There’s probably nothing that hasn’t been said before about San Gimignano and its history, its golden century - its golden age - when it boasted 72 towers; its formidable economic heft and the artistic wealth of its most noble families; and the original great urbanisation drive that raised it on the plan for which we know it today.

Competition seethed between the powerful clans. So deep ran their obsession that an edict was issued, forbidding that privately-owned towers exceed the 54 ...

It’s still very hot for September. The sun presses down with its sheen of milky humidity and the constant cicada chorus blends with the voices of people bustling in the gardens of Ruffino’s Poggio Casciano. All around, we hear the clattering of tractors loaded with grapes after a fruitful day’s harvest. 

Florence is just a few hills away in the valley. The stage is assembled and the systems are all go for the nighttime concert. Sizzling aromas drift over from the kitchen of the Locanda Le Tre ...

September is significant: it’s the month of “resolutions”, of “starting afresh”, of “new goals” that we intend to achieve. It’s the time of year when the light is at its most gorgeous, when the sun sets to the most achingly beautiful colours, when we say goodbye to summer’s happiness and carefreeness, and welcome in the autumn.

And it’s in September that we gather in the grapes.

The grape ...

Like the straw around a flask, Ruffino’s history is a story woven from truth and legend, the certifiable and the cinematic. During the First World War, in the gelid winter of the Russian steppe, a lonely soldier prepared a special dinner in a bid to keep the solitude at bay. A bottle of Ruffino was at the centre of the table. But the cold - as the soldier, who eventually made it back home alive, wrote in a heartbreaking letter - caused the bottle to explode before he could open it.

Ruffino ...