During the Pliocene epoch, about three million years ago, those who had observed the landscape from the top of the Chianti hills, would have seen an arm of the sea, about thirty kilometers wide, extend towards South-East for at least 80 Km.

A similar physiographic situation strongly influenced the constitution of the territory, forming that sea basin that acted as a formidable area of recall and accumulation of sediments carried by the water, unloading the fragments of rocks in the sea.

Then with the progressive withdrawal of the sea from the region it was determined the overlap of rock bodies in the typical stratigraphy of clays, sandstones and conglomerates, whose deposits – however – remained influenced by the oscillations of the sea level, which, although for relatively short periods, he again came back to invade the land, alternating environments of lagoon, beach, and shallow sea.

The subsequent erosive phenomena, mainly due to water and wind, further contributed to depict that piece of land with the appearance of a petrified stormy sea.

The Italian town of Rapolano in the Sienese lands has been known since the ancient Romans who went there to take the thermal baths in its hot springs.