What to do in Tuscany in Autumn, tasting olive oil

I think autumn is the best time to travel to Tuscany. From September to October, Tuscany is full of grape harvests and lively wine festivals, and from late October to November, the vineyards change colour. It's quite a sight to see the yellow and red leaves of the vines spread across the still green hillsides.

olive oil

In addition to the changing colours of the vineyards, the Tuscan countryside in autumn offers another wonderful experience: the tasting of freshly pressed oil from the freshly harvested olives. Until early winter, small shops and restaurants in the towns and villages, or even agriturismo (farmhouses with olive groves), sell the year's olive oils in pretty glass bottles, which you can taste beforehand if you wish. Olive oil tasting involves dipping a few slices of rustic, unsalted Tuscan bread into a small bowl of different types of fresh olive oil.

Whereas the olive oil I'm used to buying back home is a thick, slightly yellowish oil, the one I tasted here was almost bluish-green, fresh and grassy. You can even taste the slightly spicy flavour. The farmer explained that this was because the freshly pressed oil hadn't been filtered.

It was a new experience that left me feeling refreshed(!) after eating the oil. If you find yourself in Tuscany in late autumn, I highly recommend an olive oil tasting.

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