Chianti Senese

The zone of Chianti Senese, called "Garden of Europe" has become known all over the world for its sweet beauty, so to be defined by most of people the beautiful country in the world. Rounded hills cultivated with olive groves and vineyards, where it is produced a famous wine, punctuated from villages, pievi, castles and colonical buildings restores in order to offer to the tourists a fabolulos stay. The evocative landscapes of the Chianti Senese, places of great wine tradition comprises: Castellina in Chianti, Castelnuovo Berardenga, Gaiole in Chianti and Radda in Chianti.

Castellina in Chianti is a defended medieval village in panoramic position, on a hill that dominate Arbia, Pesa and Elsa valleys. The rocca is the only fortification which is still today after the dismantellation during the fall of Siena. This construction has a tower of 1300 and a cassero of the 1400, that dominates the village. Today it is center of the Common where is a small antiquarium with eruscan founds recovered in the outskirtses. Radda in Chianti rises on the watershed between Pesa and Arbia valleys, at the center of a country covered with vineyards and encircled by forests. In 1203 it was part of the properties of Florence and it was fortified in 1400, with powerful walls that nowadays are conserved only in part. Still intact is the medieval structure of the village, where the paved narrow lanes are developed designing an ellipse around the church of Saint Niccolò of 1300. Gaiole in Chianti is an ancient village developed in Arbia valley, encircled by sweet hills cultivated with vineyards and olive groves. In the nearby of the village are two small fortified: Spaltenna, where it is still conserved the romanesque pieve of Saint Maria constructed in XII the century, and Vèrtine, ancient village of Ricasolis remained intact by the time of the foundation, in 1200.

We are, in one of the more important territories for the wine production, but this zone is not only known for the Chianti wine but also because the territory is punctuated of magioni, feudal castels and offers other gastromomic products. Beside the wine, the rural wisdom of Chianti from Siena, has promoted the oil, has recovered the race of Cinta senese and a large sheep farming, that gives excellent pecorino cheese. With the cooked bread are prepared plates like panzanella, ribollita, pappa al pomodoro. The toasted bread, is the base of the fettunta, or of the (black) cabbage on the slices.