Greve in Chianti is a picturesque town in Tuscany, where the Middle Ages seem to have stood still.
Most of the photos and postcards around the world depicting the famous Chianti vineyards come from the countryside around Greve, the only municipality in the province of Florence located entirely in the Chianti region. Wine is, in fact, the town's main source of income, and it even has a museum dedicated to it.
The heart of Greve is a characteristic triangular stone piazza surrounded by charming loggias that house numerous small artisan workshops, traditional shops, and restaurants. All of the town's life revolves around this piazza, where, as is tradition, the town market is held every Saturday.
But this land is also famous for being the home of two of Tuscany's greatest seafaring families: the Verrazzanos and the Vespuccis.
Giovanni da Verrazzano discovered and explored vast areas of the Atlantic coast of what is now the United States (including New York Bay) and Canada; the statue in Greve's main square is dedicated to him.
The castle of Montefioralle (1 km from Greve) was the birthplace of Amerigo Vespucci, the famous Florentine explorer who lived between the 15th and 16th centuries and gave his name to the "New World," discovered a few years earlier by Christopher Columbus.