Portrait of a Land
At the beginning of the seventies, the Chianti was a territory that was still to be discovered. The land had been abandoned by the exodus of so many young people who had rushed to the cities a few years before, in search of more congenial and better paid work. This had also been [more]

The Markets of Chianti
Every Saturday, at the crack of dawn, the vendors of Greve Market crowd the elliptic shaped square and in a twinkling, between a witty crack and a naughty joke, they are ready to show their goods. The empathy and friendliness expressed by that Tuscan wit, the true Tuscan sense of humor, a destructive [more]

Chianti by Bike
You can see them advancing at a cruising pace, while small compact groups chat to one another with their eyes on the road. Suddenly they start up. There’s a bit of excitement and the bikes swerve. A really fierce race is about to start among friends. Once it is over, they will [more]

Meeting a Stranger
She doesn’t seem to like our smile. It probably looks suspicious or maybe she’s shy. We ask her if we can take her photo. She abruptly declines with a sharp, abrupt movement of her arm. She has no second thoughts about it. Pity, as she’s a beautiful, old lady. We met her [more]

Tuscan Antique Furniture
A journalist and writer, Giorgio Batini, still very active, who had taught me a great deal about the difficult profession of which he is an irrefutable master, wrote an intelligent book many years ago, with a witty, amusing tide, which summed up, in an affectionate and charming way [more]

Chianti Artists
Many artists have returned in recent years to take up a more permanent residence in this area, in the hope of regaining a different sense of time. Seduced by the idea of putting themselves to the test in unfamiliar surroundings, many of them have chosen to settle there permanently. Others [more]

Chianti at The Bar
The bar is a public meeting place, usually the biggest of the village, where you can find a lot to eat and it is also the most popular center where people meet in the afternoon to play scopa or briscola. This is not a habit, it has become a custom, something similar to a primary need. The people are of course [more]

Chianti Theatrical Festival
Gaia Bastreghi is above all an actress. She’s one of those people capable of risking their own talents by dividing themselves between the traditional theater and comedy, between the new Italian cinema, often with good ideas but almost always short of funds, and the opulent neurotic [more]

Music and Culture in The Vineyards
A few years ago, I had the pleasure of being invited to dine with a great conductor. He is one of those reserved, difficult men who live in a coherent, all-embracing relationship with their art; one of those who cannot bear compromises. Just because of this, he avoids [more]

Villa Le Barone
In one of the most charming areas of the region, where the ancient rival provinces of Florence and Siena mix into one, there is a pace of life soaked in beauty. Here we find ourselves guests at Villa Le Barone in the Chianti countryside close to the hilltop town of Panzano. This villa calls to mind [more]

The Art of Hospitality at Podere Terreno
We know some excellent agritourist farms in the Chianti, run by good friends but it’s not up to us to praise one more than the other, as this is not a travel-guide to give information of the kind. Our aim is to describe impressions, pleasant experiences, encounters. Our meeting Evita Marie Sylvie Haniez and Roberto Melosi, owners of the agritourist farm Podere Terreno, situated [more]

Chianti English Style
Throughout Tuscany, and therefore throughout the Chianti, and more intensely so in the Chianti closer to Siena, the love for horses can be felt and seen. In the horse – breeding of the Berardenga, price thoroughbred stallions and select brood-mares are united In a marriage for money to bring potential champions to the turf into the world. There are numerous, well-managed [more]

The Legendary Millemiglia in Chianti
I came here specifically. I stopped the car near the curb of the road, just at the point where the political boundaries of the Chianti Classico end and the Val d’Elsa begin. A sort of border zone, also from the natural point of view; on one side the eye can see last hills of the Chianti, on the other [more]