Grape Harvest in Marino and painting autumn leaves…
Hello again. After a long, sun-drenched and exhausting summer here in Italy, we now welcome the season of the vendemmia—the grape harvest. Marino hums back to life as lorries and trailers heave through the streets, brimming with clusters of ripe grapes. Freshly picked, they are delivered into shadowy, cave-like cantine, where the harvest is squashed and squeezed into rows of waiting wooden barrels. From there, the rich, musty perfume of fermenting juice drifts upward to our terrace, carrying with it the promise of new wine.
Just beneath our apartment, a newly opened cantina called Liane adds to the bustle. Our friend Gabriel is working long hours picking, crushing, and carrying away the liane (the little sticks off the grapes). His family are helping, and we stop to taste last year’s wine and admire his new business set-up. Soon he will open a small frascetta.
This week the town is lit up with gold and green twinkle lights and the happy noise of the Sagra dell’Uva. Over the weekend, bands filled the old town center with music from dawn until nightfall, their sounds weaving through narrow streets and echoing off ancient stone walls. Concerts enlivened the piazza, while people strolled across the cobblestones in their search for a spare table at one of the many restaurants.
Art in Marino becomes fabric
In the spirit of this festive season, here is one of my vineyard designs, part of a collection of patterns available for licence…
About the Autumn leaves fabric pattern …
My hand-painted repeating pattern for fabric and wallpaper prints, titled “Autumn Gold Vineyard” is made with rich vibrant watercolours. Painted in leafy layers and gnarly vines to capture the spirit of the autumn, a mix of deep plum, burnt orange, golden yellow and earthy browns.
Inspiration:
The vendemmia (grape harvest) in the Castelli Romani—the picturesque group of volcanic hills just southeast of Rome that includes towns like Marino, Frascati, and Castel Gandolfo—is an ancient, deeply rooted ritual that transforms the countryside every autumn. Rather than following a strict calendar date, the harvest begins whenever the grapes reach their optimal balance of sugar and acidity, typically unfolding between September and October.
The Traditional Process
Timing and Selection: Winemakers monitor the grapes closely because factors like summer sun and altitude dictate exact ripeness. Varieties like Malvasia di Candia and Trebbiano—famous staples of the local white wines—are watched carefully so they retain their signature fresh acidity.
Manual Harvesting: In many family-run vineyards across the Castelli Romani, the work is still done entirely by hand. Workers, family members, and neighbors move methodically through the rows in the cool early morning air, using shears to clip heavy bunches of grapes and placing them gently into crates to prevent the skins from breaking prematurely.
Transport to the Cantina: The filled crates are loaded onto tractors or trucks and rushed to local cellars (cantine). There, the grapes are sorted, destemmed, and gently crushed to release the sweet mosto (must) before beginning the natural fermentation process in tanks or traditional barrels.
Community and Celebration
Beyond the agricultural labor, the vendemmia in the Castelli Romani functions as a major social and cultural milestone. Historically, it is a communal affair where generations come together to share tools, stories, and long communal meals under pergolas or in courtyard farmhouses.
This festive spirit reach I mage
es its absolute peak nearby in Marino, which hosts the famous Sagra dell’Uva (Grape Festival)—one of Italy’s oldest and most exuberant harvest celebrations. Established in the 1920s to honor the local winemaking bounty, the festival famously features historical reenactments, music, and the miraculous moment when local wine temporarily flows directly from the town’s public fountains instead of water, celebrating the culmination of the hard work poured into the vendemmia.
Join us to celebrate the Sagra dell’Uva
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