Autumn is a slow season in Italy; little by little, the trees change colour, the leaves fall off the branches to the ground forming a colourful carpet, and the animals prepare to crawl into a long winter sleep.
To immerse ourselves in the charm of autumn this year, we have decided to take you to Tuscany, the birthplace of art, language and beauty. This is a land where everything is surprising, where gentle hills surround charming little villages and life is relaxed.
Treat yourself to a slow holiday in autumn 2019, a gift for the senses to discover the hidden treasures of Tuscany.
Collodi, Pinocchio’s village
Collodi, in Pescia in the province of Pistoia, is a beautiful medieval village best known thanks to Carlo Lorenzini, author of "The Adventures of Pinocchio" who spent part of his childhood here and changed his name to Carlo Collodi.
A memorial park was built in 1956 to commemorate the writer, a place where the fable of Pinocchio comes to life and visitors are launched into a magical world where art and nature merge to provide a unique experience.
Autumn is the best time to organise a trip to this charming town, which has won the Touring Club Italiano's Orange Flag for its tourist and environmental quality.
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Bolgheri, poetry in motion
In the Maremma area, surrounded by green hills, is Bolgheri, originally a small fiefdom of the Gherardesca Counts and developed as an important centre of wine production.
Starting from the castle, the symbol of the village, there is a long avenue of cypresses that made the poet Giosuè Carducci famous, having spent part of his childhood in this place and composing the poem "Davanti a San Guido", “Before San Guido”.
The area lends itself to a pleasant bicycle ride, taking time to admire the colours of the countryside that chang in the autumn, taking on warmer and comforting tones.
The autumn months are also the most generous: the harvest offers excellent quality-assured D.O.C. wines, such as Sassicaia, Grattamacco, Ornella and Masseto, perfect to accompany the delights of the local cuisine.
Anghiari, the pleasure of living slowly
In the province of Arezzo lies Anghiari, included in the list of the most beautiful villages in Italy, awarded the Orange Flag of the Touring Club Italiano and with the title of "Città Slow" (the slow or relaxed city, in English).
This beautiful village is full of monuments, churches and palaces that tell the story of a meeting point and a clash of different civilizations. It owes its fame to a famous battle in 1440 between the Florentine and Milanese troops, which would later be painted by the great master Leonardo da Vinci.
Let yourself be spellbound by the little alleys of this village, discovering all the artistic treasures that it conserves and the viewpoints that provide a panoramic view of the splendid landscape that surrounds this place, where time really seems to have stopped. Anghiari truly is a gift for the eyes and a panacea for the spirit.
San Quirico d'Orcia, beauty in harmony
Located on a hill in the charming province of Siena, San Quirico d'Orcia is an ancient medieval village, most likely of Etruscan origin, which still retains most of its walls from the fifteenth century.
San Quirico is the ideal starting point to discover Val d'Orcia, the Orcia Valley: a succession of wheat fields, hills, rows of cypress trees, old farmhouses and isolated country cottages that give life to a harmonious landscape, where nature and the hand of man have always coexisted in perfect balance. The Orcia Valley and all its villages has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and you only have to look around to understand why.
Raise a glass of the excellent local wine to autumn in Tuscany and taste the exquisite gastronomy of this land, as beautiful as it is bountiful.
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