Tuscany Things to Do

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.

A lot of the attraction of Tuscany is getting back to a slower life. The flavors, the landscapes, the art – it all makes us look back to a simpler time. That’s why this is an ideal place in Italy to tour by bicycle. The one downside might be that it is hilly except for along the rivers and coast. But don’t be put off by a few steep hills. What goes up must come down, and as you’re freewheeling you can look around at all that beauty – your reward for slogging up the hill.

The local government of Siena have always been a progressive bunch – it was they who commissioned the famous cycle of three fresco paintings Allegory and Effects of Good and Bad Government for the walls of the Palazzo Publico (Town Hall) in the 14th century which were groundbreaking in their non-religious subject matter (you can still see these paintings today), and they continue to come up with good ideas in the 21st century.

No one does Christmas quite like Italians. And Tuscany is no exception. With numerous holiday events going on all around Italy, we rounded up some of the best in Northern Tuscany.

It’s no secret that I am obsessed with hot water, particularly thermal water flowing from the core of the earth. And at Saturnia in Tuscany there’s a river of the stuff, and waterfalls! I’m excited!