One knows it is autumn in Italy when the Tuscans slip into their fur coats and the half-a-million-or-so Vespas don shiny windshields to protect their daredevil drivers from the chilling slipstreams…

But then again, you would have already known it was autumn if you had visited one of Florence’s food markets, for its colourful autumnal fare is impossible to ignore.  Bunches of dark green winter chards and textural winter cabbage cavalo nero are piled hight beside bulging bright orange pumpkins.  Sacks of new-season dried beans fight for space with a stunning display of sugared fruit and mature goats cheeses.. That’s in case you haven’t noticed the wood mushrooms, the wild boar sausages and trussed game birds…