Festa dell’Uva in Impruneta: The Annual Grape Festival

Float with a huge bottle of Chainti
A gigantic bottle of Chianti on a float

Every year since 1926, Impruneta, a small town in the heart of the Chianti area of Tuscany, has it’s annual “Festa dell’Uva” or “Grape Festival” which I can only think to compare to the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.

Before our trip, I poked around online to find out about any events that would be going on during our visit and found a random site that listed the festival, which from the looks of it seemed like just a fun thing to do on a Sunday. I envisioned something like an Italian farmer’s market, with perhaps a heavy focus on grapes. Boy was I in for a surprise…

As we followed a rural side road off of already rural SR 222, we noticed that the sides of the narrow back country twisty road were starting to fill with parked cars. There were no signs for any event, or any indication of what was up ahead.

After we found parking, scaled a grassy hill and took a foot path into town, we hopped a fence and found ourselves smack dab in the middle of the event. Continue reading “Festa dell’Uva in Impruneta: The Annual Grape Festival”