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Greve in Chianti anciently remained on the margins of the main traffic routes and network linked to the Via Folterran and Francigena. Its road systems permitted to easily reach Florence and, crossing the foot of the hills, connected it with the Valley of the Arno, where important markets could be found (for example Figline). It was exactly this open mentality towards commercial outlets that prompted the birth of the mercatale di Greve (Greve market), at the centre of a densely populated area, already rich with parishes and rural churches and scattered with castles and feudal hilltop villages, that after the conquest and the subsequent transformation on the part of the Florentines became courtly residences, villas and country farmhouses.
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Western Europe
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