The “Chianti Origo” exhibition, a new cultural initiative housed in the former Cantine Ricasoli in Gaiole in Chianti, includes a large area devoted to the world of the bicycle and of cycling. This new space, known as the “Casa Eroica”, provides visitors with a complete overview of what is, in effect, both a sport and a social activity that has built up a worldwide reputation over the years, yet without forgetting its origin in Gaiole or the fact that one of the many ways in which this small local community has made a name for itself throughout the world has been on two wheels. The multimedial and interactive exhibition allows visitors to discover the birth, development and formal success of an entire network of events that have proven capable of involving
thousands of fans all over the world, and to explore the trappings, objects and complementary items that have turned Eroica into a unique brand in the field of sport. Augmented reality visors allow you to gain first-hand experience of what it feels like to take part in the race, thus discovering at any time of the year what the thousands of cyclists who take to the unmade roads only experience in Gaiole in Chianti on the first Sunday in October.

A setting bent on rediscovering the value of its origins would not have been complete without the “Ciclofficina Luciano Berruti”, a faithful reconstruction of the most intimate corner of the Eroico Numero 21, with its fixtures and fittings re-erected here to recreate the original working environment of the last century. 
In conjunction with the Archdiocese of Siena – Colle di Val d’Elsa – Montalcino and the parish of Santa Petronilla in Siena, to mark the start of the Tour de France 2024 and of Becycle, an event organised by Pitti Immagine and the Stazione Leopolda focusing on the world of the bicycle, cycling and cycle tourism, visitors will be able to admire the original historic vests with which Gino Bartali won the Tour de France in 1938 and 1948.

The vests, recently restored and now on permanent display in the Chapel of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, not only symbolise the Florentine champion’s immense faith and his deep bond of friendship with Sienese parish priest Don Bruno Franci; they also bear in their very fabric, restored by Opera Laboratori, the deepest marks of Italy’s recent history.