September in Tuscany: The Harvest, and the Crowds Go Home

September might be Tuscany's best-kept secret for a certain kind of traveller: the August crowds evaporate almost overnight, the sea is still warm enough to swim through most of the month, and the region's most important agricultural event of the year — the grape harvest — turns the countryside into a genuine working landscape rather than a backdrop.

Where to go

The Chianti hills are at their most alive this month, with pickers moving through the vineyards and the smell of fermenting must drifting from open cellar doors. Many estates, particularly around Greve, Panzano, and Radda, run harvest-season open days pairing a vineyard walk with tastings of the new vintage still in progress — a different, more working experience than May's Cantine Aperte.

Bolgheri, the small walled village that gave its name to some of Italy's most celebrated "Super Tuscan" reds (Sassicaia among them), is worth a dedicated day this month — its handful of streets are lined with wine bars and tasting rooms belonging to estates whose bottles sell for hundreds of euros elsewhere, in a setting unpretentious enough that you'd never guess it.

Inland, San Gimignano and Volterra take on a particular golden-hour light in September evenings, with a fraction of summer's foot traffic through their medieval centres.

What to eat

This is grape harvest month, full stop — look for schiacciata all'uva, a flatbread studded with whole wine grapes and a generous hand of sugar, baked specifically during vendemmia and rarely seen the rest of the year. Porcini mushrooms also start appearing on menus as the first autumn rains arrive.

Worth timing your trip around

Cantine Aperte in Vendemmia, the Movimento Turismo del Vino Toscana's harvest-season follow-up to May's open-cellar weekend, runs across a broad window from late August into late October, with individual wineries — including several around Bolgheri — setting their own dates and often requiring advance booking. It's worth checking which estates are participating and on which weekend before planning a visit, since the programme is decentralised rather than a single fixed date.

Why stay at Redolina

September's harvest energy is best experienced slowly, moving between Chianti's working cellars and Bolgheri's tasting rooms without the August crowds. Redolina's central position keeps both within a manageable drive, alongside a quieter, golden version of the hill towns further south.