Things to see and do in Greve and the surrounding area

Summer Music Programme

Lamole Summer classical music concert programme
taking place mainly in the church of Lamole itself.

Summer 2007 programme of operatic arias
sung by pupils of Daniel Ferro of New York
and taking place in Churches and other locations in and around Greve.

Interested in improving your Italian?
Audiomagazines

A great way for you to improve and
maintain your oral and reading comprehension.

Chianti Museums

There are several attractive art and history "boutique" museums scattered around the Chianti territory. Although most of then don't warrent a special trip, they are definitely worth a visit if you are in the area, both for what they have on display and for the buldings in which they are housed. In Greve, there is the San Francesco Museum of Sacred Art, located 5 minutes from Piazza Matteotti. Click here for further information on the Chianti Museums.

Visit the fortified mediaeval village of Montefioralle, a 20 minute up-hill walk from Greve.
More about Montefioralle.

Orchids in Tuscany? Oh yes there are - more than 40 species!
More about orchids.

Visit the 10 C Pieve di San Cresci - a pleasant stroll through the vineyards from Greve.
More about S. Cresci.

The Chianti Castles route

The comune of Gaiole has prepared six Castles of Chianti itineraries
for visitors who wish to view, and in many cases visit, the castles,
fortified farm houses and walled abbeys in the area around Gaiole.

Tuscan wildlife and domestic animals

Wild boar - cinghiali, in Italian. These are very common but seen mostly at night. The adults are dark grey in colour but the young are striped - grouped, they evoke a soccer team. As the grapes ripen, boar come down from the hills to eat them. They can be incredibly destructive. At about 9 pm on a clear night last year, I heard a boar tearing a vine down, the sound of its chops clunking together with relish clearly audible across the valley. One boar can rip through a row of vines in a matter of minutes. Boar meat is served in restaurants during the hunting season and wild boar salami is available year round.

Hoopoe - upupa, in Italian. This bird is not common but you can usually count on seeing one or more during a half day walk through the country during summer. I find them incredibly attractive, not just in appearance but in their "busy" behaviour. They prefer being on the ground but are spectacularly beautiful in flight.

Porcupine - porcospino, in Italian. Quite common but, since they are nocturnal, not often seen other than in car headlights. No brains.

The Italian red squirrel is under threat of displacement by the introduced grey squirrel. I have seen these extremely shy animals walking along the horizontal branches in a row of cypresses outside my bedroom window, usually at about 7 am in summer, but never on the ground. Grass snakes are extremely common, harmless and polymorphous, ranging from almost black to predominantly green and yellow in colour. The Cinta Senese pig is the only native Tuscan breed to be saved from extinction. It is a free range animal with an excellently flavoured meat.

As little as thirty years ago, white oxen - buoi, in Italian in use as beasts of burden, usually pulling ploughs, were a common sight in Tuscany. They have been replaced completely by caterpillar tractors. Two spectacular pairs make a cameo appearance pulling the cart in the procession that precedes the palio in Siena (below).

Pieve di S. Cresci	Wild orchids	Animals	Walking paths
Chianti castles	Guide books	Bicycling	Montefioralle

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