Radda in Chianti Geography, Climate & Nature

Geography

The comune covers 80.56 square kilometres, set on the hills that occupy the opening stretch of the valleys of the Arbia and the Pesa. Radda is where two river systems start, which is a different kind of position from Castellina's watershed between three.

The relief runs from 280 to 845 metres. The low point is near the settlement of Lucarelli; the high point is the summit of Monte Querciabella. The capoluogo stands at 535 metres — a figure worth stating plainly, because 600 is widely repeated and is wrong.

It borders five comuni: Cavriglia in the province of Arezzo, Gaiole in Chianti, Castelnuovo Berardenga, Castellina in Chianti, and Greve in Chianti in the Metropolitan City of Florence. Like Castellina it straddles the old Florentine–Sienese divide.

Eight frazioni are scattered across it, and their altitudes show the terrain: Badia a Montemuro at 706 m, Volpaia at 617 m, Colle Petroso at 520 m, Palagio at 515 m, Selvole at 504 m, Monterinaldi at 396 m, San Fedele at 378 m and Lucarelli at 285 m. None has more than about seventy residents.

The whole territory is inside Chianti Classico, and two official classifications describe the ground: seismic zone 2 — medium-to-high seismicity — under Ordinanza PCM 3274 of 20 March 2003, a step above neighbouring Castellina at zone 3S, and climate zone E with 2,245 degree-days.

Verified against Wikipedia, October 2026.

Climate patterns

The nearest long-run station to the capoluogo is Montevarchi, and its thirty-year means are the figures used here. They should be read as a floor for summer and an overstatement for winter warmth: Montevarchi sits in the Valdarno and Radda stands at 535 metres.

Summer is hot. Mean daily maxima of 27.2 °C in June, 30.9 °C in July and 30.1 °C in August, with mean minima of 14.6, 16.8 and 16.4 °C.

Winter is cold. January means 8.2 °C maximum and 0.9 °C minimum; February 10.4 and 1.8; December 9.3 and 1.8. The comune is climate zone E, 2,245 degree-days.

Spring and autumn are long and usable. April averages 18.5 °C by day, May 22.5, September 26.1 and October 19.5 — which is why the walking and cycling events here fall in spring and autumn rather than summer.

Habitats & biodiversity

This is wooded country with vines cut into it, and the proportions matter. The comune's 80.56 square kilometres climb from 280 to 845 metres, and the upper ground — Monte Querciabella, Badia a Montemuro at 706 metres — is forest rather than vineyard.

The name of the high point is the clue. Querciabella is oak country, and the Chianti ridge woods are the habitat that fills everything the vineyards and olives do not.

Vine and olive are the cultivated layer, and they are ancient here. The Chianti is a district of high hills and mountains where ground laboriously taken from the wood was used with care; the archaeology of the neighbouring comuni has recovered burnt grape pips showing vitis vinifera in this country 2,300 years ago, from a probable village foundation rite at Poggio La Croce — which is in Radda's own territory.

No species list is published in the sources behind this page, and none is invented. What a visitor meets is the edge between wood and vine, repeated across eight scattered frazioni and a lot of empty hillside.

Wildlife & birds

Treat Radda as a farmed clearing inside a forest. The comune runs to 845 metres at Monte Querciabella and holds only 1,431 people across 80.56 square kilometres; the uncultivated majority is woodland.

Game lives in it. The estates of this district describe their woods explicitly as an ideal environment for the various kinds of game that populate them in the wild, and the ratio of wood to vineyard on a Chianti estate is typically several times over.

Depopulation gave the woods back ground. Rural depopulation here peaked in the 1950s, and the restoration of castles, villas and farmhouses only began in the 1970s — two decades in which a great deal of marginal cultivation reverted.

No fauna inventory is published in the sources behind this page. None is given here. The honest advice is the ordinary one for Tuscan hill country: dawn and dusk at the wood margin, and care on the roads at night.

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Sources & verification Covers the sourced claims on this page.

