Tuscany harbours the classic
landscapes of Italy, familiar from
Renaissance paintings and TV travel
shows alike, with their backdrop of
medieval hill-towns, rows of slender
cypress trees, vineyards and olive
groves, and artfully sited villas
and farmhouses. It's a picture that
has long held an irresistible
attraction for northern Europeans.
The expat's perspective may be
distorted, but Tuscany is indeed the
essence of Italy in many ways. The
national language evolved from
Tuscan dialect, a supremacy ensured
by Dante, who wrote the Divine
Comedy in the vernacular of his
birthplace, Florence, and Tuscan
writers such as Petrarch and
Boccaccio. But what makes this area
pivotal to the culture of Italy and
all of Europe is the Renaissance
, which fostered painting, sculpture
and architecture that comprise an
intrinsic part of a Tuscan tour. The
very name by which we refer to this
extraordinarily creative era was
coined by a Tuscan, Giorgio Vasari,
who wrote in the sixteenth century
of the "rebirth" of the
arts. Florence was the most
active centre of the Renaissance,
flourishing principally through the
all-powerful patronage of the Medici
dynasty. Every eminent artistic
figure from Giotto onwards -
Masaccio, Brunelleschi, Alberti,
Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo da
Vinci, Michelangelo - is represented
here, in an unrivalled gathering of
churches, galleries and museums.
Few people react entirely
positively to Florence's crowds and
its rather draining commercialism. Siena
provokes less ambiguous responses.
This is one of the great medieval
cities of Europe, almost perfectly
preserved, and with superb works of
art in its religious and secular
buildings. Its beautiful Campo - the
central, scallop-shaped market
square - is the scene, too, of
Tuscany's one unmissable festival,
the Palio , which sees
bareback horse-riders careering
around the cobbles amid the
brightest display of pageantry this
side of Rome. Other major cities, Pisa
and Lucca , provide
convenient entry points to the
region, either by air (via Pisa's
airport) or along the coastal rail
route from Genoa. Arezzo
serves as the classic introduction
to Tuscany if you're approaching
from the south (Rome) or east (Perugia).
All three have their splendours -
Pisa its Leaning Tower, Lucca a
string of Romanesque churches,
Arezzo an outstanding fresco cycle
by Piero della Francesca.
Tucked away to the west and south
of Siena are dozens of small hill-towns
that, for many, epitomize the
region. San Gimignano is the
best-known, and is worth visiting as
much for its spectacular array of
frescoes as for its
much-photographed bristle of
medieval tower-houses, though it's
now a little too popular for its own
good. Montepulciano, Pienza
and Cortona are each superbly
located and dripping with
atmosphere, but the best candidates
for a Tuscan hill-town escape are
little-mentioned places such as Volterra,
Massa Maríttima or Pitigliano
, in each of which tourism has yet
to undermine local character.
If the Tuscan countryside
has a fault, it's the popularity
that its seductiveness has brought,
and you may find lesser-known sights
proving most memorable - remote
monasteries like Monte Oliveto
Maggiore , the sulphur spa of Bagno
Vignoni , or the striking
open-air art gallery of the Tarot
Garden . The one area where
Tuscany fails to impress is its
over-developed coast , with
uninspired beach-umbrella compounds
filling every last scrap of sand.
The Tuscan islands have
rather more going for them - Elba
may be a victim of its own allure,
but the smaller islands such as Giglio
and Capraia retain a tranquil
isolation.
Tuscany's tourist office
is based at Via di Novoli 26,
I-50127 Firenze (tel 055.438.2111, www.turismo.toscana.it
) - their Web site gives access to a
comprehensive accommodation database
and links to all fifteen of
Tuscany's area tourist offices.
Finding accommodation can be
a major problem in the summer: you
should definitely reserve in
advance, even at budget level. Be
warned that the region is also
expensive, even by northern Italian
standards, with few hotel doubles
costing less than L80,000/?42.32 in
high season (L100,000/?51.65 in
Florence). Agritourism is big
business, with a plethora of
family-run places dotted around the
countryside offering anything from
budget rooms in a farmhouse up to
luxury apartments within restored
castles or Renaissance villas set
amidst wine estates. The regional
government's Web site ( www.agriturismo.regione.toscana.it
) has plenty of information. Call
the toll-free number tel 800.570.530
for timetable and fare information
for all forms of transport -
trains, buses and boats.
