Then November starts that hunting and gathering season, when the menus are filled with truffle-spiked dishes, wild boar sauces and stews, and other earthy delights. Cap it all off with the fact that November 6 is the date on which, by law, they release the vino novello (new wine--like France's famous Beaujolais Nouveau), celebrated in festivals in many towns with gushing wine fountains and all the free novello you can drink.

OK, now I'm jealous. Can I come with?

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Arlington, VA: My husband and I will be travelling to the city of Genova and the countryside of Genova and Imperia provinces this October. This will be our fifth trip to Italy, and I'm a bit embarrassed to say that there is one significant detail that we have yet to sort out -- adding gratuity to a restaurant bill. This is the sequence we typically encounter: we receive the bill, we give our credit card, we receive the credit card receipt back, but without a line for adding the tip. In these cases there may be "pane e coperto" added, but no line item for gratuity itself was built in. We have taken to bringing cash and leaving cash on the table with the receipt, but this is cumbersome. What are we missing in this transaction?

Reid Bramblett: First of all, pane e coperto has nothing to do with a gratuity or tip. It's just the "cover charge" you have to pay in nearly all Italian restaurants just for the privilege of sitting down to a tablecloth and a basket of bread.
In many Italian restaurants, the tip--called in Europe a "service charge"--if often built into the prices. Look at the bottom of the menu pages to see if the phrases "servizio incluso" or something similar appears. If not, or if you are still unsure, just as the waiter when you ask for the bill" "E incluso il servizio?" (Is the tip included?)

If so, no need to worry about that missing line on the credit card slip (which takes a lot longer to explain and has to do with the time-honored Italian tradition of income tax evasion). If not, tip 10 to 15 percent as usual. For particularly stellar service, it is customary, even if service is already included, to leave a little something extra, just to show you noticed and appreciated the waiter's skill. Anywhere from 50 Euro-cents to 1 Euro per person, rounded up, is appropriate.

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Patterson, NY: Please recommend some small wineries in Tuscany that we can tour and purchase wine.

Reid Bramblett: Someone in Chicago had the exact same question, so let's give a nicely detailed answer.
First of all, as a general rule you'll want to call ahead at least a day or two before heading out to any winery. Some of the slicker commercial operations allow you just to drop by and get on a tour, but many require you to book a tour in advance, often a day or two (sometimes a week). However, almost all of them have tasting rooms and direct sales outlets that are open to all comers, though often only during business hours on weekdays.
The most concentrated wine-producing regions are in the famed hills of the Chianti between Florence and Siena, and in the hilltowns just west and south of Siena--places like Montepulciano with is Vino Nobile, and Montalcino producing one of Italy's mightiest reds, Brunello.

In the Chianti, some of the most visitor friendly wineries include the 12th-century Castello di Verrazzano (tel. 055-854-243 or 055-290-684; verrazzano.com), the hilltop castle where Giovanni da Verrazzano was born in 1485 (later to sail out of the Chianti and discover New York harbor, which is why we named that big old bridge after him). Hour-long tours of the gardens and cellars run Monday through Friday from 11am to 3pm); book ahead at least a day in advance.

The monks who live in the postcard-perfect thousand-year-old Badia a Passignano (tel. 055-807-1622), a castle-like monastery wrapped in a cypress grove atop vine-stripped hills and olive groves, no longer tend to the wine-making; that's in the hands of the massive Antinori wine empire. Monday to Friday you can visit its osteria (tel. 055-807-1278) to tour the cellars and buy the wines produced here. (Tours of the monastery are only given Sundays around 3pm)

The Russet-orange villa surrounded by cypress and elegant gardens called Villa Vignamaggio (tel. 055-854-661; vignamaggio.com) will look oddly familiar to Kenneth Branagh fans. This is where he filmed Much Ado About Nothing--but the 14th-century villa's fame goes back much further; this was, after all, the childhood home of a young girl who would grow up to pose for a painting by Leonardo da Vinci and become known as the Mona Lisa. Now the joint's owned by a Milanese former banker, who has revived the wine making (and turned most of the out buildings in a rather chic agriturismo, or farm stay operation). Book ahead at least a week ahead to tour the cellar and those ornate gardens, on Tuesdays and Thursdays only.