As soon as the climb ends and the road levels off, the horizon widens and there you see the first harsh hilltops of Chianti—a land which remains forever Etruscan and medieval. The city and the present already have grown faint; the solitude of the forests and the fields fills me and blurs those boundaries which had appeared so clear. My renewal always begins here.

MARIA BIANCA VIVIANI DELLA ROBBIA, FATTORIA NEL CHIANTI (TRANSLATION BY FRANCES DI SAVINO)