Travel Italy Around Florence About Greve In Chianti and Smile My Lady
Travel Italy Around Florence About Greve In Chianti and Smile My Lady
The "Chiantigiana" road meanders south through picture-pretty wine-villages for 28km to the amiable market town of
GREVE IN CHIANTI . Cafés, restaurants and enoteche line the arcades of its attractive central
Piazza Matteotti . This long, sloping triangle hosts the regular Saturday market and is overlooked by a statue of local boy Giovanni da Verrazzano , who became, in 1524, the first European to see Manhattan island.
Greve's tourist office is in a hut in the Parco di Sant'Anna, alongside the main Viale Verrazzano 1km north of Piazza Matteotti (Mon-Fri 10am-1pm & 3-6pm, Sat 11am-1pm & 4-6pm; tel 055.854.6287,
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
; check out also www.greve-in-chianti.com ). Chianti'Pop has Internet
access, Via Roma 36 (tel 055.854.6280, www.chiantipop.net ; €1.55 for 15min). For
picnic supplies, head for Macelleria Falorni, Chianti's most famous butcher, a fixture on Piazza Matteotti since 1729 (
www.falorni.it ), and then choose a bottle from the Enoteca di Gallo Nero, Piazzetta Santa Croce 8 (
www.chianticlassico.it ). Greve's September wine fair is one of the largest such events in Tuscany. Albergo del Chianti is a straightforward three-star hotel
at Piazza Matteotti 86 (tel & fax 055.853.762, www.albergodelchianti.it ; €61.98-77.47), with air-con and a pool. Hilltop Castello Vicchiomaggio , Via Vicchiomaggio 4 (tel 055.854.709, fax 055.853.911,
www.vicchiomaggio.it ; €77.47-103.29) is a more luxurious option: a ninth-century castle resplendent amidst vineyards, boasting a top-flight restaurant, old-fashioned rooms and apartments, and regular half-day cookery classes. But the most charming choice is
Villa Vignamaggio , 3km south of Greve, at Via Petriolo 5 (tel 055.854.661, fax 055.854.4468,
www.vignamaggio.com ; €77.47-103.29) with a choice of en suite rooms and self- contained apartments within the main villa, and a handful of small cottages dotted around the grounds. It was here that Kenneth Branagh filmed
Much Ado About Nothing . There's no restaurant in this agriturismo , but the owners prepare a classic Tuscan dinner for their guests twice a week. Best
restaurant is the pricey, traditional-style Giovanni da Verrazzano , Piazza Matteotti 28 (tel 055.853.189; closed Mon). Around the square you'll also find the easygoing
Mangiando Mangiando at no. 80 (closed Mon), with an open kitchen serving light meals, and inexpensive Nerbone di Greve at no. 22 (closed Tues).
Smile, My Lady
About 3km south of Greve is Villa Vignamaggio , set amidst formal Italian gardens at the centre of a beautiful old estate founded by the Gherardini family in the fourteenth century. In 1479,
Antonio Maria Gherardini celebrated the birth of a new baby, Lisa, at
Vignamaggio. It seems that, around the age of 24, Lisa sat for a portrait by one of Tuscany's most celebrated artists of the day,
Leonardo da Vinci , shortly after her marriage to the wealthy Florentine silk
merchant Francesco del Giocondo. The likeness famously captured the smile of La Gioconda, whose noble title was
"Ma Donna Lisa" ("my lady") - shortened to Mona Lisa .
