In Pursuit of Italy’s Golden Season

In Italy, autumn concludes one act and opens another. As summer recedes, the country settles into a different way of life: the familiar abides, but a profound shift is also palpably underway. It’s a time to take stock of nature’s bounty and our own slowing rhythms, under elementally blue skies and a less dominant sun, with evenings that mix in a spritz of cool. 

Our trail runs like a crimson annurca tumbling through Italy’s branches from Florence to Rome, then on to Puglia and Sicily. Let us follow in the footsteps of Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit, orchards and the bounty of the harvest. If you know Italy already, it is liberating to let her lead you. A wiser guide you couldn’t hope to enlist.

Start as you mean to go on

An autumn adventure must begin with a feast. Set off from Tuscany, where Pomona’s blessings fall with such great generosity. They rain from the highest olive branch to those magical earthbound patches where white truffles see fit to grow.

This is where a chef’s touch must be light – these harvest ingredients are ethereally potent, to be coaxed and honoured. At Hotel Savoy, follow the scent of the season into the Tuscan countryside with truffle expert Giulio and his trusted Lagotto dogs, before a truffle-inspired lunch at his home. Then bring the harvest back to Florence: a Truffle Negroni at Bar Artemisia, followed by dinner at Irene, where white truffle lends its earthy perfume to every dish, including, more unexpectedly, dessert. Elsewhere, you might deepen your growing love affair at a vineyard or truffle festival, such as Alba’s International White Truffle Fair, mingling with fellow gastronomes and gatherers. 

Autumn meets the eternal

With Pomona’s next stride, we move south for a celebration of autumn in the capital. In Rome, the season’s exquisite light offsets shadows cast by millennia-old architecture, while its leaf fall decorates Villa Borghese with displays too pretty to disturb. The Eternal City at this time of year is a thing of undesignable perfection.

Yet Pomona is not confined to Rome’s ancient walls. Follow her into the hills of Frascati, where the Roman scampagnata – that age-old escape to the countryside – becomes a celebration of the harvest at Santa Benedetta Winery. Among vineyards and ancient olive groves, guests of Hotel de Russie can cook with the estate’s seasonal produce before sitting down to a leisurely lunch, accompanied by its wines and olive oils. 

Keeping it al fresco, soak up the season’s glory with aperitivo or dinner in the hotel’s lush Secret Garden or take in the Roman autumn from a different vantage point at Hotel de la Ville’s Cielo Bar, a veritable eyrie, affording lofty views of the city’s transition to shades of ember.

Warmth before winter

Leaving behind Rome’s autumn masterpiece, we go deeper still, following Pomona south to Sicily and Puglia. The air warms, and her style evolves. Here a sweater slung over the shoulders still holds, yet the sea jealously guards summer’s warmth, and invites bathing attire. At Masseria Torre Maizza, follow the last rays of the season to the Adriatic, at Lido Bambù beach club where that subtle shift in blue imbues the water.

At the Masseria, autumn is immersive. The surrounding ancient olive groves await their harvest, to be cold-pressed within hours of picking into a prized and peppery extra virgin oil. Its relationship with the land extends into the nearby Parco Dune Costiere, where an expert botanist leads guests through the Itria Valley, uncovering its rich biodiversity and regenerative farming traditions while gathering wild and aromatic herbs. Back at the hotel, these are transformed into bespoke herbal infusions at Bougainvillea, set in the old masseria’s former barn, where the eponymous shrub is contemplating the end of another glorious year. A toast to that.

We make a final stop in Italy’s far southwest, and Sicily. To savour Italy’s urban autumn one last time, Palermo offers a quite different vision to Rome. Here at our Belle Époque palazzo Villa Igiea, autumn-blushed gardens tumble down to the Gulf of Palermo. As the evenings draw in, Palermo Noir offers a little spooky-season intrigue, leading you through the city’s historic districts and their darker legends, from mysterious apparitions to centuries-old secrets. Once you’ve had your fill of Palermo’s ghosts, return to the rather more reassuring surroundings of the hotel, where the ocean’s seasonal bounty – red prawns, swordfish, and lampuga – await at Alicetta. 

Autumn in Italy unfolds gradually, at a pace that enriches. Follow its lead and take your time, exploring the season with Rocco Forte Hotels as your base. Come while the season is still golden – for, as the poet Robert Frost reminds us, nothing gold can stay.