Nature and LandscapesIt is a surprising fact to many of its visitors that approximately half of the Chianti territory is made up of woods. From times immemorial they have formed an integral part of the inhabitants’ daily lives, because they would regularly supplement their diet with animal or vegetable produce originating from or depending on the forests. Pigs were led to the forest to feed on acorns, and the farmers collected firewood, chestnuts, mushrooms, berries etc.
Looking at the typical Chianti landscape of today, monoculture is an obvious and defining characteristic: vast fields of only one type of crop, be it grapes or olives. Until the mid-twentieth century, however, a mixed type of agriculture prevailed (”agricultura promiscua”), which meant cultivating several kinds of produce in the same field. Thus rows of olive trees alternated with vines, fruit trees and the occasional willow (used to tie up the vines), as well as various vegetables and small corn plots. These terraced fields are still evident in the landscape, although now mostly given over to one crop only. They are widely protected by landzone laws.
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This finely balanced, organic ecosystem has now all but disappeared together with the sharecropping system (”mezzadria”), surviving only here and there in the typical Tuscan kitchen garden, the pride and joy of all rural Tuscans. Here you can still admire vines tied up with withies in elegant bell-shapes (”a campannello”), interspersed with aromatic herbs, vegetables, flowers and olive trees, all arranged and tended to with loving care and a natural sense of esthetics.
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Official Site of the Tourist Information Offices of
Castellina in Chianti,
Gaiole in Chianti and
Radda in Chianti.
Last change: 24. 04. 2008
