Monteriggioni Abbadia Isola Colle Val d'Elsa Poggibonsi San Gimignano Volterra Casole d'Elsa Certaldo Castellina in Chianti

Siena Buonconvento San Galgano Monte Oliveto Maggiore S. Antimo Montalcino San Quirico d'Orcia Pienza Montepulciano

Castellina in Chianti

You know that in Tuscany you get always-good wine: The most famous is that of Chianti, a land full of hills between Florence and Siena. They say the Etruschi were the first ones to produce wines in these beautiful hills, a really ancient Tuscany people settled here much earlier than the Christian era. Castellina was inhabited by them and still preserved many ruins of Etruscan tombs. Castellina is situated on the top of a hill from where you get a nice view and in summertime a nice breeze. To get there you should take a up road turn by the Cassia road, which is the one made by the Romans, then you will find on you way a black chicken poster which advises you are entering the Classic Chianti world (the Tuscany area where this wine is produced). The chicken is a remembering of the fact that around XIII century AD when Siena and Florence were contending for this land, they did a competition to establish the boundaries once for all. Two Knights left at the same time one from Siena, one from Florence, at the first chicken's call in the early morning. The place where they would meet each other it would become the new boundary. Florence people used a black chicken, which was so starved to call much earlier than the sunrise came. So the two knights met between Castellina and Siena, very far from where it was the previous boundary. The black chicken became a symbol of Chianti land.

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Siena

Siena is such a treasure of beauties that it is difficult to choose one. But, at least to me, there is one thing, which is really special and unique, a part from being enchanting: it is Campo square. It has a seashell shape divided in nine slices. This shape it has been studied for a specific purpose. The old town of Siena, on the route of the pilgrims' travels remained upper than these roads (on Banchi di Sopra, Upper Banks and Banchi di Sotto, Down Banks streets) and it was connected to the Cathedral by way of via di Città, City's road. Beneath the buildings surroundings these streets there was a field, a campo.
When the citizens thought to build the Public Palace, they completed the enclosure of the field through this building and put a pavement of bricks on the basement to avoid the stagnation of the rainy waters. At the end of the leaning basement they made a seashell shape well from where the waters could flow away to the Palace tanks. In Siena water has been always a trouble!
The entire pavement was thought to drive the rainy waters on the channels dividing each slice from the other. Still nowadays the water run through these ways, but the citizens don't even care about it: the only things they notice running through the square are the horses on the Palio race!

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Buonconvento

Something I really like of this village is that is a medieval village, with and old historical centre, the surrounding walls and the bridge to get in. But differently from many other old villages of our lands it is situated on a meadow: it seems to stand there very quite.. for. Crossing that meadow called Val D'Arbia (Arbia river's valley) there is the road which brought to Rome, Cassia, made by the Romans and utilised by them and afterwards by the pilgrims. On the Val d'Arbia there are many small villages close to each other. Buonconvento walls surround the village giving it a square shape. They were made around the XIV century with the monetary help of Siena's spedale of Santa Maria della Scala. Siena's biggest hospital of those times, so called because situated in front of the cathedral's stairs, gave help to the ill, sick and needed ones. Indeed this Institution owned many farms around Siena and took care of the defence of wheat' supplies and people of the countryside both always in danger of assaults by mercenary soldiers, bandits and so on, very common in those times. So Buonconvento was enclosed in a walls ring with many defended gates to be safer and to let people stay quite inside their homes, at least!

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San Galgano

San Galgano was a young noble man grown in Chiusdino (a village nearby). Where today there is the abbey called by his name around XII century AD there was just a wood. Galgano was a knight, but one day he had dream cause of which he decided to devote fully himself to the religious life. He reached Montesiepi, which is the hillock close to the abbey and lived alone in pray. As all the knight he possessed a sword, then he took his own sword and thrust it into a rock. The thrust sword became suddenly a symbol of the cross and Saint Galgano decided that he preferred pray instead of fight. Today on the Montesiepi hillock there is another nice small church, which in a rounding shape contains that rock. Those monks who came to live in this holy place have built the abbey after Saint Galgano death. It was a big abbey but it has been neglected for a long time. So nowadays only the walls still remain. I think that there are so many churches made with many ornaments, but one like this, which has the skies as a roof and a beautiful green grass as pavement: nowhere else you could see it!

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