Discovering Italy's Wine Towns

By Nancy J. DiDio - After our first trip to Italy many years ago, my husband Fred and I fell in love with the country, and it has become our favorite vacation destination. In our earliest trips, we saw the many famous cities and sights that are on every tourist’s itinerary, but with each visit we ventured further off the beaten track. We soon discovered that meandering along country roads and stopping when we saw something that caught our interest offered unexpected rewards. With each trip, we planned less of our journey, choosing instead to visit within a particular region or two, and let our instincts guide us. On one particular trip, our plan was to explore the area between Florence and Rome before heading south to the Amalfi coast.

After beginning our trip with a few planned days in Florence, we set out into the Tuscan countryside. We began our excursion by traveling along the Via Chiantigiana, the principal road through the hilly Chianti region, home to the makers of Italy’s classic red Chianti Classico wines. Each hillcrest revealed panoramas of ancient stone farmhouses surrounded by vineyards. Villages perched on hilltops were often surrounded by walls, their strategic positions attesting to the many wars that were fought there in medieval times. The town of Greve was the largest we passed through, its central piazza surrounded by pretty arcades and terraces. It had shops offering tastes of the wine and other local products, which we sampled, then bought some provisions for a roadside picnic. We made a short stop in Castellina, dominated by a medieval fortress with stunning views. There we found more shops offering tastes of the local Chiantis. We didn’t dare sample too many wines while navigating the steep, unfamiliar roads, so we began looking for a place to spend the night. Hotels are not plentiful in this area, but we found a small, simple albergo outside of Radda, which had a restaurant so we wouldn’t have to venture out at night.

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