November is when olives are harvested in Tuscany and for foodies who prize the highest-quality ingredients it is an excellent time to plan a stay at one of our luxury villas in Tuscany. Not only will many harvests have taken place in recent weeks, ensuring that there are lots of delicious ingredients about but you'll also get to sample them in hearty and satisfying seasonal dishes.
If you want to spend a vacation in Tuscany discovering incredible wines in Chianti or one of the other excellent wine regions, exploring historic towns like Lucca and famous attractions like the Uffizi in Florence, and making the most of the natural beauty of the region made lovelier still by autumnal shades, then this is an ideal time to plan a foodie visit in particular. Attend food festivals, try local dishes that are perfect for warming you up, and savour many ingredients at their freshest.
Tuscan olive oil is celebrated as some of the finest in the globe and can utterly transform a salad or other dishes from something good into something extraordinary. Rich, green, and spicy, the olive oil here is a must for those looking to stock up on high-quality olive oil for home cooking and for any foodie who wants to acquire some perfect souvenirs and maybe some gifts for those at home.
In November, to celebrate the picking and pressing of that year's olives into olive oil at the various mills around the region, there are different events that take place. Many mills are open for tastings and guided tours, similar to what one might expect when visiting a winery.
The town of Reggello, near Florence, holds a festival dedicated to its “green gold” each year, usually over the course of a few days at the end of October and the beginning of November. Throughout this festival, there is a programme of different events including meeting local producers at the fair, opportunities to taste and buy olive oil, workshops, cooking demonstrations, children’s events, and guided tours of the area. A must if you're a gourmand planning a stay in a vacation rental in Florence at this time of the year.
Then, in Monte San Savino, you will find Suprevo, a museum dedicated to olive oil in Tuscany where you can have a really deep dive into the topic and the food. You can also tour their own mill and learn about their production and join guided tasting sessions. In the gift shop on site you can stock up on their olive oils as well as an array of other products including various other foodies items, sweets, wine, some very cute olive plushies of their mascot, and a selection of olive-based beauty products from soaps to skincare.
For those looking to combine the excellent hiking conditions of this time of year with the perfect olive oil on offer, book a villa in Pisa and hit the Monti Pisani Olive Oil Trail, which winds between olive groves and forests of pines and chestnut trees. Along the way, you can stop off at mills, go on tours and tastings, and find some great places to eat some hearty autumnal dishes!
Other areas also produce delicious olive oil including Siena, Lucca, Arezzo, and more - so, basically anywhere you book a holiday rental in Tuscany this autumn, you're sure to find some tasty things to eat!