Chianti Area
 

Which do you prefer? Greve or Panzano? Why?

TTT

I am going to Tuscany this weekend and I am also looking for this information.

For what? Eating, picture taking, accommodations?
I find that part of Tuscany to be too homogenized for my taste. Try to get further south to Siena and the Val d' Orcia.

Thanks Bob, I'll answer for myself. I will be in Tuscany staying for 3 days this weekend just outside of Montepulciano. We are already planning 1-2 days seeing that area (also Pienza, Cortona, Montalcino). I would like to spend the remaining day in Chianti, 2 mains reasons; wine tasting/buying and picturesque villages for photo ops (if the forcast is correct, we may be lucky weather-wise). I am also considering San Gimignano (I know, not Chianti) so maybe somewhere to combine with that.

Thanks in advance, there are way too many choices for only 3 days. Oh, we will also have a car.

I'd go for San Gimignano and the less famous Volterra. You can read something related to Volterra in my blog www.weddiningtuscany.info/blog

I love that Village and very close to it Andrea Bocelli was born (you will see a lot of him there around)
Volterra is greate to buy Alabaster and you can walk around to see artisans working it

Do not miss it. CHianti is Chianti but going towards PIsa and Lucca shows you a completely differnt Tuscany not known to the most but beautiful!!!

I agree with Effetti. We were in Tuscany earlier this fall and stayed in Castelfiorentino. We visited the Chianti and then drove north through Certaldo. Another day we went north to Lucca. We also drove into Volterra from the north, which made for a very interesting route. While the Chianti is picture-perfect, I think we saw the "real" Tuscany as we drove through the Arno Valley. The towns there aren't really American "tourist" stops, and sometimes the shopkeepers and other people you encounter are surprised (and delighted) to interact with Americans.

I agree--start in Volterra for some great pics and be sure to read the Etruscan history in advance. Buy some alabaster as well.

Here are some images from Tuscany but none of Volterra.
http://www.slowphotos.com/photo/show...y.php?cat=3827

We like the area around Volterra too. We have some nice video of San Gimignano and Volterra, as well as video of the Guarnacci Etruscan museum.

http://www.webvisionitaly.com/category.php?id=286

Bob, excellent pictures. Love the one of the Devil's Bridge!! Thanks for all the tips.

Grazie e prego !

Just to directly answer your exact query, Panzno and Greve are hard to compare. Greve, while a small town, is lively, crowded and somewhat touristy, with a large-ish central area with lots of shops.

Panzano is a tiny village, mainly just one street that goes uphill to the church--and many of the tiny shops are sort of just entrances into stone buildings that are not even labelled as commercial establishments--- and while there are, of course, tourists, it is a much more remote feeling place. So it depends on what kind of experience that you want.

thanks everyone for your comments and Bob your photos are beautiful. I did get to see them before we left on Friday but I didn't have time to post a reply.

We ended up spending the 3 days in the Val d' Orcia, just lovely. Great weather and with the days being short we decided not to go too far, though Volterra and San Gimignano look fantastic (2 hours from Montepulciano).

We did stop in Greve yesterday on the way home. The Chianti area is also lovely but very different from Val d'Orcia. It was rainy and foggy so we didn't get to see too much. Just stopped for lunch and bought some wine to take home. I was not too impressed with Greve after visiting Cortona, Pienza, etc. It is just completely different, and I was glad we ended up spending our time as we did.

Thanks again for help.

Good for you !
You will return--we all do.