The road of the castles of Chianti, il borgo di Badia a Coltibuono, the castle of Brolio and the castle of Meleto

The road of the Castles of the Chianti shire

L'Ultimo Mulino is located in the hearth of the area of the castles, fortified villages of Middle Age origin which are tipical of the Chianti share, from where you can have a wonderful sightseeing. Gaiole in Chianti is indeed along the road of the castles.

Once you are inside the village, you find a cross-road for the Pieve di Spaltenna. Continuing to rise we find unexpected the sight of Vertine. Vertine is still one of the more suggestive example of fortified Middle Age village: at the edges of a ring road there are the original buildings, the entrance to the village is allowed by a portal with on either side a beautiful stone fortified tower with a sharp arch door and rounded arch windows Going forward through one of the left white road, there is the beautiful Uliveta, its name is due to the many olive plants that surround it and we arrive to San Donato in Perano, which in origin was a castle and now a seventeenth-century villa. Not so far from San Donato, the roda brings us to a secondary one which comes from Badia a Coltibuono (from the right) while turning left we find the cross-road for Radda in Chianti or to come back to Gaiole. On the way to Gaiole on the left we have the white road that brings to Villa Vistarenni, big seventeenth-century villa, born on and old village since the XI century.

From the end of the village it starts a secondary road on the left of Massellone that goes to Barbischio, and we can see start seeing it with all the houses around an old tower and this is the only side left of the old castle. From the centre of Gaiole there is a white road that arrives to Capannelle, a farm-house changed into a farm, in which cellar we can still see the basamento of a tower destroyed during the war. Going ahead on the same road, we start seeing the Valddarno area and on the right the castle of Montregrossi which now is crumbled. Before the castle we find Cancelli, in origini t was out post of Montegrossithen farm house, from here another stone tower rises

From the secondary road, in front of the road of Montegrossi, there is another road which passes through the wood and brings to Badia a Coltibuono where it cn be visited the A dedicated to San Lorenzo, the cellars and the gardens inside the walls of the small village. When we are at the corss-road of Molinlungo the road on the right is a strategic point to see immersed in the green the castle of Meleto. Here we can visit it inside, the cellars and taste the wines.Going forward we reach Rietine, a castle where on 1039 aMr Ricasoli used to live Going ahead we find the village of Castagnoli, a castle that is like a stone polygonal block to which we arrive from a big arch in the south and a narrow alley in the west. Going forward on this panoramic road, few kilometers before Monteluco, we find the picturesque village of Starda.