In 2026 All Saints' Day falls on a Sunday: no long weekend, but a full one. The last chestnut festivals, the Cimini woods and museums, one hour from Rome.
In 2026, 1 November falls on a Sunday. So there is no extra day off: Monday is a working day in Italy. But the weekend is still worth the trip, because this is when a season closes here. The last chestnut festivals, the Cimini woods turning colour, and a Sunday when many state museums usually open for free. All of it one hour from Rome, with the Orte motorway exit a quarter of an hour away.
This is our idea of an All Saints' weekend in Tuscia: no rushing, two full days and an evening by the fire.
Saturday 31 October: the last chestnut weekend
In the Cimini hills October belongs to the chestnut, and All Saints' weekend is the last one of two festivals that look alike without competing.
Canepina, about 25 minutes away
Canepina's Giornate della Castagna reach their 44th edition and close on 31 October and 1 November. On Saturday morning the official programme includes a free chestnut-gathering walk with donkeys; in the evening — Halloween night — the village cellars host charity dinners. The cellars are the heart of the festival: you eat indoors, sheltered, with Canepina's traditional dishes.
Vallerano, about 25 minutes away
Vallerano's Festa della Castagna, devoted to the Castagna di Vallerano, a PDO chestnut, runs at weekends from 10 October to 1 November, so it too closes over All Saints' weekend. Here too you eat in old cellars carved into the tufa, and around the village there are centuries-old chestnut groves to walk through.
A practical tip: on festival weekends the villages fill up. Arrive early or arrive late, never at noon. The rest of the season is in our guide to autumn events in Tuscia, and the seasonal table in truffles and chestnuts.
Sunday 1 November: the holiday, and the museums
1 November is also the first Sunday of the month. Under the Ministry of Culture's «Domenica al museo» scheme, entry is usually free that day at the state museums and sites that take part. In past years these included Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola, about 35 minutes away: the five-sided palace with its spiral staircase and frescoed rooms, open on Sundays. Check the list of participating sites on the Ministry's website before you set off. Our Caprarola guide walks you through it room by room.
If you would rather stay with the chestnuts, on Sunday Canepina opens its cellars at lunchtime, flag-wavers and musicians fill the square in the afternoon, and in the evening the cellars reopen for tastings.
Where to stay
Villa Vacanze Valentina is in Bassano in Teverina, in the green heart of Tuscia: two apartments in the villa and a cottage for two.
The colours of the woods
Between October and November the Monte Cimino beech forest, above Soriano, changes colour. It is an ancient beech wood, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2017, about 30 minutes from the villa. You don't need to be a hiker: a short walk among the grey trunks and fallen leaves is enough to see why people from Viterbo come up every autumn. The colour has no fixed date — it depends on the year, and the Soriano council and tourist office websites post updates.
With children: the Monsters of Bomarzo
Ten minutes from the villa is the Park of the Monsters in Bomarzo, the 16th-century wood of sculptures that needs no explaining to children. It is open every day, but in autumn it closes at sunset, around 5pm: best to go in the morning. Up-to-date hours and tickets are in our Park of the Monsters guide.
If it rains: hot water
November sometimes brings rain. Here that is no problem: in Viterbo, 25 minutes away, the water comes out of the ground hot. There are the Terme dei Papi, with their big open-air pool, and the free hot spring pools, where you bathe under the sky even in the cold. In a light drizzle it is almost better.
A possible weekend, unhurried
- Saturday morning: leave Rome, an hour's drive, first stop Bomarzo.
- Saturday evening: dinner in a cellar in Canepina or Vallerano, then the fireplace.
- Sunday morning: Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola, if free entry is confirmed, or the Cimino beeches.
- Sunday afternoon: the hot springs, or one last roast chestnut in the square. Head back to Rome after dinner, once the holiday traffic has eased.
And if you want to know what happens here afterwards, when the festivals end and the quiet arrives, we tell it in what to do in Tuscia in winter.
Where to stay
Villa Vacanze Valentina is in Bassano in Teverina, province of Viterbo, and stays open in autumn: two apartments in the villa, side by side, for up to four guests each, and the Casetta degli Innamorati for two, a separate cottage with its own private garden. This is the season when the house really earns its keep: heating, equipped kitchens with a dishwasher in the apartments, and in one of the two apartments a real fireplace, firewood included. All around, the large 3,000 m² garden, fenced and shared by the three units. Bomarzo is ten minutes away, Canepina and Vallerano about twenty-five, Viterbo twenty-five, Rome one hour.
Everything about the house is on our holiday home near Viterbo page; for the cold season there is Winter in Tuscia.
Programmes and opening times change from year to year: before you travel, check dates and times on the festivals' official websites (giornatedellacastagnacanepina.it, festacastagna.it) and the «Domenica al museo» list on the Italian Ministry of Culture's website. Information checked in September 2026.
