Castello di Verrazzano


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Between Florence and Siena, in the territory of Greve in Chianti, stands the Castello di Verrazzano. In the 7th century, the castle became the property of the Verrazzano family and it was here that in 1485 the navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano was born, discoverer of the bay of present-day New York and most of the east coast of the United States. In New York there is the famous bridge (The Verrazano) suspended between Brooklyn and Staten Island. The important Florentine family of the Marchesi Ridolfi succeeded the Verrazzanos after the death of their last descendant in 1819. In the 1920s, thanks to Luigi Ridolfi, the Florence stadium was built and in 1926 Fiorentina, the city's soccer team, was founded. President of the Athletics Association, Ridolfi granted the Italian team to train in Verrazzano for the Olympic Games of 1936. In 1958, the rider Luigi Cappellini took over the estate now on the road to decadence, beginning a patient work of restoration that, respecting the historical and architectural peculiarities of the place, has restored the purity of forms of Castello del Mille to its former splendor and rebuilt the agricultural fabric according to the ancient model, replanting the vineyards. Cavalier Cappellini immediately understood the value of the history and the amenities of the territory for the best valorization of agricultural productions, laying the foundations of this sensitivity that has seen the birth of the phenomenon of agrotourism.