Welcome Autumn - Autumn in Italy

🍂🍄 Autumn is my favorite season 🍂🍄

It always has been, and for this reason I have always been called "strange" by those who love summer and see autumn as a melancholic and sad time.

On the other hand, I don't particularly like summer because I hate the heat, especially the kind of heat that exists in the area where I live.

I live in north-eastern Italy and here the climate is particularly hot, humid and sultry in summer. In autumn and winter the climate is particularly harsh and very humid.

What do I like about autumn?

I arrive in September having come back from holiday, suffered a lot of heat, spent more time outdoors, expended a lot of energy, and am looking forward to slowing down.

I really like the cool weather, the rainy days and the changing light.

I find that this is the ideal atmosphere for staying indoors, living convivial moments indoors, in a more intimate and cosy way.

My home in autumn

I'm not a fanatic about home decoration, but I do like to create a little autumn atmosphere in my home. I do this with 'living' objects such as pumpkins, flowers and autumn fruit.

I also start lighting scented candles again to perfume my home and create a warm and cosy atmosphere.

There is also an object that marks the beginning of the cold season in my house: a very warm blanket with orange colours. My partner teases me about it. When he sees me put it on the sofa he says "OK, now autumn can begin!".

What I like to do around the house in autumn

As i say before, as soon as the cold season starts, I start wanting to stay indoors. I prefer to cook for friends and relatives, rather than go out to eat at a restaurant.

I prefer to receive them at home, rather than being in a bar for an aperitif.

Also because, as soon as the warm season ends, I feel like cooking again.

I start making bread, cakes and fruit and vegetable purées again.

In contrast to the warm season, I feel the need to take time out to leaf through recipe books, write, read, watch a film on TV with my partner.

What I like to do outside the home in autumn

Although I prefer to stay indoors during the cold season, autumn is a time when I love walking in nature. Seeing how the colours of the leaves change day by day and the air gets colder and colder makes me feel really good.

Unfortunately, there is not much nature around my house, but it is only a few kilometres by car to reach really nice places where you can enjoy the autumn.

I love collecting chestnuts with my dad, just like when I was little.

Unfortunately, we live far away, but every year I try to reach him to keep this tradition alive.

What I like to eat in autumn

Autumn in Italy is a triumph of colours, flavours and smells. I think it is the richest season in terms of smells. The smell of pumpkin cooking in the oven, roasted chestnuts in the streets of the city centre, grape must at village festivals.

I love it all.

I love pumpkin. I eat it all year round, to tell you the truth, partly because I live in an area where pumpkins are very well produced.

Pumpkins can be stored all year round.

My grandmother tells me that she used to put them in straw to make them last all winter.

With pumpkins you can make a thousand recipes, both sweet and savoury. I make cakes, soups, baked, steamed, put them in omelettes, in rice, make a puree that I eat as a snack.

I love grapes and chestnuts.

I love the first apples when they ripen, which I can use to make a cake or a simple puree with sultanas and cinnamon.

Autumn is also the best time for mushrooms. I like to cook them simply stewed, with tomato and onion to go with a hot polenta (yellow maize flour - a typical Italian dish) with cheese. What a delight!

And do you like autumn? How do you live this season in your country? What are the traditions? I am curious to know! Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)