Tuscany - Italy - page 170

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particularly the Casalferro, which has won just about ever prize there is. The wine
tastes even better with a meal at their Osteria del Castello restaurant ( % 0577-
747277; € 18 for an entree) on the driveway to the castle.

5

Le Cantine di Greve in Chianti (Piazza delle Cantine, in the historical center

across the river from the parking lot; % 055-8546404; www.lecantine.it; daily
10am-7pm) is the region's best wine store, where you can taste some 140 differ-
ent wines at a single sitting (well, you wouldn't be able to walk if you did that, but
you do have a choice of that many wines). You can also buy small samples of olive
oil, salami, and sandwiches. For information on each wine, check out the com-
puter terminals in the shop. They have tasting seminars, plus an interesting
corkscrew museum (no really, it's interesting).
SIENA
Founded by the Etruscans, and colonized by Rome, Siena rose to power in the
early Middle Ages as a center of banking and the textile trade, a rival to Florence
in art, commerce, culture, and military might. In 1348, however, the Black Death
dealt Siena a deathblow from which it never fully recovered. Estimates of those
who perished range as high as 75% of the town's population. Given sanitary
habits at the time, and some 70,000 corpses in the city, it's a wonder that Siena
wasn't completely abandoned.
With its art and architecture frozen in time, Siena today offers visitors a wealth
of museums and churches. The town also supports a small university, a fair
amount of shopping, a number of
first-rate restaurants, and two pro
sports teams, bringing just enough of a
cosmopolitan breeze to freshen up the
atmosphere of the medieval streets and
buildings. The town is accessible but
has never become as oversaturated
with tourism as Florence, San
Gimignano, or Pisa.
Unlike cramped and crowded
Florence, Siena is a pedestrian city, its
hilly streets largely free from the mopeds that menace its Tuscan rival. The
Duomo and the famous Piazza del Campo, with the grand tower of Palazzo
Pubblico, are among the notable architectural achievements of the region. Art
galleries, including the Museo Civico, the Pinacoteca Nazionale, and the Museo
dell'Opera del Duomo, offer you a chance to enjoy many early-Renaissance
masterpieces.
DON'T LEAVE SIENA WITHOUT . . .
GOING TO THE DUOMO

“ Siena was a flawless gift of the

Middle Ages to the modern imagina-
tion. No other Italian city could
have been more interesting to an
observer . . .

”

—Henry James, Confidence, 1879

Siena's cathedral is a storehouse of art, and a work

of art in itself.

TOURING THE MUSEO DELL'OPERA METROPOLITANA The statues,

the paintings, and the view are all spectacular.