I will be in Tuscany Oct 16-23; does anyone know if the grape harvest is during this time? How about olives?

Yes, right on!! Do you want to give a hand? WE need labour!! THe Olives will be picked in Late November<BR><BR>Ciao

The grapes are harvested anytime between the middle of September till at least the middle of OCtober. If you are going to stay in Tuscany just about everywhere you go you will see something having to do with wine at this time. When you drive around you will see some vineyards that have already been harvested and there will be some that the grapes are still on the vine. I'm sure you will see people picking the grapes and you may see vehicles driving packed with grapes or people loading up these vehicles to take them for production. It's a very interesting thing if you can stumble upon any part of this. This time in Italy is my absolute favorite, especially in Tuscany. It helps that my husband is Italian, but I walk right up to people and ask them in Italian to tell me about what they're doing. I've found that most people are very nice, and I think are probably wondering, why are you interested in this? I've spent alot of time in Italy during this time, if you have any more questions, let me know.

Dawn:<BR><BR>next time you happen to be in Italy around the same period, try to move to the Monferrato area in Piedmont. THis is another area of first rank wines production and the hills are somewhat like Chianti, but with a deeper green coloring and a cooler and more misty weather. Lovely and similar but yet different from Tuscany. In there do not miss, beside the wines, the lovely cheesees, more similar to the French ones than to Pecorino cheeses produced in central Italy.

Alice,<BR>I'll keep that in mind, I love many of the wines produced in that region. ahh, cheese! when we were in Italy in April, my sister-in-law, gave us some cheese from her shop. She and her husband have a alimentari & salumeria in Forte dei Marmi. They gave us this huge round of percorino and we were able to get it in, just by luck. As my husband was taking the bags off the baggae claim the sniffing dog came by, but my husband didn't see him and stacked the luggage. Thank goodness, the beagle sniffing that day couldn't reach the top suitcase. All of our friends and family were very happy with the fact that the cheese got through. Yum!!

Dawn,<BR>Would you recommend any other seasonal activities for this time of year in the Chianti region (ie festivals or other activities)? I was in this region once, but only for 2 days, not nearly enough time to explore the beauty.<BR><BR>Amy

Research the internet and see, there are several sights with "festival activities". They have horseback riding, ballooning, hiking, bicycling, all which I think are cool, especially the first two. On Saturday in Greve there is a market, but only till around 1:00. We just drove around and kinda wandered. There are lots of roadside vineyeards and many have stands, some farms. You can taste their wine, and most produce other things also, such as oil, honey, meats, cheeses, etc. Ask wherever you're staying. In Italy they have celebrations all the time. My husband is in Italy now, and he and his father were going to the Sangra dei la Tordelli, in his home town, thats festival of Ravioli.

Great news! <BR><BR>I'll be there the first week of October, and our villa is supposed to be a working vineyard! <BR><BR>

pecorino cheese can be fine, although I do not particularly like it, but the point with buying cheese in tuscany is that most shops have no more than some 10-15 kinds of cheeses to sell: 50% of them ar pecorinos, the rest is Parmigiano Reggiano, industrial gorgonzola, mozzarella and little else. My fiance's uncle has a large food shop in Pistoia, but his selection of cheeses always disappoints me. Here in Milano in any supermarket or fod shop I can find at least three times as many kinds of cheeses from the whole Italy. www.formaggio.it lists 24 cheeses for Tuscany, all of them variatiaons of the basic pecorino, while in Piedmont there are 80 different cheeses listed, belonging to at several different cathegories!

We will be in Tuscany as well mid October. What will the weather be like? Thanks.

You will have a mixed bag. But similiar to the mid-atlantic east coast at that time. Plan for some warmer days and make sure you bring a sweater and something incase it rains. I'd say 60's and 70's and quite cooler at night.

Great website for finding festivals or fairs around the world is --- www.festivals.com<BR>