It's snowing today in Tuscany

Since about 9 o'clock this morning, Tuesday 6 January (Befana - Epiphany), 2026, it has been snowing over much of Tuscany. Large flakes started falling down to about 450m and throughout the rest of the day the snow altitude limit has been dropping further so that by afternoon it was lightly snowing even in Florence.

 Snowfall in Montefioralle, Chianti

Obviously it snows every year in the Tuscan mountains and on the peaks of the higher ranges of hills, but snowfall has been decreasing for at least the past 30 years. In Montefioralle (450m), which I visit often in winter, there used to be as much as two feet of snow in the piazza and on the vineyards and olive groves round about, often lasting for a week two at a time during February and a bit less in January. Now it hardly snows at all. However, today there has been quite a heavy snowfall with vineyards and live trees laden with snow.

Cold weather and snow fall are quite important in Tuscany. It is extremely beneficial when the temperature drops below zero centigrade preferably for four or five days. This kills off the overwintering larvae of the olive fruit fly (Bactrocera oleae), Tuscany's most significant olive pest. Cold weather also helps suppress fungal diseases such as Peacock Spot (Spilocaea oleaginea).

The olive fruit fly

Olive trees require a specific number of "chill hours" (typically temperatures between ca. 5 C and ca. 15 C) to break dormancy. In addition, consistent cold weather ensures "uniform bud break," synchronising the flowering period across an olive grove. This synchrony is vital for effective pollination and fruit set.

The exact circumstances of a drop in temperature to below zero centigrade matters a lot. The "Great Freeze" of 1965 which killed off at least 800,000 olive trees in Tuscany, began with a heavy snow fall which by itself doesn't particularly bother olive trees (see the photo below). The temperature then began to rise, cause the snow to become slushy, and then within a matter of hours it plunged to -20 C basically encasing the olive trees in ice. They stayed that way for several days and were killed. This was a devastating economic hit to the Region. All the trees were replanted and after some years became productive again. We had a "mini-freeze" in 2021 which caused the trunks and larger branches of the olive trees, including mine, to burst but hard pruning and trimming saved most of them, and after two years production returned.

Olive trees bowed down under snow

For those of us who have a well or bore hole to provide us with water, a snow fall is much better than a shower of rain to replenish the aquifer. That's be cause in the hill rural areas of Tuscany, the ground is often very hard due to its high calcium content. Rain water thus tends to run off into seasonal torrents (borri) and eventually back into the sea where it came from. Only a small percentage of the rain soaks into the ground. In contrast, because snow stays put for hours or even days, as it slowly melts, most of the melt water soaks into the ground and replenishes the aquifers.

In any case, we're now all enjoying the beautiful views of the Tuscany countryside under snow. And here's a hoopoe that seems total oblivious to the snow.

Hoopoe pecking around in the snow

Snowfall in Radda in Chianti, 6 January 2026

More about Radda in Chianti.

The Pros and Cons of visiting Tuscany during winter.

 

 

Don't forget to visit my Tuscany Travel Guide! Up-to-date news on what to see and where to stay in Chianti and all of Tuscany. Tuscany Travel Guide

Author: Anna Maria Baldini

All content copyright © ammonet Italian Web Site Promotion 2026. All rights reserved.

Events and festivals in Tuscany during 2026

The new year has begun and now is the moment to think about events and festivals in Tuscany during 2026. If you're planning a trip to Tuscany, do look at our lists of folkloric festivals, jousts, archery and crossbow contests and numerous other events that take place in Tuscany during the course of the year. These range from the massive float parades of the Carnevale in Viareggio through the great mediaeval costume festivals to simple village food feste.

Huge processional float at Viareggio Carnevale

The festivals of Tuscany have become more and more polished and exciting in their presentation and yet remain genuine folk festivals dependent entirely on the enthusiasm of the local organisers, in many cases these being competing local contrade, rioni etc. These latter are clubs and societies based on the various residential quarters of villages, towns and cities, the most famous being the contrade of Sienna which enter their horses (and riders) in the famous Siena palio twice every year.

