Autumn is the season when Italian villages go back to the people who live in them. The August crowds have left, the fields give up what has been grown all year and the woods change colour week after week. It is also when many towns celebrate their own product: wine, chestnuts, saffron, olive oil. We have picked ten villages that have an extra reason to be visited in these months, from Piedmont to Sicily, and for each one we tell you what you will find and why to go right now.
The ten villages
1. Barolo and La Morra, in the Langhe
In October the Nebbiolo grapes are harvested on the hills of the Langhe, and the vineyards turn yellow and red. Barolo, which gave its name to the wine, sits on a spur sheltered by the hills: in 1250 the Falletti family bought the village's property from the commune of Alba, and their castle now houses the wine museum. The last marchioness, Juliette Colbert, left everything to the Opera Pia Barolo charity when she died in 1864. A few kilometres away, La Morra looks over the whole valley from its belvedere: in the town statutes of 1402 Nebbiolo appears for the first time in the area, written Nebiolium. Since 2014 the wine landscapes of Langhe, Roero and Monferrato have been a UNESCO World Heritage site, and on 10 October the International White Truffle Fair opens in Alba.
2. Montalcino, in the Val d'Orcia
When Siena fell, in 1555, the last republicans took refuge here, and for four years Montalcino was the Republic of Siena. The fourteenth-century fortress that sheltered them still dominates the village, among walls and alleys. Brunello, created from Sangiovese thanks to the Biondi Santi family in the nineteenth century, was among the first Italian wines to obtain the DOCG, in 1980. In autumn the hills around, part of the Val d'Orcia listed by UNESCO since 2004, take on the colours of the harvest, and the Romanesque abbey of Sant'Antimo is ten minutes away among the olive groves.
3. Montefalco, the balcony of Umbria
Since 1568 it has been called the Balcony of Umbria, because from its viewpoints you can see the whole valley between Perugia and Spoleto. Tradition says the name was chosen by Frederick II, struck by the falcons flying over the hill. In the former church of San Francesco, now a museum, Benozzo Gozzoli painted the stories of the saint, and there is also a Nativity by Perugino. Around the village grow the vineyards of Sagrantino, DOCG since 1992: in autumn the grapes are picked, and the landscape is the reason the balcony is worth the trip.
4. Marradi, chestnut Sundays
Marradi is in the province of Florence but lies on the Romagna side of the Apennines, and here people speak Romagnol. Every Sunday in October the village holds its chestnut festival, and some visitors arrive by train along the Lamone valley. The local fruit is the Marrone del Mugello, IGP since 1996: it differs from an ordinary chestnut because fewer than 12% of the nuts are split by the inner skin, and the shell comes off easily. At the table, ask for the torta di marroni, chestnut cake. The poet Dino Campana, author of the Canti Orfici, was born here in 1885 (1 October).
5. Navelli, the saffron village
On the plain of Navelli, in the province of L'Aquila, the second half of October is spent bent over the furrows. The crocus flowers must be picked at dawn, before they open, and the three red stigmas are removed by hand; then toasting over embers makes them lose five sixths of their weight, and a kilo of Zafferano dell'Aquila DOP takes about two hundred thousand flowers. The designation dates from 2005, but cultivation goes back to the thirteenth century, when tradition says a friar of the Santucci family brought the plant from Spain. The village, born from the union of nine hamlets, perches above the plain (4 October).
6. Brisighella, on three gypsum hills
Brisighella rests on three spurs of gypsum, and each one carries something: the fortress built in 1310 by Francesco Manfredi and completed by the Venetians in 1508, the clock tower and the sanctuary. Between the houses runs the Via degli Asini, the donkeys' road, raised and covered by arches that are all different. Below the village the gypsum continues in the Vena del Gesso Romagnola park, now part of a UNESCO World Heritage site. In autumn the olives of the Nostrana di Brisighella variety are harvested: in 1996 its oil became the first Italian extra virgin olive oil with a protected designation of origin.
7. Scanno, the photographers' village
At a thousand metres among the Marsican mountains, Scanno has entered the history of photography: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gianni Berengo Gardin and Mario Giacomelli all came up here, and in 1964 Giacomelli's shot known as the boy of Scanno entered the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Below the village lies Lake Scanno, the largest natural lake in Abruzzo. In autumn the beech trees in the woods around, on the edge of the Abruzzo National Park, turn red and orange, and the alleys grow as quiet as in the black-and-white photographs.
8. Sauris, the German island of Carnia
Sauris, Zahre in German, is a German-speaking island inside Carnia, preserved because for centuries it could only be reached on foot: people here speak Italian, Friulian and Saurano. The lake you see today is artificial: the dam on the Lumiei was built between 1941 and 1948, with the labour of three hundred New Zealand prisoners among others, and the water submerged the hamlet of La Maina. In autumn the larches around the lake turn gold, and the shops sell Sauris ham, smoked and protected by an IGP.
9. Canale di Tenno, above Lake Garda
Tenno has a twelfth-century castle, stone houses and Lake Garda below it. The municipality also has a lake all of its own, Lake Tenno, known for the blue colour of its water, and between the village and the lake stands Canale, a medieval hamlet on the list of the most beautiful villages in Italy. In summer it fills up for costume festivals, in winter for its Christmas markets: autumn is the season in between, when you can walk the stone lanes alone and the woods around the lake change colour.
10. Zafferana Etnea and Sant'Alfio, on Etna
Zafferana Etnea stands at 580 metres on the eastern side of the volcano, between woods and lava desert. In 1992 a lava flow came within a few hundred metres of the houses, and concrete blocks were dropped from helicopters to stop it: the town was saved. The Sundays of October belong to the Ottobrata, with honey, mushrooms, chestnuts and Etna wine. A few kilometres away, in Sant'Alfio, stands the Chestnut Tree of One Hundred Horses: in 1780 it measured 57.9 metres round, and Guinness World Records lists it as the largest tree in the world; a 2022 study put its age at about 2200 years (6 October).
Planning your trip
In autumn the festivals are concentrated on weekends, and in small villages beds run out fast: book ahead and arrive on Saturday. Festival dates change from year to year, so check them on the websites of the towns and local tourist associations. Every village on the list has its own page on BigItalia, with its history, places to see and places to stay; on Friday 25 September the agenda will be devoted to the food festivals of October.
