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 Capraia retain a tranquil isolation.
Florence
Since early in the
nineteenth century FLORENCE has been celebrated as
the most beautiful city in Italy. Stendhal staggered
around its streets in a perpetual stupor of delight;
the Brownings sighed over its idyllic charms; and
E.M. Forster's Room with a View portrayed it as the
great southern antidote to the sterility of
Anglo-Saxon life. For most people Florence comes
close to living up to the myth only in its first,
resounding impressions. The pinnacle of
Brunelleschi's stupendous cathedral dome dominates
the cityscape, and the close-up view is even more
breathtaking, with the multicoloured Duomo rising
behind the marble-clad Baptistry. Wander from there
down towards the River Arno and the attraction still
holds: beyond the broad Piazza della Signoria, site
of the towering Palazzo Vecchio, the river is
spanned by the medieval shop-lined Ponte Vecchio,
with the gorgeous church of San Miniato al Monte
glistening on the hill behind it.
Yet after registering these marvellous sights, it's
hard to stave off a sense of disappointment, for
much of Florence is a city of narrow streets and
heavy-set, oppressively dour palazzi that show only
iron-barred windows and massive, studded doors to
the outside world. The alienating effects of this
physical entrenchment are redoubled by an unending
tide of mass tourism. You'll find light relief to be
in short supply.
The fact is, the best of Florence is to be seen
indoors. Under the patronage of the Medici family,
the city's artists and thinkers were instigators of
the shift from the medieval to the modern world-view,
and churches, galleries and museums are the places
to get to grips with their achievement. The
development of the Renaissance can be plotted in the
vast picture collection of the Uffizi and in the
sculpture of the Bargello and the Museo dell'Opera
del Duomo. Equally revelatory are the fabulously
decorated chapels of Santa Croce and Santa Maria
Novella, forerunners of such astonishing creations
as Masaccio's superb frescoes in the Cappella
Brancacci, and Fra' Angelico's serene paintings in
the monks' cells at San Marco. The Renaissance
emphasis on harmony and rational design is expressed
with unrivalled eloquence in Brunelleschi's
architecture, specifically in the churches of San
Lorenzo, Santo Spirito and the Cappella dei Pazzi.
The full genius of Michelangelo, the dominant
creative figure of sixteenth-century Italy, is on
display in the fluid design of San Lorenzo's
Biblioteca Laurenziana and the marble statuary of
the Cappelle Medicee and the Accademia – home of the
David. Every quarter of Florence can boast a church
or collection worth an extended call, and the
enormous Palazzo Pitti south of the river
constitutes a museum district on its own.
Florence Picture Gallery
Florence Museums
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