Chianti Countryside Drive

Next we enjoy views of the true Chianti countryside and the most enchanting land in the world with a patchwork of different panoramas scattered with hilltop hamlets, little churches and castles. The landscape of Chianti features in much Tuscan art of the Renaissance and it hasn't changed much since then.

The gentle slopes are still clad with vines; olive groves abound; many bursts of yellow from the fields of sunflowers; lands dotted with sheep; brilliant red poppy fields; and there is plenty of woodland, much of it inhabited by wild boars.

The feeling that time has stopped is hard to avoid, especially when we see in the distance, the bleak appearance of Volterra, one of the first Etruscan settlements dating from around the eight century BC, with stunning views over Calanchi (cliffs of sand and clay). Things here have stayed the same way for centuries not by any accident or economic reason, but because that's the way people like them.