Tuscany Things to Do

While each town in Tuscany will get into the Christmas spirit to some degree, shopping aficionados will want to make sure to visit the cities and towns that include good Christmas markets in their celebrations. There are several towns in Tuscany with good Christmas markets, so you shouldn’t have to travel too far to find one close to where you’ll be. And if you plan your days right, you could visit quite a few of them.

To visit a city during a local festival is to see a city at its best – especially when said festival isn’t meant for tourists, but is something the locals have been celebrating for centuries. Such is the case in the Tuscan town of Montepulciano, famous for the wine grape that bears the town’s name. If you’re anywhere near Tuscany on the last Sunday in August, you’d be smart to get to Montepulciano for the annual Bravio delle Botti festival and race.

Tuscany is so famed for its food and wine that you can almost taste the flavors just by saying the name. So it’s no surprise that they love to celebrate every fruit and vegetable, meat and fish that comes into season.

When you’re traveling around Tuscany watch for signs advertising a Festa or a Sagra – a festival or a fair. Very often they’re food or wine-based and you’ll be in for a treat. The main food and wine festival season begins in April or May, and reaches a peak around October with mushrooms, chestnuts, chocolate, and truffles.

If you’re looking for something to do in Italy in July, here is an interesting option: About 18 miles (30 km) northwest of Florence is the often-overlooked town of Pistoia. But nestled within the industrial surrounds of the modern city is a lovely medieval heart inside historic 14th-century walls and once a year this place comes alive to the sounds of The Pistoia Blues Festival.

If you’re traveling the towns and villages of Tuscany this summer and feel like you’ve just walked into a time warp, you’ve probably lucked out and hit upon a Medieval Fair. Every year a few towns throw themselves wholeheartedly into days-gone-by and dress up in medieval costumes, entertain with storytellers and wandering minstrels, showcase ancient arts like blacksmithing and candlemaking, and generally celebrate the things that made their towns what they are. Here’s a brief list of where and when you can find some of these events:

It’s not just Venice that celebrates Carnival in style. In the lovely seaside Tuscan town of Viareggio, Carnival is less about masked decadence and more about their world-famous parade of papier-mache floats.