A building without any character and with a handwritten signboard in two languages. Typical load cheese for sale: Cheese Schafskase. This is the only simple, commercial reminder by a shepherd, not the only one in the Chianti. His sheep graze on the top of a hill behind which, on the horizon, we can see a row of cypresses. The sheep, crowded together like a single, dirty white ball, the cypresses and the horizon lit by the sun are the image of an irritating, stereotyped beauty, like those you accidentally come across everyday and pretend not to see. The protagonists are so obvious and the context so normal that to lose self-control would mean, to lower the level of your self-esteem. But, fortunately for us, our sensitive friend is more aware of the beauty of the landscape than personal pride. It is in this very same part of the Chianti that the great Tuscan cheese makes its entrance as a protagonist, in an area near Siena which is more suitable for sheep pasture. This Tuscan pecorino cheese, in all its forms, preserves its fragrance and taste everywhere in the region, thus becoming the most delicate of Italian pecorinos. The fresh kind is agreeably delicate but the more seasoned one is just as delicate and, if anything, more tasty. The best kinds can be found in the valleys of Arbia and Orcia where Pienza, that crazy Renaissance example of the ideal city, born from the pride of a Pope and the mind of a brilliant architect, welcomes us with its rare beauty to give us advice about the best Tuscan pecorino.
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See also:

Preserving Chianti Homemade Cooking, Culinary Vacation in Chianti, The Most Famous Butcher of Chianti in Panzano, Chianti Cooking: The Origins, The Most Famous Butcher of Chianti in Panzano, Pigs of Chianti – Cinta, San Felice Chef: Antonio Fallini

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