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 the first sunny lowlands of the Val d’Elsa. The circle of walls of Monteriggioni is only just a few hundred meters away, the broken rock of Staggia Senese is onlv a little further off, while Sun Gimignano, which pierces the sky with its thirteen bellicose towers, is perceptible to the eye or the imagination, down there, blurred on the horizon near the hills that rise at the end of a wide valley of vineyards and sunflowers. The road that crosses this territory is the SS N2, the glorious, old road that, until a few years ago, everybody took to go from Florence to Siena and vice versa. Now the Superstrada has simplified the journey and accelerated the connections and the old road is not so busy as it is traversed only by a more disciplined local family traffic. But on this particular day in May, it is full of life. People have crowded the edge of the road looking towards Siena, people of all ages are waiting. We too have come here for the same reason. Everybody is there to see a parade of noisy cars which collectors define simply as ‘vintage cars’ but which are in reality legendary models, either with bodies that are too high or too flat or too long, in eccentric colors vibrating with passion. An epic of engines. It is the Millemiglia.
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See also:

The Markets of Chianti, Meeting a Stranger, Tuscan Antique Furniture, Chianti by Bike, Portrait of a Land, Chianti Artists, Chianti at The Bar, Chianti Theatrical Festival, Music and Culture in The Vineyards, Villa Le Barone, The Art of Hospitality at Podere Terreno, Chianti English Style

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