Autumn food festivals in northern Italy

If you think about coming to Italy you probably picture yourself soaking up the sun on one of the beautiful beaches along the cost or on one of the islands during the summer holidays or our marvelous towns or, maybe, enjoying the snow-covered slopes on the mountains in the North during winter. Or, again, strolling through the Tuscan hills and sipping some Chianti wine in early September.

I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t know what to do with October: the weather might be pretty bad, often rainy, the days shorter and the snow still has to fall..you’d think twice before booking a flight to Italy, especially to the northern part!

And you’d be wrong not only because you’d  miss some good discounts on your travel and the possibility to enjoy the country without a lot of the other fellow tourists around but you’d also miss something that is pretty characteristic for the Italian autumn: festivals!

You can find them all over Italy, usually in little towns or villages that are more keen on the preservation of their roots and way of life and  enjoy celebrating it and sharing it. They usually spun around some food specialty so you’ ll find, just to mention a few,

the jujube festival

the chestnut festival,

the grapes festival,

the rice festival

or the apple festival.

And since celebrating all this food means also seeing, learning, understanding and – obviously – tasting also its potential, you can indulge your senses in mouth-watering recipes:

wines of all sorts and flavour

foodies in which your vegetable or fruit is the main ingredient

and cakes or other sweets.

Foods festivals are also a good occasion to promote other local and genuine specialities, both because they do compliment each other or simply because they belong to the same region:

mushrooms

home-made cheese or salami

honey

other fruits

or restaurants with an entire menu.

And yes, celebrating your roots and keep your traditions alive is the main reason of these festivals so it wouldn’t be strange to find yourself immersed in some medieval revival where people dressed in 13-century clothes enact arts and crafts of those times.
Some of the festivals organize tours in the surroundings so you can see for yourself how your fruit gets cultivated and all the steps it takes before arriving in your hands or on your plate,
Or again, some others tell you all you need to know about your fruit or veggie’s varietyand entertain you with contests such as “the biggest fruit” or “the strangest fruit”
See you around then and let’s have a bite together!