July

Summer is truly here and every village is celebrating with festivals, from suckling pig to farro (primitive wheat) to wine and bandits. They usually take place at the weekend, so make sure you're here for at least one. Shepherds are making cheese at their high alpine pastures and the honey of the month is chestnut.

Sample activities

Visit a beekeeper, learn about the extraordinary life of bees, help extract honey from the frame and sample the intense and varied flavours of single-flower honey
Visit a shepherd in cool, green alpine pastures and watch her make pecorino and ricotta with milk from her own flocks
Farro harvest festival and lunch in courtyards through the village
Learn to make gelato at one of the best gelaterias in Italy
Visit an 18th-century water mill
Visit trout farm where the fish have room to swim, lunch of trout for every course (well, not dessert) and the adjacent hermitage church carved out of rock
Spend a day with a farmer who cultivates heritage wheat varieties, help harvest, make focaccia, lunch on the farm
Guided tour of the stalagmites and stalactites of the Grotta del Vento, cool even in July
Hunt for black summer truffles with truffle hunter and his dog
Visit the mediaeval walled town of Barga
Make a broomcorn broom with nonno
Guided tour of one of the grand villas and its gardens near Lucca
Walk in the summer woods
Meals in family restaurants off the beaten track

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