On the advice of our friend and landlady Donatella, on
Tuesday the 16th , Karla, Joan, Angie and I took a trip to the Medieval town of Castellina in Chianti. Like Impruneta, Castellina is in the Chianti
district of Tuscany and is only a half hour drive south of where we live. The city's origins go back to Etruscan
times, but it came under Florentine control in the 12th century due to its strategic
location between Florence and Siena A classic hillside town, Castellina
features a main street flanked by another street on its higher side,
and a long tunnel on its lower side. The
centerpiece of the town is it’s Castellina,
or small castle.
Our first stop was to the lovely Hotel Albergo Palazzo
Squarcialupi, owned and operated by Donatella’s good friend Monica. The overlook off the rear patio of the Tuscan
countryside below is wonderful. During
the renovation of the building years ago, Monica kept as many of the original
wall paintings and architectural designs as possible.
Monica’s husband Tommaso runs the family winery and olive oil enterprises. The wine shop is next door to the hotel, and its wine cellar dates to the 1,400’s.
The tunnel that parallels the main street on the low side
of town was originally just a wall used by the guards in Etruscan times to
defend the town. It was later covered
over by the expansion of the town, and provides covered passage from one end of
town to the other with breaks were people can actually live.
The tunnel is has a variety of shops, and most
importantly contains the Restaurant Sotto le Volte. That’s where the four of us elected to have
lunch and it was wonderful. I split a 1.3kg
Bistecca alla Fiorentina (traditional
Porterhouse) and it was fabulous.
Castellina in Chianti is a lovely town, everything
that Donatella said it would be and a trip well worth making!
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