Free Time

ADVISED PATHS :

1. Chianti and Surroundings. To visit the Chianti, you  should put aside guides maps and let you be guided by the wonderful Tuscan landscape. Immerse yourself among the beautiful vineyards and rolling hills. Make a stop to  talk with the peasants who seats outside their stone homes during summer: they are just waiting to chat with a tourist less experienced than them. Of course, you should visit the 4 towns that represent the history of chianti: Castellina , Radda , Gaiole and Greve in Chianti. You will eat dishes and delicacies in family-run inns, at the internal of small medieval villages.

 

 

At only 2 km from farm Amina in the direction of Siena, we recommend a stop to Certosa di Pontignano. Unique certosa in Italy with three cloisters, now property of the “University of Siena” is a venue for important international conferences.

Siena and its alleys. "I look the old palaces of Siena, ancient houses where I want to be able to live one day, with a window across mine, overlooking the rooftops colored clay, green shutters on the windows, as in trying to decipher where is this secret that Siena whisper and I continue to hear, although I can’t understand it until the end of life "(Jose Saramago, Nobel Prize).

In addition to routes obliged: Piazza del Campo, the Cathedral and the various palaces and Academies recommend a stop to 'Enoteca Italiana, which is based in Fortezza Medicea. To remember the dates of millennial Palio di Siena: July 2 and August 16, every year. Do not forget to make a stop for a coffee at the historic BAR Nannini, Via Banchi di Sopra, 24. 

Monteriggioni, Colle val d’Elsa, San Gimignano e Volterra

These towns meet one after the other from Siena in the direction of Florence Monteriggioni. Dante Alighieri cites the castle of Monteriggioni in hand XXXI of 'Inferno: “Come quando la nebbia si dissipa, lo sguardo a poco a poco raffigura, ciò che cela il vapor che l’aere stipa, cosi forando l’aura grossa e scura , fuggiemi errore e crescemi paura: però che come sulla cerchia tonda Monteriggion di torri si corona, così ‘n la proda che ‘l pozzo circonda torreggiavano di mezza la persona li orribili giganti, cui minaccia Giove ancora quando tona”. The image of the castle for those who were passing by was and is very impressive, given that appears on the top of his hill bold and dominant… as a sentinel of the republic of Siena.

Colle Val d'Elsa, the city of crystal. An international exhibition “La tradizione del cristallo colligiano” takes place every year in September:   Working cold, crystal carving, grinding, engraving, working on crystal jewellery, comparative tasting of wines, thematic exhibitions and projections, an extraordinary opening of city's museums and much more ... For shopaholics it has just opened an outlet of crystal articles (glasses, vases, dishes, bottles…) at the largest crystal factory of Colle, CALP. 

San Gimignano stands with the profile of its towers, on a hill (m.334) domain of Val d'Elsa. Head of a small etruscan village of the Hellenistic period (III-II sec. BC) began its history around the tenth century taking the name of the Holy Bishop of Modena: San Gimignano, which would have saved the city by barbarian hordes. He had a great development during the Middle Ages thanks to the Via Francigena who crossed it. In fact, San Gimignano had an extraordinary flowering of works of art that can be found in churches and convents. In 1199 he became a free municipality, fought against the Bishops of Volterra and the adjacent municipalities, suffered internal strife divided into two factions in the wake of Ardinghelli (Guelfi) and Salvucci (Ghibellines). The eight of May 1300 hosted Dante Alighieri, Ambassador league Guelf in Tuscany. The terrible plague of 1348 and the subsequent depopulation cast San Gimignano in a serious crisis. The town had therefore to submit to Florence. Since degradation and abandonment of the centuries after he came out only when we began to rediscover the beauty of the city, its cultural rural identity  . In addition to tourist itineraries, Cathedral, palaces and squares, enjoy a glass of crisp white wine, Vernaccia di San Gimignano, grown in the area, accompanied by a dish made with saffron that is produced on farms around the city. 


