November

White truffles can be found, with the help of a well-trained dog, from mid September until the end of December, but November is the only month in which you can combine a truffle hunt with the National Truffle Fair in San Miniato. In the hills surrounding the Lucca plain everyone is picking olives and taking them to their favourite olive press, eager to know whether the year's oil will be good and plentiful. The mountains are a rich gold tinged with copper before the leaves fall, opening up panoramic views to walkers. Chestnuts finish their forty days of drying and are shelled, sorted and taken to the miller. In Lucca a Christmas market in magnificent old cloisters sells artisan food and crafts, enlivened by guided tastings.

Sample activities

Hunt truffles with Riccardo and his truffle hound, eat lunch at his home and sniff out the San Miniato truffle fair in the afternoon
Pick olives and visit olive mills traditional and modern
Learn how to taste olive oil with a professional taster
Forage for potherbs and prepare traditional dishes seasoned with your new olive oil
Walk to a chestnut-drying hut in the woods and find out how they're dried before being ground into flour
Visit a water mill where the chestnuts will be ground at the end of the month
Make ravioli with chestnut pasta and ricotta
Wend your way through a picturesque mountain village from one food stall to the next until you emerge at a chestnut roast on the open hillside
Visit a lardo producer in Colonnata and find out how pork fat is transformed into a delicacy
Make water-marked paper at a paper museum
Visit the butchers Rocchi and witness them making sausages and other delicious cured pork products
Do your Christmas shopping at a Slow Food artisan market 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.