Let us imagine a Chianti devoid of vineyards and olive groves, without its castles, churches, farmhouses and even without its people. We have to stretch our imagination to visualize this area four thousand years ago without its age-old reference points. Long before the arrival of the Etruscans, there lived in these areas men clad in animal skins using rudimental stone and bronze weapons and living on hunting. They were small, semi-nomad tribes scattered between the centre and north of the peninsula. Archaeologists have united these people under the appealing and mysteyous term ‘Civilization of the Rinaldone Culture’, just as they do in art history with paintings stylistically attributable to an individual painter but whose identity cannot be traced.
Let us leave these early ancestors of remote times behind us and return to a more clearly documented era back to the Etruscans who have left more consistent signs of their long, stable presence in the Chianti. Important findings exist in the archaeological collection of Castellina in Chianti where there are small necropoli that one can visit and people who show a great interest in archaeology. Moreover, the Etrusco-Latin etymology which identifies the names of places in the Chianti reveals bited for at least 2500 years. After the Etruscans, there were the Romans who brought with them a flourishing society building a rich, ‘modern’ road network. This period was followed by long centuries of abandonment and oblivion. In feudal times, the slow but regular increase of the population and the recovery of trade, also stimulated by the proximity of the road which went from Rome to the other side of the Alps, via Francigena, brought new wealth to the territory. It had long been the scenario of fierce contentions between Arezzo and Siena and, soon after, between Siena and an increasingly arrogant Florence which had expanded its territories more and more throughout Tuscany from the 12th century on. It was then that the Chianti changed its appearance, gradually absorbing the architectural connotations which were to distinguish it in the following centuries as it became the centre of disputes between these two proud rivals unto the definitive annexation of Siena under the jurisdiction of the Medici. The Chianti was a battlefield and the people of the contado lived a truly insecure period which did not favor the growth of agriculture. Only after the conclusion of this old contention, did this area resume a systematic development in its agriculture and wine growing.
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See also:

An Overview of Chianti, The Chianti Countryside, Chianti Painted by Vasari

or go back to A Land Between Two Ancient Cities