Summer leaves this valley slowly. The pool stays open into September, the evenings shorten by a few minutes a week, and the towns around us start doing the thing they do best in autumn: picking one food and cooking it for a whole weekend.
Here is the season, in order. Every one of these is under forty minutes from our door.
Monte San Savino · 9–13 September
The Sagra della Porchetta, in the piazza of the town just over the hill from us. Porchetta is the point, but the menu runs long, and the evenings run longer.
Castiglion Fiorentino · 18–20 and 25–27 September
I Giorni di Bacco — two weekends given over to wine in the streets of the old town.
La Noceta, Castiglion Fiorentino · 2–4 October
The Sagra del Fungo Porcino e della Bistecca. Porcini and Chianina steak, which is the whole of the argument.
Arezzo · 3–4 October, 31 October–1 November, 5–6 December
The Fiera Antiquaria fills Piazza Grande and the streets around it on the first Sunday of every month, and the Saturday before. Go for the furniture; stay for the square.
Fratticciola, Cortona · Sunday 11 October
The Mostra del Carro Agricolo — the farm carts come out, the grapes get pressed the old way, and a small place near Cortona spends a Sunday remembering how the valley used to work.
Lucignano · 16–18 October
Our own town's Festa della Castagna e del Porcino: roast chestnuts and porcini in Piazza delle Logge, stalls under the arcades, and the walk home afterwards.
Montecchio Vesponi · 16–18 October
The same weekend, a few minutes further on: the Sagra della Castagna, in its forty-second year.
Arezzo · from 14 November
Arezzo Città del Natale — a Tyrolean village of wooden chalets set up in Piazza Grande, open from the middle of November to just after Christmas. If you are here for the quiet season, this is where the valley goes for lights.
That is autumn, within an easy drive of the house. From October the house books by the unit, so a few nights around one of these weekends is enough to build a stay on.
Thinking about an autumn stay? Write to us — info@villaofgoldenlight.com.