Volterra, a jewel of art Etruscan, Roman, Medieval and Renaissance, dominated by a hill of 550 meters across the valley of Cecina, until the sea. A Volterra history has left his mark with continuity from the Etruscan period until the 19th century, with artistic and monuments of great importance, which can be admired simply walking through the streets of the old city, but also visiting the three city museums: the Etruscan Museum, the Civic Art Gallery and the Museum of Sacred Art. Alongside these unspoiled landscape, a quality of life still a human scale and an artistic unique product: alabaster. 

4. Pienza, Montalcino, Sant’Antimo, Bagno Vignoni e abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore.

Pienza, the city of Pius II. The history of Pienza is closely linked to its founder: Pope Pius II, (real name was  Enea Silvio Piccolomini) who was born in 1405 in a noble family of Siena that political problems of the times  had confined in their property in the campaign, far from the city political activity. The then Corsignano was a fortified village already known in Roman times that, even before, remote inhabitants had chosen as the primary residence leaving abundant traces of their passage, referring to the upper Neolithic and Bronze Ages. 

Enea Silvio Piccolomini, fine and distinguished humanist, with a fast  ecclesiastical career became Pope and wanted in this place, who had seen his birth, arise a city whose name remember his papacy. II Piccolomini did not want only a city but a highly worthy urban centre and in ideal antithesis with the other city who trated his family so bad: Siena.  
Claims that famous architects and artists worked hard to a project in which they were implicit royalties constructive and philosophical of an age that opened full of promise: the Italian Renaissance. 

In just three years, from 1459 to 1462, rose Pienza, the City of Author, the Ideal City, the City Utopia. The city "born from a thought of love and a dream of beauty" as he wrote Giovanni Pascoli.  
Hard to say what would become Pienza, if the Pope had not died prematurely to eve of a crusade against Muslims. It was August 14, 1464. In three years and half the core and something more than the "city of Pius" was born. "Corsignan de 'Thieves", the township border as early as Boccaccio had recalled in his famous novel of Cecco of Fortarrigo, could change its name and image thanks to its great protector. 

    


       
Montalcino. From its 567 meters, it dominates throughout the surrounding countryside, perched on a hill on which stands the mighty fortress of the fourteenth century. In the maze of alleyways, between artisan shops, small cafes you can find retailers of typical food , in addition to the famous wine, Brunello di Montalcino

Just outside the city, Castelnuovo dell'Abate, in the valley of Starcia, we find the Romanesque abbey of Sant'Antimo, intimate and impressive temple wrapped in a fairy tale atmosphere , founded by Charlemagne in 781. You can find also many the castles in the territory of Montalcino: among all deserves a mention that of Poggio alle Mura, of Lombard origin. 

Bagno Vignoni. With its rarefied atmosphere of hot steams that come by the large square of water, is the true pride of San Quirico. Entering Bagno Vignoni is like crossing beyond the wall of time, as immersed in a reality completely detached from our century, leaving everything behind. It breathes really looked new, very ancient indeed. And from there, where in the big bathtub of the 5th century, took a bath Saint Catherine of Siena and Lorenzo de 'Medici, called the Magnificent, you can admire one of the most fascinating sights in the area. 

 

Monte Oliveto Maggiore. Today it has the appearance of the large Benedictine Abbeys, without denying the most beautiful traditions of Olivetans monks. Everything is regulated, orderly and active. Prayer and works as in a  centre for monastic training. The "Opus Dei", the religious observance, the liturgy, all with precision

The active work, has its center in the "Institute for Restoration of the Book”: today is one of the most equipped of Italy in this field and from all over Europe come books who require a delicate work. Other activity is that of “Liquoreria” (liquour shop), where products such as distillates of herbs are produced respecting ancient recipes jealously guarded by the monks of the Abbey. Another famous product that the monks still produce like in medieval times is extra virgin olive oil, pressed in cold with stone mills.