The Moroccan Wall

At last, a drystone wall!

after: the completed wall and earthworks

before: the crumbling old wall, seen behind the line of the broom plant with new stones piled in front

In his The Stone Book Quartet, Alan Garner evokes the art of making a drystone wall in language as essential as dressed stone.

Grandfather was rough-dressing the stone for the wall, and laying it out along the hedge. Joseph unwound the line and pegged one end in the joints where Grandfather had finished the day before, and pulled the line tight against the bank. His job was to cut the bank back to receive the stone and to run a straight bed for the bottom course.
He chopped at the bank.
...
'Get your knee aback of your shovel,' said Grandfather. 'There's no sense in mauling yourself half to death. Come on, youth. Shape!'
...
Grandfather took the spade from him and looked along the bank. He walked along the raw cut edge and shaved the earth with light swings of the blade.'You've got it like a fiddler's elbow,' he said.
...

Grandfather grunted, and swung the blocks to lie as he wanted. They seemed to move without more than his hand on them.

...
Grandfather and Damper Latham worked together, as they had always done. The stone moved lightly for them.

Subterranean Siena

A walk beneath Siena to explore its medieval waterworks

In a hilltop town which lacks a natural spring, where does the water in that fountain come from?

Walking around Siena one happens on a variety of medieval wells. Yet Siena is not naturally rich in water: it is a hilltop settlement and situated far from the great rivers of Tuscany. Until World War I the city relied on a water supply system constructed in the Middle Ages: 25 kilometres of channels and side-channels, an underground aqueduct winding under the entire city. They are called the bottini, a name perhaps related to the barrel shape of the passages, botte being barrel.

 

Hot off the New York Times

Breakneck Tour of Central Chianti 

Despite making little mention of the sights to be seen between stops, this article from the New York Times has some (largely gastronomic/hedonistic)  pointers for

a 36-hour trip to Chianti

 - although no one should be foolish enough to imagine it suffices!

Staggia Senese Castle - La Rocca di Staggia

A Castle Full of Surprises

The parachutes draped from wall and tower should have alerted us. This promised to be not just another medieval castle. (For a list of all the castles in Tuscany, look here.)

These are just the ones in the province of Siena!

Only 40 minutes' drive from Le Ripe, Staggia Senese was familiar to us as a town on the way to Poggibonsi (yes, it is podgybonzy).  

Note: despite its delightful name, Poggibonsi is not worth visiting unless you need furniture, advice from a thermo-technician, light fixtures or electronic devices. As a local salesman once announced to us: "Poggibonsi has everything".  But it is not beautiful.

a flattering angle on Poggibonsi

Every time we drove through Staggia's narrow main street we were intent on a mission, uninterested in this seemingly dull town. 

the main route through Staggia towards Poggibonsi: the castle is visible in the distance, but usually one is so intent on getting somewhere else one misses it entirely

The new Antinori Winery in Chianti

Twenty-six Generations under One Roof

Past and present: the timeless beauty of Badia Passignano from a model at the Antinori Chianti museum

Present and future: the grand plan for the streamlined winery to outdo all wineries

You have to admire the audacity of the Antinori family: to plan, construct and complete a project of this size and ambition in a territory where modernity is often anathema.

Conversation with an Historian of Tuscan Architecture

Scattered Notes on the Past

View of Florence, Raffaello Arcangelo Salimbeni (1914-1991)

Just the other day we had a visit from an architectural historian, a retired professor from Florence University who specialises in Tuscan architecture, from the grand to the humble. Obviously we hoped to glean something more about the history of Le Ripe, but although he could give us no greater indications than the name of the archives (in Florence) where we should carry out further research, his conversation was full of fascinating snippets which I thought to compile in a post for those who might be interested. (If I repeat things already written in other posts I apologise to our most attentive readers!)

the epitome of Tuscan grand architecture: the renaissance Ponte Santa Trinità in Florence, with its elliptic arches, considered one of the most elegant bridges in the world

San Leolino, Panzano

A Charming Church

the view from the church, looking west

It is a truth universally acknowledged that churches are to be found in the most panoramic sites. San Leolino, near Panzano in Chianti, is no exception. 

