Archive for 'Events'

If visitors enjoy immersing themselves into the passionate festivals that are hosted all across Italy throughout the year, they would thoroughly enjoy a trip to the region of Mugello in Northern Tuscany where there’s always a party going on!

There are many beautiful villas and rental accommodation in this area where tourists can rest themselves after long days and nights of enjoying the uplifting events all across Mugello. Take a look to Podere Fortuna and Borgo la Fratta to see an example of our accommodations.


As mentioned in a related article, there are nine main towns and hamlets in the area which are packed with fascinating historical and architectural sites, water and land activities and much more to enrich the visitor’s experience. If your holiday to Tuscany falls around any of the following festival dates, it would be an excellent opportunity to observe the passion and love that the people of Tuscany pour into their celebrations!

One of the most famous Italian Palio events is the Palio di Siena held in the city of Siena in the central Tuscany region. To celebrate their historic Palio event, the people of Siena stage a famous horse race twice a year; one on the 2nd of July and one on the 16th August. There is a great selection of luxury holiday villas and simple vacation rentals located close to the city where you can easily commute to witness this spectacular event. The participants in this exciting race are horses and jockeys representing their ‘contrada’ or region of the city of Siena. The competition and rivalry between the contrade is fierce and attracts thousands of city supporters and tourists every year. There are seventeen contrade in total but only ten are allowed to race on each date for safety reasons. The ten that are chosen to race in one Palio are then replaced in the following one by the seven that didn’t race plus three that will be chosen by drawing lots between the other ten. The months leading up to the Palio di Siena is filled with choosing the best ten horses to race and the jockeys to ride them as well as organising the smaller events that will be held in each contrada in the days leading up to the main event. The race is preceded with a group of the national military police or ‘carabinieri’ on horseback wielding their swords as they demonstrate a mounted charge twice around the track. As they exit, a pageant enters the Piazza which includes flag wavers, and trumpeters marching around the track to signal the beginning of another thrilling year of racing rivalry!

If you'd like to learn about the tradition of wine making and you love Italian wine, you should come here and enjoy this magical time of the year. Wine tourism during the harvest season is a splendid experience you shouldn't miss!

A lot of cities and towns all around Italy held fairs and “sagre” to celebrate the grapes and wine.

If you are planning to come in Tuscany on the last week of September, we suggest you to make a day trip to the town of Impruneta and take part to the oldest harvest festival in the area, “La Festa dell’Uva”.

The beautiful city of Florence is the birth place of renaissance, and is often referred to as the Athens of the Middle Ages. This capital of the Tuscany region of Italy attracts millions of tourists each year, and was ranked as the world’s 72^nd most visited place in the year 2009. The city is also known as the fashion capital of Italy. Apart from the beautiful locales, grand history and friendly people, the city of Florence is also famous for the Firenze Gelato festival each year.

The Firenze Gelato festival will be held from May 23^rd to May 27^th, 2012 as part of the Florence International Handicrafts Trade Fair. The visitors can experience the process of ice cream making, and taste amazing craft gelato, made with authentic Italian ingredients.

You can also try fantastic cocktails with gelato. Bartenders can provide alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions of the drinks to provide a refreshing and delightful break to people of all ages. Ice cream lovers can taste and buy hundreds of varieties of 100 percent Italian products.

While there is no concrete evidence to prove it, most historians believe that the ice cream originated in Florence during the Renaissance period. Ruggeri, an amateur cook and poultry seller, won the food competition organized by the Lords of Florence in the early sixteenth century. The fame and taste of the recipe spread across the Tuscany area, and the modern ice cream desserts were born. Painter and sculptor Bernardo Buontalenti surprised his guests at the inaugural banquet of the Fortress of Belvedere with his own ice cream recipe in1559.

Volterra is a town in the Tuscany region of Italy and it has many a tale associated with it, including the popular fictional works of Stephenie Meyer, called Twilight, where Volterra is home to a coven of ancient vampires called the Volturi. Unfortunately however, the movie was shot elsewhere in Montepulciano, so the sights that you will see on the big screen are not those of the real Volterra.