From Fonterutoli to Val d’Elsa 8 Novembre 2010 – Posted in: . ENGLISH TEXT

A mountain bike ride through the woods of Chianti di Castellina.

Length: 26 km
Time: 6h 30 min (by bicycle)
Stopovers: Fonterutoli • Croce Fiorentina • Malafrasca • Castellina in Chianti • Monsanto • Cedda

We are going to suggest a route through a territory scarcely touched by humans which will make it possible to enjoy the most natural side of Chianti. Trained bicycle riders and sedentary car drivers alike will go though woods of durmast oaks, poplars, dirt roads, the summer smells of Spanish brooms, the rosemary bushes and the sound of nature and enjoy a “slow” journey.
Along the route, you will also admire spectacular views and unexpected perspectives, and reach the destination on the gentle slope where two of the major castles in Chianti stand next to each other, the Castles of Paneretta and Monsanto. Just few hundreds of meters away the stopover, arrival or point of departure may be Pieve di Cedda, a small Romanesque treasure, which resisted for centuries clung onto the rocks.

The route

Take highway 222 and proceed to Poggibonsi.

After three kilometres turn left and enter a wood that thins out in two or three points and unveils the beautiful sight over Val d’Elsa, which is not as high and hilly as woody Chianti, and therefore allows you to catch a glimpse of the spires of the towers of San Gimignano.

The route then winds up and down, so be careful.

After 3,5 kilometres Croce Fiorentina and then Malafrasca, two small suburbs of Siena.

After Castellina in Chianti proceed for 4 kilometres, exit the wood and make the first stopover at Castello di Paneretta to enjoy its gentle shapes. It is now a holiday farmhouse, yet it has been the background of warfares between Guelphs and Ghibellines as well as a place of culture where Girolamo Muzio composed his poems, one of which is dedicated to the castle, Ritorno a Barberino Val d’Elsa. Since the end of the sixteenth century this is also a wine-producing territory.

Leave behind Castello di Paneretta and after 200 meters you will see the gate of Castello di Monsanto on the right , now a renowned wine-growing company, originally built in the Middle Ages and later reconstructed during the neo-Gothic period, characterized by a 200sq mt cellar restored according to building rules similar to those of the Middle Ages.

Restart your trip and take a dirt road, a short cut hiding in the wood (we suggest asking the local people the right access) and you will meet the Romanesque Pieve di Cedda (Cedda parish church) with its facade renovated in the twentieth century and with architectural stratifications that are not always correct from a philological point of view. This is the reason why a building is leaned to almost touch the arch of the entry portal and a double lancet window is placed between the arch and the roof. The typical isodomic masonry, however, helps preserving aesthetic homogeneity. It is almost mandatory to have a tour of the church to admire the small semicircular apse with its cross-shaped opening on the top.