Description: The Val d'Elsa of Tuscany, Italy - Colle di Val d'Elsa, Monteriggioni, Barberino Val d'Elsa
Although a great many of the towns of Tuscany in Italy are the famous "Tuscan hill towns", they are often defined in name and location by the valleys they overlook since it was and is through the valleys that lines of communication run. Near Florence , aside from the valley of the Arno itself, one of the most famous of these valleys is the Val d'Elsa (sometimes written Valdelsa ), the valley of the River Elsa . The Elsa is 63 km long and rises in the Siennese Montagnola in the municipality of Sovicille from
Colle di Val d'Elsa
The basin of the Elsa includes the following municipalities, in part or in whole: • Barberino Val d'Elsa (Firenze) • Casole d'Elsa (Siena) • Castelfiorentino (Firenze) • Castellina in Chianti (Siena) • Castelnuovo Berardenga (Siena) • Certaldo (Firenze) • Colle Val d'Elsa (Siena) • Empoli (Firenze) • Gambassi Terme (Firenze) • Montaione (Firenze) • Monteriggioni (Siena) • Montespertoli (Firenze) on the watershed between Val d'Elsa and Val di Pesa • Poggibonsi (Siena) • Radda in Chianti (Siena) • Radicondoli