There are few areas in ltaly about which you believe you know and
have said and read everything, and the opposite to everything. Such
as the Chianti region. And there are very few, such as the Chianti
region again, which take you unawares each and every time. A truly
unending source of culture, humanity, scenery, architecture, tourist
attractions, gastronomy and wines, the Sienese part of its territory
contains the "historical" communes of this land: Radda, Gaiole and
Castellina (the old Chianti League), and Castelnuovo Berardenga too.
Here lie the lines of defence of the two Republics, Siena and Florence,
which have scowled at each other through its woods and vineyards for
centuries. The surrounding territory of Berardenga borders on the
epic plain of Monteaperti and all the hills of the DOCG wine, furrowed
by a thousand roads and a thousand tracks through the greenery. And
then, thanks to all the wine-cellars, farms, castles, boundless estates
and tiny vineyards, centuries-old parish churches, refined hotels,
farms for country holidays and other accomodation at a whole range
of prices, the region does not only come alive during the grape harvest
and olive-pressing, but there is a continous cycle of exhibitions,
concerts, novel initiatives and events which transform it into a large
openair theatre, with the maternal profile of Siena as a backcloth.