 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.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT
www.italiamia.com
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