Attractions
San Gimignano, Elsa valley (Val d'Elsa) and Chianti area.
Maybe the expression has been used to many times but it’s still appropriate: There’s no better comparison than calling San Gimignano, the city of hundred towers, the “Medieval Manhattan”.
A kind of fortified village that, to the great joy of the visitors from all over the world, seems to have “turned to ice” in the 14th century to keep alive the miracle of an urban and architectonical structure that has remained unchanged over the centuries. In the last 25 years luck was on the side of this corner of the Sienese land: By now San Gimignano has surpassed in celebrity many bigger and more important places. It’s the home of one of the most famous and antique Tuscan wines, the only white wine which is well known all over the world: the Vernaccia.
Certainly it’s not enough to mention only the inevitable comparison with Manhattan (by now there are only 18 towers left). The little town and its territory have so much more to offer.
The Elsa valley, antique and very civilized land, cradle of the trade routes in this region and cradle of learning and art from the time of the High Middle Ages, rich in famous monuments, beautiful little towns and breathtaking panoramas.
Let’s mention just some of them: Colle di Val d’Elsa, the city of crystal, Casole, Monteriggioni with its intact city walls that have been celebrated even in Dante’s Divine Comedy, Poggibonsi and its fortress of Poggio Imperiale, an uncountable number of Romanesque parish churches (like the one of Cellole or the extraordinary Badia a Isola), oratories, monasteries, castles and villages.
All these sights are not only relics of a glorious past, but they are still a symbol of the territory’s richness which still lasts thanks to the industriousness of its people and a dense network of trades that has its origins in medieval times, when the Via Francigena ran through the Elsa valley, the road which connected the papal town of Rome with Northern Europe between the 9th and the 15th century with a steady stream of warriors, pilgrims, saints and emperors.
Today we can still find some traces of this extraordinary road which explain why in the course of the centuries villages, castles, bridges and pilgrims’ hospitals have been built just where they are and not anywhere else.
According to recent statistics the word “Chianti” is, on all continents and at all latitudes, a synonym for Tuscany. There’s indeed no travel lover on this planet who has not heard about the famous Tuscan hills yet, where the most renowned red wine is produced: the Chianti, which we can easily recognize by its characteristic label of the black rooster (gallo nero).
For modern travellers “Chianti” is not only a geographic indication but also a word that describes a certain lifestyle, sober and elegant, a harsh and evocative landscape made of forests, vineyards and olive groves, a land that has given birth to famous personages, a land where every village is a little masterwork of architecture: from Greve to Panzano, from Castellina to Gaiole, from Radda to San Casciano, from Castelnuovo Berardegna to Vagliali.
Tuscan people are capricious and they have always been quarrelling about the Chianti: many identify it with the “Chianti Classico”, that is the area of production of the homonymous Docg wine; others instead indicate a wider area, but it’s always situated between the provinces of Florence and Siena.
And not by chance these two cities have fought against each other for centuries. But in reality the Chianti and his inhabitants have always had and still have their own, precise and independent identity, culture and way of thinking. Already in the 14th century they founded the “Lega del Chianti” (Chianti league), a military alliance which, on the pretext of ratifying the friendship with Florence, in reality guaranteed the unity of the territory. This territory is indeed very homogeneous regarding its history, its traditions, feelings and its way of speaking and cooking.
With the common denominator – wine – the kitchen of the Chianti sums up the gastronomic traditions of Siena (stew made of the Chianina beef) and Florence (the famous steak), the use of the extra virgin olive oil (the oil of the Chianti has got the label for the guarantee of origin “DOP”), the virtues of the robust, rural gastronomy and the famous cold meats of its VIP-butchers.
But the Chianti is also a territory which is rich in culture that can be discovered step by step wandering the little streets and exploring the numerous villages, castles and abbeys that are hidden behind every corner: from the abbey of Passignano to the enchanted village of Montefioralle, from the parish church of San Leonino to the castle of Brolio and up to the high grounds of Monteluco.
Local Transport
Bus km 5
We suggets to come with your own car
