IGP white bean with a dizzying variety of dishes in which the bean is a key ingredient.

Chocolate & Chestnuts: Oct 2024

• From mid October, towns across Tuscany celebrate the chestnut harvest. At the Marradi Chestnut Festival, in the Mugello area outside of Florence, every Sunday brings another opportunity to sample savory and sweet dishes featuring chestnuts.
• Eurochocolate Perugia (October) is one of Italy’s most renowned chocolate-centric events. Held in the city of Perugia in Umbria, the festival features tastings and an exhibition of chocolate sculptures created from blocks of chocolate weighing up to 1,000 kilograms!

At any time of the year, you and your group can experience the best of Tuscan food and wine at Villa Ardore. Whether it’s a private tasting at a boutique winery or our sommelier for a day tasting experience, you can experience some of the world’s best wines year round. And, whether you choose an in-villa lunch or dinner prepared by a Michelin rated chef, our tuscan cooking class or authentic pizza making experience, you’ll never be at a loss for something delicious to pair with your wine