What is Greve in Chianti known for?

Market town of the black-rooster zone, with castle estates at Verrazzano and Vicchiomaggio producing on the surrounding hills. Triangular arcaded square from the sixteenth century, with the Verrazzano statue at its center and the Saturday market spreading under the porticoes. Giovanni da Verrazzano was born here in 1485 and sailed for France into New York Bay in 1524, fifty years before Hudson.

Where is Greve in Chianti?

Greve in Chianti is a comune in the province of Firenze, Tuscany region of Italy, about 30 kilometers from Firenze.

Tuscany · Firenze

Greve in Chianti

The market town of the Chianti Classico zone on the Greve river, with a triangular piazza arcaded since the sixteenth century.

30 km / 19 mi

Nearest hub (Firenze)

13,322

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Greve sitsin the Val di Greve, thirty-one kilometers south of Firenze and forty-two north of Siena, on the small fast river that gave the town its name. The piazza is the point. Piazza Matteotti is triangular, irregular, lined with sixteenth-century arcades that shelter wine shops, butchers and pasticcerie, and centered on a bronze statue of Giovanni da Verrazzano, the navigator born in 1485 at a castle on the hills above town. The Chianti wine district was redrawn in 1932 and Greve found itself at the center of the zone that supplies Chianti Classico, the wine sealed with a black rooster on the neck of the bottle. The Castello di Verrazzano and the Castello di Vicchiomaggio still operate vineyards on the slopes north of town. The Saturday market fills the piazza. The wine festival in early September empties the surrounding cellars into glasses for three days.

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Gallery

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Known for

Piazza Matteotti
Triangular sixteenth-century market square ringed by arcades, with a bronze statue of Giovanni da Verrazzano at its center.
Chiesa di Santa Croce
Neoclassical parish church on the south point of the piazza, rebuilt in the nineteenth century after earthquake damage.
Castello di Verrazzano
Vineyard estate on the hills north of town, birthplace in 1485 of the navigator who explored New York Bay for the French crown.
Castello di Vicchiomaggio
Eleventh-century Longobard castle on the road to Firenze, still producing Chianti Classico from surrounding vineyards.
Montefioralle
Tenth-century walled hamlet a kilometer above Greve, member of the Borghi più belli network, with concentric streets around a single church.

Signature product

Chianti Classico DOCGDOCG

Sangiovese-dominant; one of nine Chianti Classico communes between Florence and Siena.

See every town in our catalogue producing Chianti Classico DOCG.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September into October are the months when the Chianti hills are at their best, green or gold depending on the harvest. July and August push past thirty degrees and the piazza empties between two and five. The wine harvest runs late September and the cellars open in turns. Early September brings the Expo del Chianti Classico, the festival that fills Piazza Matteotti with growers from the entire zone. November is olive harvest. December through March is quiet: many trattorie shorten hours, the Saturday market still runs, and the hills turn the bare-vine brown that surrounds the bottles for the rest of the year.