Grapes, Gold & Gallo Nero: My Sunday at Impruneta's Festa dell'Uva 🍇🥂

Some Sundays are for sleeping in. This one was for catching the last train of golden light into the Chianti hills, thirteen kilometres south of Florence, to the terracotta town of Impruneta — famous for its kilns, its clay, and once a year, its grapes. Since 1926, the last Sunday of September has belonged to the Festa dell'Uva, when Piazza Buondelmonti fills with grape-festooned floats, historic costume parades, and stalls pouring the Gallo Nero's best. The air smells of crushed Sangiovese, roasted chestnuts, and sun-warmed stone, and every third person seems to be holding a glass and a joke at the same time. I came for the wine. I stayed until the string lights came on.

🍇 Scene 1 — Party in Full Swing

The piazza by mid-afternoon was pure electric joy — bunting strung between ochre walls, a sea of festival-goers, and me in my breezy white-and-sage sundress, laughing so hard mid-conversation that I nearly lost my Chianti. September sun, warm terracotta everywhere, and the parade drums echoing off the hills. This is what a Tuscan Sunday tastes like.

🍷 Scene 2 — The Toast You're In On

Then came my favorite hour: a wooden table under the bunting, a bottle of Antinori Pèppoli Chianti Classico breathing between us, and one of those shared jokes that makes the whole table lean in. I clinked my glass straight toward the camera — consider it an invitation. Sangiovese at eighty percent, aged in big Slavonian oak, all wild cherry and sun-warmed plums. It goes down as easily as the gossip.

Sofie clinking glasses toward the viewer at a wooden table at the Impruneta grape festival, golden afternoon light, Chianti Classico bottle between friends

🥂 Scene 3 — Golden Hour Wind-Down

And then the day exhaled. The parade wound down, the crowd thinned, and the first string lights flickered on over our picnic blanket on the edge of the piazza — Impruneta's rooftops going amber behind me, cypress hills glowing like they'd been brushed with honey. Cardigan off one shoulder, last glass in hand, no plans except watching the light leave. The perfect Sunday, my darlings. I've checked the definitions.

Sofie lounging on a fairy-lit picnic blanket at golden hour overlooking Impruneta's terracotta rooftops and Chianti hills, glass of Chianti Classico in hand

✨ Impruneta & Pèppoli — Tasting Notes & Travel Tips

Wine Featured: Marchesi Antinori — Pèppoli Chianti Classico DOCG. ~80% Sangiovese with complementary indigenous varieties, fermented in stainless steel and aged about nine months in large Slavonian oak barrels; the estate spans ~100 hectares in the Chianti hills near Impruneta, with ~55 under vine. Expect wild cherry, plum, and that gentle earthy warmth Tuscany does best.
Best Time to Visit: The last Sunday of September — the Festa dell'Uva has run every year since 1926 (2026 marked the festival's 100th-edition countdown festivities), with floats, parades, and tasting stands from morning until the lights come on.
Getting There: Impruneta sits ~13 km south of Florence — a 25-minute drive up into the hills, or an easy bus from Porta Romana; arrive before the parade to grab parking and a piazza-side table.
What to Wear: A breezy tiered sundress in light colors — white against the terracotta is devastating — low heels or chic flats for cobblestones, and a knit cardigan that slips off one shoulder the moment the sun drops.

💋 One hundred years of this town celebrating its grapes, and somehow I'm the sweetest thing in the piazza tonight. Next Sunday I'm chasing harvest somewhere new — keep the second glass warm for me, tesoro. 💋