The Crete Senesi are thus a singular territory. Like an island: disruptive, uncompromising, where the sun truly beats down, the wind blows without obstacles, the light is blinding, and the gaze can mercilessly range everywhere, chasing distant horizons, admirable lines, unforgivable damages.
The Crete Senesi are one of the most significant examples through which one can learn about the world of sharecropping, consisting of farms, villages, and estates.
Here, each season has extraordinarily different colors, green in spring, yellow in summer, gray and all the colors of light in autumn and winter, because the clay, like the wings of a stage, changes color and is colored with every change of the sky. Here, only going slowly allows one to admire all the landscapes, to listen to the sounds, to imagine the worlds of this sea of clay.
It is known that olive oil is the product that best embodies Mediterranean societies. The main source of fat in peasant diets, olive oil has acquired a central position in traditional cuisine, used both raw and cooked. Raw, oil balances and harmonizes flavors, becoming a condiment, that is, a substance with a strong flavor.
The Crete Senesi is the area southeast of the city of Siena, which includes the municipal territories of Asciano, Buonconvento, Monteroni d'Arbia, Rapolano Terme, Montalcino, and Trequanda, all in the province of Siena. The name derives from the clay, or creta, present in the soil, which gives the landscape its characteristic gray-blue color and an appearance often described as lunar. This characteristic clay, mixed with rock salt and gypsum [without source], called mattaione, represents the sediments of the Pliocene sea that covered the area between 2.5 and 4.5 million years ago.
The landscape is characterized by barren and gently rolling hills, solitary oaks and cypresses, isolated farmhouses at the top of the heights, stretches of woodland in the depressions, and "fontoni" (water basins) that collect rainwater. Typical terrain formations are the gullies, cliffs, and "biancane" (small, rounded clay hills). Within the Crete Senesi, there is a natural woodland where there are many squirrels and "nane" (mute ducks also called "nana" in Tuscany). The most interesting building in this area is probably the hostel of St. Gimignano, founded on the initiative of St. Bernard Tolomei, in the 13th century. The area is known for the production of the white truffle of the Crete and hosts a festival and a museum dedicated to the so-called diamond of the Crete.