Last week looked like winter with its gray, damp days, but the weather for this weekend should be sunny and nice overall, perfect for taking part in an event or food festival or sagra in Tuscany and enjoying a relaxing weekend.
Chestnuts and fairs:
Sunday October 17th – departing from Florence’s SMN station, the steam engine train goes to Marradi to the traditional Chestnut Festival. Read more »
Days are becoming shorter and the light jacket I wear in the mornings heavier. Afternoons are glorious right now in Florence though! Leaves have started to fall and the hills around Florence are changing colors, a beautiful sight. What I love about this season: the full calendar of events centered around the season’s products. Here are a few events for this second weekend in October in Tuscany: Read more »
From April 16 to the 25th the 12th European Culture Week will be taking place all over Italy and Europe and thus in Tuscany as well. The event, successfully organized by the Italian Ministry for Cultural Assets and Activities, opens State museums, monuments, archeological sites, archives and libraries, both for Italian and foreign visitors with free entrance.
In Italy there will be over 2900 events during the week, with over 200 just in Tuscany. Free guided tours, as well as special exhibits and events, will be organized across the region, such as the extraordinary opening of the Gardens at Villa La Pietra and its Acton Collection.
The European Culture Week is certainly a unique occasion to discover and visit unique Italian masterpieces, as well as hidden Tuscan treasures enriching your unforgettable holidays in Tuscany. Aside from free entrance into state museums, you can enjoy a full schedule of events.
The old locomotive of the steam engine train to Marradi
We took a beautiful trip to Marradi a few weekends ago, a mountain village located in the Tuscan Apennines near the border with Emilia Romagna, to go the town’s annual chestnut sagra or food festival.
The Mugello chestnuts are famous and are protected by the IGP (Indicazione Geografica Protetta, or Geographical Protected Indication) trademark and the festival was a wonderful occasion to taste and buy not only chestnuts but many local products as well. We bought chestnut flour, several pieces of local cheeses and a small chestnut cake to take home, in addition to all the other chestnut treats we had that day. 
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