GREVE AND MONTEFIORALLE Coming from Florence, Greve in Chianti is the natural gateway. The town grew around its triangular Piazza Matteotti, still lined with arcades and food shops, and its market tradition goes back centuries. This is where you start thinking about lunch before it is actually lunchtime. Go shopping. Antica Macelleria Falorni, established in 1729, is the obvious destination for Tuscan charcuterie: salame di cinghiale, finocchiona, prosciutto and other cured meats. But don’t stop at the butcher. Look into the small alimentari and wine shops around the piazza for pecorino, local olive oil, cantucci and bottles from the estates you will be passing later. Then make the short detour…
-
-
BUT FIRST WE FLORENCE IN STYLE
It is that time of the year. Grape harvest season means Toscana for the happy few. Two weeks of the slow, artful, almost timeless happiness in the Tuscan countryside. But first we Florence in style. When Stendhal visited Florence for the first time, he experienced a one-time feeling: a mixture of amazement, beatitude and exhilaration that proved literally overwhelming. He was dizzy and confused and sick with emotion, while physically incapable of leaving the city. I felt it too, my first time in Firenze: the allure, the wonder, the perfect beauty and the inconceivable happiness of just being there. You know that special tension you feel when you’re desperately in love,…