Articolo disponibile anche in: Italian

Chianti is the area where really wine and culture form a whole in the sign of the exquisite Tuscanity: just cross along the Via Chiantigiana, always one of the best “roads of wine” in the world, and you can touch everything with hand! From Bagno a Ripoli to Siena for about 70 km between the provinces of Florence and Siena.

Let’s start from Bagno a Ripoli, after the first few kilometers of rural tracks begin the Chianti countryside. It’s a route with a thousand possibilities: on the right we go to Impruneta, on the left to San Polo in Chianti (for Golf fans there is the Golf Camp in Ugolino). Then Strada in Chianti and on the left Cintoia with its important water source.

Many postcard’s pictures given to us by the sight of the amazing Verrazzano Castle and Montefioralle, until you get to the heart of Chianti, Greve in Chianti. Enchanting is the Saturday morning market in its almost triangular square with food shops all around the arcades.

Then Panzano in Chianti (fascinating enter into the Romanic church of San Leolino) here we leave the province of Florence to enter in the province of Siena. Castellina in Chianti, the crossroad to Radda. We pass through the little village of Fonterutoli to descend and arrive in Siena, the city of the Palio.

Frequently there are tabernacles or crosses at the crossroads, almost like a road sign. Memory signs, guidance, comfort, expressing the beauty and taste for art; one of my favorites tabernacles is at the very beginning of Bagno a Ripoli, in Via di Secondigliano, at the corner with Via di Fattucchia. Among those ancients perhaps the most precious and refined: a ceramic of Doccia (Girnori) dating back to XVII century.

The one I’m talking about is a route through the hills, villages and landscapes because I consider as essential the Chianti Classico zoning. Read the word “Chianti” let think to “Tuscan Wine” but is interesting to analyse the various soils, in which it can be subdivided, from a geological point of view and taste, the Chianti Classico Territory.

Elegant and thinner wines born where clay and slime are in short supply as on Chianti mountains, they have much more structure where there are sodic clays as at south. Over the next appointments we’ll focus more on this points. Stay tuned.

Suggestions to put in GPS: Bagno a Ripoli, Grassina, Greve in Chianti, Castellina in Chianti, Siena…have a good trip.

Natascia Santandrea