| |
|
|
Home page
Tuscany - The territory
Tuscany combines many different beauties: natural beauties and beauties which have been created by man.
Within a few tens of kilometres, you pass from the shining sea to its coasts and islands, to the springy hills that are the cradle of vines and olive trees, to the mountains where you can ski in winter.
In its heart, there are towns and cities full of history and masterpieces of art.
 |
The most important centre and the capital of the region is Florence. The city is known worldwide and it is the cradle of the Renaissance.
During its glorious past, the city was rich and powerful, and at present it enjoys the passion for art and beauty of the Medici family. The “Museo degli Uffizi” comprises invaluable treasures and every year millions of tourists visit it.
. |
Its old part of the town is a living room where you can spend unforgettable moments, in its the well-known points as “Piazza della Signoria”, “Ponte Vecchio” or “Piazza del Duomo”, doing shopping in the exclusives boutiques of “Tornabuoni street” or “Calzatoli street”, stop for a drink in one of the historic coffees in “Piazza della Repubblica”. |
Linked to Florence by sixty km of highway, there is the smaller, but not less charming Siena.
It was a bold enemy of Florence in its glorious past and the latest which was submitted to its power, Siena has an old part of the town enclosed by walls where you lost through alleys and streets, while you head towards the heart of the city: “Piazza del Campo”.
The square has a unique and harmonious shape, and it is famous for the “Palio” that, twice a year, on the 2nd July and the 16th August, makes compete ten of the seventeen “contradas” of the city. This event is extremely important for the people of Siena, and it is a spectacle worth to see at least once a time in our lifetime.
The Cathedral is another important point of the city that offers dozens of palaces, churches and museums of interest to the most demanding tourists.
 |
Among Florence and Siena, there is a campaign characterized by gentle hills, with the typical red earth, shading to the greyish yellow of the “Crete”, moving southward.
It is a triumph of vineyards and olive grooves, that produce oil and the Chianti wine, which takes its names from the area where it is produced, and it is perfect with the simple but very different Tuscan cooking. |
Towards the sea, there are Pistoia, in whose province there are the mountains with the ski resort of “Abetone”, Lucca with its characteristic elliptical shape square and Pisa with the wonderful “Piazza dei Miracoli, with the unmistakable leaning tower.
Leghorn, sworn rival of Pisa in the past and even nowadays, faces the sea and is a commercial and tourist port where you can take ships for the isles of the archipelago (Elba, Capraia, Gorgona, Giannutri, Pianosa and Montecristo). Moving northward there is the Coast of Versilia, characterized by its long sandy beach, with pearls like Forte dei Marmi and Viareggio, where everyone can find facilities for an holiday, discos and fashionable places that are frequented by celebrities, the streets of the centre of the town, with the shops of the most exclusive brands or the quiet of the pine wood.
|
 |
Continuing southwards on the coast, there is the Tuscan Maremma, an area that has: on the coast tourist resorts like Capalbio or the Argentario, and inland a country full of holiday farmhouses, where you can enjoy the life of the “Butteri”, a sort of local “cow-boys”, and ride with them enjoying fantastic views.
|
|
|
