October

This is a time of great activity in the hills surrounding the Lucca plain. The grape harvest is ending and the new wine is fermenting in tanks and barrels. By the middle of the month little 3-wheeled farm vehicles buzz up and down the narrow roads loaded with olive nets and plastic crates, empty on the way up and full of green, brown and black olives on the way down. The olive presses, dark for 9 months of the year, now run 24/7. In the mountains, chestnuts are falling to the ground and bursting out of their prickly covers, which means they're ready to be gathered and taken to the metato, the chestnut-drying hut, before being ground into flour.

Sample activities

Visit a chestnut-drying hut and see how they're dried before being ground into flour
Visit a water mill where the chestnuts will be ground at the end of November
Learn to make ravioli with chestnut pasta and ricotta
Eat roast chestnuts and chestnut flour crêpes filled with ricotta at a chestnut festival in a picturesque mountain village
Pick olives and visit olive mills traditional and modern (2nd half of October)
Learn how to taste olive oil with a professional taster
Forage for potherbs and prepare traditional dishes seasoned with your new olive oil
Taste the new wine—hmm, interesting—at a wine and food festival, or you can choose a squash festival, or feast on porcini and black truffles at an autumn livestock fair
Learn to make the huge variety of flatbreads of the Garfagnana
Hunt for white truffles with truffle hunter and his dog followed by truffle meal at his home
Meals in family restaurants off the beaten track

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