Passo
dei Pecorai.

Passo dei Pecorai sits on a low saddle in the Chianti hills, where vineyards climb one slope and olive groves cover the other. The name comes from the Italian word for shepherd. The land here is now mostly given to vines grown for Chianti wine, and to olive trees that supply small local presses.

Stone farmhouses and family-run cellars sit along the slopes, many open for tastings of wine and oil made on site. Old farm tracks and shepherd paths cross the hillsides, linking the pass to nearby villages and to Badia a Passignano, an abbey set among its own vineyards. Oak and cypress woods shade parts of the route, and chestnut groves higher up add their own harvest once the grapes and olives are in.

The nearby villages of Greve, Panzano, Castellina, and Radda keep their own pace, with wine shops, a well-known butcher, and small artisan workshops part of everyday life in the Chianti countryside.