After a little shopping in the local Conad supermarket (now owned by the French giant Leclerc) we set off for what we hoped was going to be a shorter and less arduous drive. Castelnuouvo seemed like an interesting place with a castle in the centre on the banks of the river. Next time we will investigate the town more but still use the aire as it is close to the centre and parking in the centre looks like a nightmare.
The major road towards Lucca was busy but easy and we were soon eating up the kilometres. Close to Lucca we turned off the road and once again headed across country. The views all of the way were lovely with large areas of forest and many of those hill-top villages. Chestnut trees and chestnut collecting were much in evidence although the wind had disappeared today and we didn't have to avoid any debris.
Early in the afternoon we started to see vineyards again – we had arrived in the Chianti area. We diverted slightly north so that we could join the 222 road at Strada in Chianti. The 222 is the very pretty road that travels through the heart of the Tuscan countryside touching many historic, tourist-filled towns. One such town is Greve in Chianti where there is a free aire on the north side of the town. This was quite busy when we arrived at about 15:30 but we found a good spot and set off to investigate the town.
At this time of the year there aren't too many tourists although there was a large group of Americans occupying the cafés of the main square. This was surrounded by cafés, restaurants, souvenir shops, wine shops and butchers that also sold Chianti Classico. Just of the edge of the square was a path up to a view point that looked out over the town to the hills and vineyards beyond.
Photos: Greve's main square; The 'Gallo Nero' (the black cockerel, the symbol of Chianti Classico) with the tower of the Greve library in the background; It was washing day in Greve!
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