Checked against Wikipedia — The communal territory of Radda in Chianti extends for 80.56 square kilometres and is set on the hills that occupy the initial stretch of the valleys of the Arbia and the Pesa; the altitude runs from a minimum of 280 m above sea level near the settlement of Lucarelli to a maximum of 845 m at the summit of Monte Querciabella, and the capoluogo is placed at 535 m. The communal territory is entirely within Chianti Classico., Radda in Chianti borders the comuni of Cavriglia, Gaiole in Chianti, Castelnuovo Berardenga, Castellina in Chianti and Greve in Chianti; Cavriglia is in the province of Arezzo and Greve in the Metropolitan City of Florence., The communal territory of Radda in Chianti is composed of eight frazioni: Badia a Montemuro at 706 m with 26 inhabitants, Colle Petroso at 520 m with 10, Lucarelli at 285 m with 69, Monterinaldi at 396 m, Palagio at 515 m with 13, San Fedele at 378 m, Selvole at 504 m with 29, and Volpaia at 617 m with 49., Radda in Chianti is in seismic zone 2, medium-to-high seismicity, under Ordinanza PCM 3274 of 20 March 2003, and in climate zone E with 2,245 degree-days., The communal territory of Radda in Chianti extends for 80.56 square kilometres and is set on the hills that occupy the initial stretch of the valleys of the Arbia and the Pesa; the altitude runs from a minimum of 280 m above sea level near the settlement of Lucarelli to a maximum of 845 m at the summit of Monte Querciabella, and the capoluogo is placed at 535 m. The communal territory is entirely within Chianti Classico., The communal territory of Radda in Chianti is composed of eight frazioni: Badia a Montemuro at 706 m with 26 inhabitants, Colle Petroso at 520 m with 10, Lucarelli at 285 m with 69, Monterinaldi at 396 m, Palagio at 515 m with 13, San Fedele at 378 m, Selvole at 504 m with 29, and Volpaia at 617 m with 49., The area around the capoluogo of Radda in Chianti has been inhabited since 2000 BC, as the archaeological area of Poggio la Croce shows, where the remains of an ancient village have emerged and where the excavations of the last decade have brought many finds to light; the presence of an Etruscan village can subsequently be hypothesised, although very few traces of it have emerged., The communal territory of Radda in Chianti extends for 80.56 square kilometres and is set on the hills that occupy the initial stretch of the valleys of the Arbia and the Pesa; the altitude runs from a minimum of 280 m above sea level near the settlement of Lucarelli to a maximum of 845 m at the summit of Monte Querciabella, and the capoluogo is placed at 535 m. The communal territory is entirely within Chianti Classico., Radda in Chianti is an Italian comune of 1,431 inhabitants in the province of Siena, in Tuscany, and its patron is san Nicolo., The situation reached its height in the 1950s when the depopulation of the countryside, a phenomenon common to many areas of the Chianti, peaked; in the 1970s the rediscovery of these places began and slowly all the castles, villas and individual farmhouses have been restored, with agriturismi and farm businesses established in them., The nearest meteorological station to the capoluogo of Radda in Chianti is Montevarchi, whose thirty-year means give monthly maxima of 8.2 degrees in January, 10.4 in February, 18.5 in April, 22.5 in May, 27.2 in June, 30.9 in July, 30.1 in August, 26.1 in September, 19.5 in October and 9.3 in December, with minima of 0.9 in January, 1.8 in February, 14.6 in June, 16.8 in July, 16.4 in August and 1.8 in December., Radda in Chianti is in seismic zone 2, medium-to-high seismicity, under Ordinanza PCM 3274 of 20 March 2003, and in climate zone E with 2,245 degree-days., The communal territory of Radda in Chianti extends for 80.56 square kilometres and is set on the hills that occupy the initial stretch of the valleys of the Arbia and the Pesa; the altitude runs from a minimum of 280 m above sea level near the settlement of Lucarelli to a maximum of 845 m at the summit of Monte Querciabella, and the capoluogo is placed at 535 m. The communal territory is entirely within Chianti Classico. (October 2026).