Montefioralle

Montefioralle lies about a mile (roughly 1.6 km) west of Greve in Chianti. In the Middle Ages it was an important stronghold in the wars between Florence and Siena, and in 1250 it became the seat of the League of the Greve Valley. After the fall of the Republic of Siena it lost importance, and most of its inhabitants moved to Greve. The village had two rings of walls, an octagonal layout and four gates. The main street runs in a circle around the core; in the middle stands the church of Santo Stefano, which according to Wikipedia was most recently being renovated.

A house on the ring street is said to be where the last descendants of the Vespucci family lived; a wasp and a “V” can be seen at its doorway. According to Wikipedia, Amerigo Vespucci himself was born in 1454 in Peretola, near Florence, not here. The core is small, so a walk around the ring street usually takes little more than an hour.

Just outside the village stands the Romanesque Pieve di San Cresci, dating from the 12th century, which combines well with a visit. Santo Stefano was originally Gothic and was remodelled in Baroque style in the 17th and 18th centuries; among its most important works is a late 13th-century Madonna and Child by the so-called Master of Montefioralle.