A first-rank Chianti wine estate with a medieval stone heart

This ancient Etruscan town has a wonderful medieval feel, Etruscan artifacts, and some great wine shops

One of the three medieval towns in the original Lega del Chianti and still an important wine center

A medieval castle turned winery and hotel

A teensy medieval hamlet perched high above Greve

A 13C castle hamlet outside Gaiole

A winery agriturismo with 6 rooms and 7 apartments in a fortified medieval village near Gaiole in Chianti

The top castles in Italy

Romanesque architects concentrated on large churches with rounded arches and wide aisles to fit the masses

Soaring ceilings, pointed arches and spires, stained glass windows, gargoyles, statue-festooned facades, and those flying buttresses

The static, iconographic art of the Eastern Roman Empire dominated Italian art in the early Dark Ages

Medieval Mass was in Latin; carved bas reliefs helped explain the Biblical lessons to the illiterate masses

The International Gothic style in Italy

The Gothic style of art in medieval Italy

The rich patterns, colors, and decorative motifs of the Sienese School of Gothic art in Italy

Giotto lays the seeds for the Renaissance