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TUSCANY
Tuscany’s historical and natural landscape surrounds Florence
in an unique blend. Skills and labour of our countrymen have built
in the course of the years not only an immense art heritage but have
re-shaped as well its environment, whose profile has been refined
by vineyards, olive orchards and cornfields.
The Northern Tuscany is characterized by the steep profile of the
Alpi Apuane; its Western coast stretches, with ever-changing features,
from Liguria to Lazio; the eastern mountains of Mugello and Casentino
are covered by forests and woods; whereas on the South a wilder stretch
of land faces a dream-like archipelago. At the very core of Tuscany
lies a beautiful agricultural region, rightly famous for the quality
of its wines. And furthermore the Terme in Montecatini, perfect combination
of amusement and healthy relax.
In this unique natural scenery beautiful towns and villages are set,
whose ancient buildings have been carefully preserved through the
centuries. Many of their streets and squares (and sometimes the whole
town, as in San Gimignano) still display the same features as at the
end of the sixteenth Century. Not far away from Siena, Pienza, a humanistic
utopia where we can still walk, is an ideal Renaissance town, designed
by Rossellino to meet the wish of his cultivated patron, the Pope
Pius II Piccolomini.
But from the Romanesque abbey of Sant’Antimo to the baroque church
of Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri in Pisa, all the architectural styles
from the fifth to the seventeenth century are extraordinarily well
represented in Tuscany.
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| PISA
From the eleventh to the thirteenth century Pisa,
at its peak as a maritime power, ruled the Western Mediterranean
sea with its fleet.
The Campo dei Miracoli is a scenic testimony of Pisa’s former
economic and political splendor. The leaning Tower, whose slant
depends on inadequate foundations set in a sandy and muddy soil,
is but the most famous of the magnificent buildings located in the
emerald-green, perfectly tended lawn of the square. The Tower cannot
outshine the neighboring Cathedral, the Baptistery and the Camposanto.
The Cathedral outer walls are encrusted of white Carrara marble,
whereas its façade is inlaid with sandstone slabs of different
hues and with glass and ceramic decorations. Inside the majestic
Baptistery visitors can admire the Pulpit sculpted by Nicola Pisano
with scenes of Jesus’ life.
A visit to the town must include also the jewel-like gothic church
of Santa Maria della Spina and the fascinating Romanesque architecture
of San Paolo a Ripa d’Arno, whereas the Piazza dei Cavalieri
discloses the aristocratic look of the town in the sixteenth century.
On the road from Pisa to Florence also the Pisa Carthusian Monastery,
the town of San Miniato al Tedesco and the villas of Artimino and
Poggio a Caiano, formerly belonging to the Medici family, deserve
very well a visit. So does the town of Volterra, famous for its
enormous Etruscan walls, the Descent from the Cross by Rosso Fiorentino
preserved in the Museum of its Cathedral and its alabaster carving
traditional industry.
LUCCA
Lucca was a Roman colony already in 180 b.C.
and still preserves a Roman town character in the regular pattern
of its layout and in the peculiar elliptic shape of its Market Place,
which has been built on the site of the old Amphitheater. The church
of San Michele in Foro, whose name reminds us of the formerly neighboring
Roman forum, was built in the elegant style of Pisan Romanesque
monuments. The Cathedral of San Martino, whose façade leans
against the bell-tower, hosts the well-known altarpiece by Ghirlandaio
in the Sacristy but is even more famous for the funeral monument
of Ilaria del Carretto, an extraordinary masterpiece by Jacopo della
Quercia. The monument portrays the young wife of Paolo Guinigi,
whose family built the tower that carries their name, where holm-oaks
grow on the roof.
AREZZO
In the Aretine church of San Francesco Piero
della Francesca, one of the fathers of the Renaissance Italian painting,
frescoed his masterpiece, the Legend of the Cross (1453-1464), where
drawing and color blend in a rich, masterly balance. These frescoes,
whose restoration is under completion, may very well be the first
step to admire more works of this painter, scattered throughout
this area: the Resurrection in San Sepolcro and the Madonna del
Parto in Monterchi.
Also Cortona and Anghiari, and further on the North Camaldoli, Vallombrosa,
Bibbiena and Borgo San Lorenzo are well worth a visit.
SIENA
Located at the core of a prosperous agricultural
land, Siena preserves its character of a medieval town, whose steep
and narrow roads date back of that historical period.
Its power was at its peak indeed in the Middle Age. A black plague
epidemic, that killed one third of the Senesi, caused an abrupt
stop to it in 1348, whereas the siege won by the Florentine about
two hundred years later put an end to its independent history. But
these remote events caused the town to survive almost without changes
in its medieval looks, that a careful restoration has now maintained.
The Cathedral was built in gothic style. The interior displays among
other treasures the black-and white marble inlaid pavement, the
Piccolomini Library with its frescoes by Pinturicchio and the pulpit
panels sculpted by Nicola Pisano.
But one of the major wonders is the Piazza del Campo, sloping towards
the Palazzo Pubblico (Town Hall) and divided into nine sectors to
recall the nine members of the Council that ruled the town in the
Middle Age. In this square the most famous festival in Tuscany,
the Palio, is hold twice a year.
It is a horse race without saddle, where horses and jockeys run
for the 17 contrade (districts) of the town according to their traditional
rivalries. It is a hard, spectacular race, introduced by an impressive
parade in medieval costumes and whose prize is the “palio”,
a painted banner.
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