 The Palio in Sienna, Tuscany

In addition to annual or twice yearly events, there are always "unscheduled" occasions to see and even participate in Tuscan folkoric activities. Keep your eyes open for posters advertising upcoming local events in the town you are visiting or where you are staying. They are very often extremely worthwhile attending. One of the most popular of these activities in Tuscany, especially in Florence, are flag tossing groups - bandierai or sbandieratori - who train to become expert in synchronised flag throwing.

 

 Bandierai degli Uffizi di Firenze performing in Piazza Santa Maria Novella, Florence 

The competitions are almost always costume events with processions, and very often dinners and food stands play an important role. Look through our lists for local events taking place near where you will be staying, and in addition try to attend at least one major event during your stay.

The main Tuscan festivals.

A comprehensive list of local events and festivals in Tuscany.

Don't forget to visit Elena Spolaor's Travel Guide! Up-to-date news on what to see and where to stay in Chianti and all of Tuscany & Umbria. Chianti Travel Guide

Holiday accommodations in Chianti

Tuscany tourist information - tourist information

Author: Anna Maria Baldini

All content copyright © ammonet Infotech website promotion 2026. All rights reserved.

The Fra Angelico exhibition in Florence - last days

It's only a couple of days ago that I was able to visit the marvellous Fra Angelico exhibition currently on show at the San Marco Museum and the Strozzi Palace in Florence. The exhibition is in its final days and will end on 25 January 2026, so if you are in Florence now or have the possibility to be here before then, don't hesitate - this is an amazing display of the works of Fra Angelico of Fiesole (ca. 1395 - 1455) and other artists associated with him and his times. Fra Angelico was born around 1395, named Guido di Pietro, in the Tuscan area of Mugello near Fiesole, not far from Florence. He was one of the greatest painters of the late Gothic and early Renaissance during the 15C, his only competitor, and perhaps superior, in painting during the first part of his life being Masaccio who died at age 26, and Fra Filippo Lippi later. For this exhibition the organisers have gathered over 140 works from Florence and around the world. The exhibition catalogue follows the layout of the exhibition closely and contains illustrations of many of the works on display. Despite its expense (€80), the catalogue is indispensable. (I suspect it will show up on Amazon at a substantial discount after the exhibition closes.) I recommend that you book a time slot first for San Marco since the museum is open only in the morning, and then go on to Palazzo Strozzi after lunch, if you plan to see the entire exhibition in one day.

 

 

In this review, I'll emphasize some aspects of Fra Angelico's artistic output and other items on display that especially interested me and which might be less familiar to my faithful readers.

 

San Marco Museum

 

All of Fra Angelico's admirers as well as huge numbers of other art enthusiasts will already be familiar with the frescoes he painted in the monks' cells in the Monastery of San Marco by commission of his first and greatest patron, Cosimo de Medici, the Elder. These frescoes form the major part of the exhibition at San Marco. 

 

Fra Angelico: fresco in cell 7, The Mocking of Christ
 

In addition, there is a small but absorbing exhibition of items associated with the fanatical monk, Savonarola (1452 - 1498) who occupied Fra Angelico's former cell some thirty years after Fra Angelico had left the monastery. The famous portrait of Savonarola by Fra Bartolomeo can be viewed close up alongside an extremely expressive terracotta bust of Savonarola attributed to Marco della Robbia, later Fra Mattia (1468-1534). The display also includes a manuscript written by Savonarola in exquisite and minute script - BE SURE TO BRING A LARGE MAGNIFYING GLASS WITH YOU (see the next paragraph).

Terracotta bust of Savonarola attributed to Marco della Robbia 

 

The San Marco Monastery Library

 

The San Marco Library during the Fra Angelico Exhibition.