The oft-cited explanation for churches' prime locations is: they got there first. More accurately: they frequently took over from other cults and civilizations which got there first. The Etruscans preferred hilltop sites for their towns and their necropoli, often situated on two adjoining elevations. (One wonders if it was simply for defensive reasons.) Panzano is a case in point: of Etruscan origin, it was also inhabited by the Romans who were keen on elevation, when available. 

the elegant 16th century facade with its asymmetrical portico or loggia

Le Ripe History

il podere Le Ripe
- Le Ripe the farm -
a brief history

Le Ripe photographed from beside the river Pesa, July 1946 - note two haystacks, one of wheat and one probably of oats

The old farm buildings and property called Le Ripe lie just within the Castellina commune, cheek to jowl with the Radda commune (all our neighbours are in Radda) in the province of Siena, right at the border with the province of Florence, very near Panzano in Chianti, in the commune of Greve in Chianti. Over the centuries Le Ripe and its inhabitants would inevitably have been caught up in conflicts large and small as those borders were contested, shifting back and forth.

the strada provinciale 2bis looking towards Florence province and commune of Greve in Chianti

towards province of Siena and here, commune of Radda in Chianti

The farmhouse, barn and concimaia or midden were most likely built several hundred years ago by tenant farmers (mezzadri) who needed to make the best use of the land allotted them: they didn't waste the flatter land on buildings, it was needed for crops. 

Local Archaeology II

The long story of the other Roman bridge

What do gnocchi and chocolate cake have to do with Roman bridges?
Read on and you will find out.


We had heard that at Ponte agli Stolli, on the way to Figline Valdarno, there was a Roman bridge worth seeing. So on a dull day, after a delicious meal of home-made gnocchi and chocolate tart (my friends' idea of a light, easy lunch: recipes following) to explore for ourselves.

Ponte agli Stolli, reached from Greve in Chianti after a pleasant drive through wooded and farm land with many delightful views of restored farmhouses, drystone walls and sloping fields of olives and grapevines, turns out to be a fascinating jumble of a village perched around and over a ravine of rushing water, which eventually flows into the Arno at Figline. But the Roman bridge is not in the village.
 
The passageway which takes you over the village bridge upon which buildings have been constructed.

Inside the passageway we found this lovely old door, protected by a glass pane. A small enamelled sign on the door reads: Mugnaio Numero 1, Miller Number 1.

Once upon a time this building housed the village flour mill.

And on the other side we found the mill race.

A view of the bridge of Ponte agli Stolli from further on.






But still we had not found the Roman bridge.

Local Archaeology

 The Roman Bridge

 About 500 metres, as the crow flies, from the western end of our property, beside the river Pesa, but easily accessed via a track leading off the 222 (Chiantigiana road) on the way to Castellina and Piazza, lies a little-known archaeological treat. In his interesting book , Chianti: the Land, the People and the Wine, Raymond Flower called it a Roman bridge and we are inclined to do likewise, although we have little scientific evidence to back us up. 

The Romans inhabited the area, established settlements at Panzano and Castellina and in between, so it is legitimate to imagine that they might have fashioned a  sturdy bridge over the unpredictable, ephemeral Pesa to carry goods, soldiers and arms. 

It is difficult to appreciate the size of the bridge from these photos, but it must have been at least three metres across. Only three sizeable  columns and one arch remain. The central part of the bridge may well have been built of wood. 

In any case, the course of the Pesa has no doubt changed over the centuries, as well as the height of the riverbed, so it is difficult to visualise the whole structure as it might once have been...
If any readers of this blog are familiar with Roman bridge-building techniques, maybe they could leave a comment?