Stone upon stone: an Italian sojourn: Steeped in history

Our last day in Chianti country we head for Panzano, which we can see twinkling at nights from our terrace.

Here we find a single street with a few side alleys, leading up to a tall church, set on high stairs making it even taller, at the very top of the hill. It had one side altar elaborately decorated for Easter, the rest -- plain, stark, unadorned.

There was an interesting old alimentaria decorated beautifully. He advertised coffee but had no seating. And a wine tasting shop, where the seller, already well primed, was dressed in academic gown keen to conduct tasting lessons, even at coffee time. And an attractive old repaired and rusted door off another closed shop -- but nothing opened that sold a coffee.

So, on we drove to Volpaia at the top of a narrow winding road. This turned out to be a fortified town, and one of our favourites among these hills so we spent hours here. There were two shops open: a bar and a restaurant. They were owned by two sisters who have lived in the village for over 50 years: all their lives, their father and mother here before them.

Only 30 folk live here now, we were told. Most appear to be seniors. How they buy potatoes and milk if they don't have a car, is a mystery to us, as there simply is no facility for groceries here. Though chefs and waitresses drive up the hill every day for service so maybe they do a kindness for them.

The village's remoteness goes way back, though it appears in written records over a thousand years ago when the castello owners on taking out a loan for 24 shillings used their home on the top of the hill as security. Hundreds of years later it was owned by another family, Volpaia, whose name remains to identify the town. They were engineers, and made time pieces so skilfully they were called upon to give advice to Leonardo Da Vinci when he needed it in his intricate research. One of their planetary clocks is exhibited even in Palazzo Vecchio.

Today, the village is mostly owned by a family who owns the vineyards on the surrounding slopes: all at the very heart of Chianti Classico country. Their Volpaia winery now occupies the castello cellars and a wine shop is opened here in summer. One of the village churches it is believed was designed by one of Donatello's apprentices. So steeped in history is this village that the Volpaia wine even uses a fine graphic of that very church front and its well, on their bottle label.

We ate delicious pasta and local oil drizzled over bread and ground salt for lunch at La Bodega, then drove through Chianti country for the last time, marvelling at the beautiful scenery that still survives. Remembering all those who came this way before.