December

Seasonal good cheer radiates everywhere. The new chestnut flour is finally flying off millstones and its arrival is celebrated in Castelnuovo, the capital of the Garfagnana, with feasting, music and processions. Chocaholics can indulge their habit for two blissful days amid the master chocolatiers of Italy. Lots of opportunities to shop for unusual Christmas gifts while enjoying the food and customs of northern Tuscany.

Sample activities

Visit a water mill where the chestnuts are being ground and taste the concentrated sweetness of the flour
Join the festive crowds under the arcades of Castelnuovo for mulled wine, roast chestnuts and chestnut-flour crêpes
Gorge on chocolate at the scene of an invasion of chocolatiers from all of Italy
Learn to make traditional chestnut pasta, chestnut fritters and chestnut cake
Hunt for white truffles with truffle hunter and his dog followed by truffle meal at his home
An opportunity for Christmas shopping in the studio a handloom weaver
Make sausages with a butcher
Plaster of Paris figurines used to be a mainstay of the local economy, and they're still used in evocations of the Nativity scene, from ingenious mechanical constructions to whole villages transformed into life-size Bethlehems
More Christmas shopping in a Slow Food artisan Christmas fair in the cloisters of an old monastery in Lucca
Meals in family restaurants off the beaten track

Ask us for our full menu of activities since we're always finding new interesting producers.