Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Plan Your Trip
Eat & Drink Like a Local
For Tuscans, eating and drinking is as much a fine art as their master-
piece surrounds. And exceedingly well around a shared table is how
they eat, thanks to an ancient cuisine sourced in the family farmstead
from seasonal fruits of the land and sea. Titillate tastebuds with these
food-trip essentials.
The Year in Food
Feasting is year-round, with foodie festivals galore. For details on specific food events
Click here
.
Spring (Mar-May)
Markets burst with baby violet artichokes, asparagus, fresh garlic and - towards the season's end -
cherries, figs and courgette flowers begging to be stuffed.
Summer (Jun-Aug)
Strawberries, peppers and the start of San Gimignano's saffron harvest (July to November). Beat the
heat by the sea with seafood, elsewhere with a gelato - chestnut, fig and honey, or saffron and pine-nut
flavour.
Autumn (Sep-Nov)
Olives and grapes are harvested, forest fruits such as chestnuts and
porcini
mushrooms (August to
October) gathered, and game hunted for. Oenophiles head to Greve in Chianti in September for Chi-
anti's biggest wine fair. Mid-October opens the white truffle season near Pisa.
Winter (Dec-Feb)
The truffle season, which continues until mid-December, peaks with San Miniato's truffle market.
Montalcino wine producers crack open the new vintage at February's Benvenuto Brunello.