 

Not everyone realises that Fra Angelico was a skilled miniaturist and illustrator of illuminated manuscripts and this aspect of his artistic output should definitely not be thought of as being somehow a secondary activity, as indeed the exquisite examples of his illuminations on display in the library of San Marco Monastery demonstrate. Looking into the library from the main door, on the left are manuscripts and other sheets containing work by Fra Angelico while on the right are manuscripts that originally belonged to the library but which have been dispersed around the world following the depredations of Napoleon. Many of the manuscripts are humanistic works, some of them collected by the Medici family and donated to the library. The miniatures deserve to be examined under a magnifying glass in many cases. One example, which I can't find in the exhibition catalogue, is the only significant surviving page, the frontispiece, from Silius Italicus: De bello punico, 1450, a manuscript poem in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, illuminated by most likely by Zanobi Strozzi, who was strongly influenced by Fra Angelico. (Click the image to study the details, especially the birds.)

 

Another example, Saint Thomas Aquinas lecturing, from an Antiphonary for the Proper of Time, by Fra Angelico and collaborators, dating from about 1440-42.

 

 

 

The Strozzi Palace

The major part of the exhibition is located at the Palazzo Strozzi where almost all of the surviving major works by Fra Angelico are displayed. This part of the exhibition provides excellent insight into Fra Angelico’s artistic development and influence, and his relationship to painters such as Lorenzo Monaco, Masaccio, and Filippo Lippi, as well as sculptors like Lorenzo Ghiberti, Michelozzo, and Luca della Robbia.

Fra Angelico: the Coronation of the Virgin painted for the Church of Santa Maria Novella

 

When we first see the Coronation of the Virgin painted for the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence and the other works displayed around it, all the elements that a very expensive altarpiece of the 14 C was expected to provide leap out - a precisely tooled gold background, much azure, and much vermilion, the gilded haloes and gold-edged robes. What we are seeing at first seems all very Gothic but what makes this a Renaissance painting is the three dimensional depth and naturalism of the figures and the realism of their garments. The exhibition allows the viewer to follow Fra Angelico from Late Gothic to Early Renaissance - compare the images directly above and directly below.

 

Fra Angelico: Naming of St John the Baptist

 

I want to mention three other works from the period of Fra Angelico displayed here. The first is one of Luca della Robbia's masterpieces, the Virgin of the Apple ca. 1440-1445. Aside from the great beauty of this piece, where the only colour used is for the eyes of the Madonna and of the Child, a curiosity of the work is that the terracotta figures are placed against an apparently brocade design but which in fact includes two hidden paintings of the Madonna and Child, one painted overlaying the other. The more recent and visible painting is by Michele di Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio or his workshop, while the underlying work, viewed using infrared reflectography, is attributed to Domenico di Michelino (1417-1491).

 

Luca della Robbia the Virgin of the Apple

My faithful and intelligent readers will undoubtedly recall my obsession with the Medici family. I was delighted to be able to view up close an extremely evocative marble relief (but look at it from the left side - it's almost a sculpture in the round) of Cosimo de' Medici, the elder, by Antonio Rossellino  dating from ca. 1460-64. Cosimo was the first patron of Fra Angelico.

 

Antonio Rossellino: Cosimo de' Medici

 

Cosimo's son and the father of Lorenzo il Magnifico, was Piero (1416-1469), known as "the gouty" due to his sufferings from this disorder later in his short life. Not only is the bust of Piero on display a fine sculpture, it is one of the first objects of this kind where the provenance is clear. The various inscriptions under its base identify the artist as Mino da Fiesole, state that the subject is Piero de' Medici and that Piero was 37 years old at the time (1453-54).

 

 Mino da Fiesole: Piero di Cosimo de' Medici

 

As I staggered through this splendid exhibition (believe me, after three hours the legs grow weary), I was reminded again and again how Fra Angelico's originality, based on the foundations laid almost a century previously by Cimabue and then his pupil Giotto, finds expression in Fra Angelico's pupil Benozzo Gozzoli's portraiture and technical expertise in the art of fresco. Gozzoli links to Domenico Ghirlandaio and so to the latter's pupil Michelangelo and hence to the High Renaissance.

Don't forget to visit my Tuscany Travel Guide! Up-to-date news on what to see and where to stay in Chianti and all of Tuscany. Tuscany Travel Guide

Author: Anna Maria Baldini

All content copyright © ammonet Italian Web Site Promotion 2026. All rights reserved.