Barberino Tavarnelle wine tour

In the enchanted valley of Barberino Val d’Elsa, in the heart of Chianti, surrounded by vineyards and sweet hills we will discover the ancient city of Semifonte, narrated in the “Divine Comedy” by Dante and razed to the ground by Florence in 1202. History and archeology, science and architecture will be the backdrop of our hike.

We will search for traces of the hydraulic system constructed for the city during Medieval times, the so-called “system of containment bridles,” which drew the attention of the genius of Leonardo Da Vinci, who wrote about it in the Codex Leicester (also known as the Codex Hammer). And we will discover the vestiges of what was once a powerhouse of business and finance, and which also based its dominion on the control of “blue gold,” in other words, water.

We will make a stop at the Cappella di San Michele Arcangelo (Church of Saint Michael the Archangel), an evocative religious building topped with a dome that reproduces on a reduced scale (1:8) the famous dome by Filippo Brunelleschi for the Duomo di Firenze (Cathedral of Florence). The hike will then take us towards a spring, one of the three beautiful water sources of the area, which gave life to the placename Summus Fons in Latin (“highland spring”) and therefore also the ancient name of the destroyed city, Semifonte.

Our loop hike will end among the rows of a farm, which has been producing Chianti organic wine for over 40 years, to refresh ourselves between a glass of red and a plate of local delicacies, in an enchantingly relaxing atmosphere.