Panzano- A bridge from the ancient past

As my children will tell you, with an eye roll or two when they think I may not be looking, the history and the people behind any place we visited always captivated me. Immune to my fascination with the stories of the Colonial interpreters in the smothering August heat of Williamsburg, Virginia, their primary curiosity as young teens was the location of the nearest lemonade stand. And so it was on every family outing. I’d stop to study a historical marker or plaque describing unique vegetation or land form, they just wanted to move on. In fairness they are now grown and there’s a new, younger generation they are challenged to engage. Perhaps their adult responses might be more patient. Regardless of whether or not their interest in remote people, places and things has changed, their mother’s has not. And so, this introduction to my life in Panzano must begin with some history about this magical place.

Though named by the Romans to mean the farm or estate (fundus) of Pantius, Panzano traces its roots back centuries before the Romans. It was the Etruscans who first settled on this hilltop in the 6th or 5th century BC. In fact, Tuscany, the region in which Panzano sits, takes its name from the Etruscans who were called Tusci by the Romans and Tyrrhenians by the Greeks. I was surprised to learn that here, in the area once called Etruria, evolved the first advanced civilization in what is today Italy.

Etruscan developments in agriculture, technology, art and culture strongly influenced Rome and are still evident today. The modern cultivation of grapes and olives, for which Tuscany is renowned, derives from practices first established by the Etruscans. They also contributed innovations such as grid plans for cities, drainage plans and Rome’s underground sewer system. And I thought those were all Roman contributions!

Etruria covered such a large part of Central Italy- all of modern Tuscany as well as portions of Umbria and Lazio- so how do we know there were actually Etruscans here in this little place called Panzano? The evidence was an Etruscan stelae found on a local farm around 1700. A stelae, I learned, is a monument in wood or stone that contains carvings and images to record an event. Since that stelae, the strongest connection to Panzano’s Etruscan past, has since been lost, today you will have to travel to neighboring towns such as Volterra, Chuisi, Orvieto or Cortona or one of many others to explore the remnants of that once great civilization.

Panzano may have lost traces of its earliest settlers but that’s not the case for the influence of its Roman ancestors who overtook the Etruscans. As you stroll through this town with its Roman name, you’ll click your heels on stones from ancient Roman roads which are still in use.

Its location exactly midway between Florence ( to the north) and Siena (to the south) made Panzano especially strategic and bloodily contested during the Middle Ages when it was a densely populated fief. From the 10th century, there were fortifications on this highest point between Greve and Pisa. The remnants of the castle, built in the 11th or 12th century by the feudal Ricasoli-Firidolfi family dominate the hillside. Approaching from the north, the view of the hilltop church of Santa Maria Assunta whose bell tower integrates one of the castle’s original towers dominates the landscape and offers your first glimpse of Panzano. Medieval buildings, home to the village’s 21st century residents flank the narrow path that leads from the church steps down the steep hill to the piazza.

Today drivers in cars, trucks, buses and vespas push the “pedal to the metal” to race up and down the Via Chiantigiana, right under my living room window. This ancient and scenic road, a vital thorofare for over a thousand years, remains a critical link among the towns and villages of Chianti. On weekends, cyclists in colorful, skin tight biking attire share the road with the machines. Clusters of men ( I have only seen two women cyclists so far) stream into town to park their bikes and refill water bottles at the ancient water fountain just off the piazza.

The Chianti region is also known as the Conca d’Ora (bowl of gold). Once prized for its rich golden wheat harvests, wine is its primary treasure now. Who has not enjoyed a glass of the deeply colored, fragrant wine with hints of warm summer fruits that is named for this region? Here in town there are tasting rooms for the area’s most prominent vineyards lining the streets.

But while visitors to Panzano certainly come to sample and indulge in the offerings from its many wineries, visitors today are just as likely to be carnivorous foodies, here to experience Dario. Dario Cecchini is the eighth generation butcher who operates from a shop, just up from the piazza, that’s been in his family for 250 years! With three restaurants in town and a food truck on a scenic overpass as you head south toward Siena on the Via Chiantigiana, Dario put 21st century Panzano on the map!

And so the story of this tiny village, ancient yet modern, continues to evolve. Each new generation builds on those that have gone before it, adding their unique energy and dynamism to the magic of this town on a hill.

CLICK HERE to Learn More

Quick Tip: The simplest way to approximately convert C to F, double it and add 30

Population 1161 (2011 census)

CLICK HERE Read an Article About Panzano from the Firenze Magazine.

CLICK HERE to Visit the Panzano Website.