The Tuscany Nobody Tells You About — And Why April Is the Month to Go

August gets all the attention. But the guests who've spent a week in Tuscany in April almost never go back to summer.

The hills are vivid green, the wildflowers are out, the roads are quiet, and the restaurants — having just reopened after winter — are at their most welcoming. This is Tuscany before the season properly starts, which means it is Tuscany at its absolute best.

Fewer People. More of Everything Else.

Peak season in Tuscany runs from late June through August. During those months, the most-loved restaurants book out weeks in advance, the roads into Florence are gridlocked by mid-morning, and the private experiences that make a villa holiday truly memorable — chef dinners, vineyard tours, morning truffle hunts — fill up fast.

In April, almost none of that applies. 

Our concierge team has far more flexibility to build bespoke itineraries. Last-minute bookings at exceptional restaurants become possible. And the countryside — the whole point of coming to Tuscany — belongs almost entirely to you.

For families travelling with grandparents or young children, the temperature is also considerably more manageable. April averages 15–19°C in the Lucca hills: warm enough to eat outside, cool enough to actually explore.

This Spring, There Are Two Things Worth Planning Around

The Lucca Classica music festival returns in late April, bringing world-class classical performances into the piazzas and medieval churches inside the old city walls — a 12-minute drive from Villa Benassai. An evening concert followed by dinner at a trattoria that's been run by the same family for decades is the kind of night that doesn't happen anywhere else.

Further afield, the Giardino dell'Iris in Florence opens its annual three-week bloom at the end of April. It is one of the most quietly spectacular things in all of Italy — an entire hillside of irises above the Arno — and almost entirely unknown to visitors who haven't been told to look for it. We always tell our guests to look for it.

April Is Truffle Season — and That Changes Everything About Dinner

Most people associate Tuscany with white truffles in autumn. What fewer people know is that the Marzuolo truffle — lighter, more floral, with a delicate earthiness — comes into season in March and April.
For guests staying at Villa Benassai, we arrange private morning truffle hunts in the Garfagnana hills with a local hunter and his dog. The morning ends back at the villa, where our recommended private chef builds a lunch entirely around what was found that day.

It is consistently one of the experiences our guests mention when they write to us afterwards. According to recent research by Condé Nast Traveller, over 70% of luxury travellers now say food and local culture rank above accommodation as the primary reason they choose a destination. The truffle hunt is, in miniature, exactly that.

Spring Weeks at Villa Benassai Are Moving Fast