By the middle of October, the grapes of Chianti and Montalcino are mostly in, and the olive groves are waiting for their own harvest, which in many estates begins as the month turns. The countryside is at its most generous and its most relaxed. Lunch is long, outdoors where the sun allows, and dinner moves inside to stone rooms with open fires. Dressing for Tuscany in this season is a matter of texture and tone more than of fashion, and linen, in the right weight and the right colours, answers it with ease.

Italy has a long relationship with linen. In the farmhouse tradition it was the cloth of sheets, tablecloths and summer shirts, and the Italian way of wearing it, a little loose, never fussy, sleeves pushed up, has become a reference far beyond the country. Any linen worn here sits beside that tradition, and beside people who grew up wearing it.

Pieter Petros works in linen above all, and much of the collection is certified Belgian linen, whose certificate follows the flax from the field to the cloth. Flanders and northern France have grown and worked flax for centuries, and Flemish linen was traded widely across Europe from the late Middle Ages.

In the Tuscan light, which is clear and slanting in autumn, handmade linen shows its natural slubs and slight irregularities, and against old stone and terracotta they look right in a way that a perfectly flat cloth does not.

An October day in Tuscany covers a wide range. Mornings can be fresh, especially in the higher villages of the Val d'Orcia and around Montepulciano; afternoons are warm and often in the low twenties; evenings cool quickly once the sun drops behind the hills. This is long-sleeve country. The Bliss Linen Shirt in Grey, open at the neck at noon and buttoned to the collar for dinner, covers the whole arc. The Monte-Carlo Male in Oatmeal with PP Casual Linen Trousers in Roosewood Pink suits a cellar visit and the long lunch under a pergola that follows it.

For women, the Amelia linen dress shirt in Oyster, with walnut buttons and a fine cardigan or a jacket for the evening, is as much at home in a wine estate's courtyard as at a trattoria in Pienza. For the churches and abbeys of the region, Sant'Antimo or San Galgano among them, the PP linen blouse in Orchid over a long skirt covers shoulders and knees, which is the respectful choice; current rules at each site are worth checking. The Linen Ladies Set in Light Blue belongs to the warmer middle of the day by a pool in the hills.

A day in Florence asks for a little more polish than the countryside. The city fills even in autumn, the cathedral and the great churches ask for covered shoulders and knees, and the streets of the centre are long and paved. A man in the Laos Long Sleeve Linen Shirt in Dark Blue with PP Trousers 100% Linen in White walks from the Duomo to the Oltrarno and on to dinner without looking out of place anywhere. For dinner across the river, a woman can change into the Amelia linen dress shirt in Dubarry, with a light jacket against the evening.

The south of the region has its water, too. At Saturnia, warm springs run over terraces of pale rock, and in the cooler months the thermal pools are at their most inviting. For bathing there, PP swim shorts in Black or Oatmeal are the garment; afterwards, a linen shirt and trousers for the drive back through the Maremma. On the coast near Bolgheri, a sunny day in early October can still allow a short swim before lunch among the vines.

In Italy, the PP collection is presented at Tiziano Brunetto in Santa Margherita Ligure, on the Portofino coast of Liguria, a few hours north-west of Florence by road and an easy detour between the Riviera and the hills. From anywhere in Tuscany it can also be ordered online and sent to the villa or hotel.

The Tuscan palette in autumn is ochre, olive, cypress green and the grey-white of travertine. Oatmeal, Oyster and Vanille belong to it; Dark Blue and Dubarry are for the evening, by firelight. Bright white, so right on a Greek island, looks a little stark here after September.

By November the long lunches move indoors and the linen is put away for the winter. Through October, in this landscape, it is simply the right cloth for the season.

Read more: What to Wear in Tuscany  ·  The Best Linen Brand in Portofino  ·  What to Wear to a Vineyard Lunch