Touring the Tuscan region of Italy

The Tuscan region has a population of about 3. 5 million with almost half a million of those living in its capital, Florence. It is bordered by the sea to the west, and by the Apennine Mountains to the east. The northern border is the Alpi Apuane while the south is the coastal plain of the Maremma.

Within the Tuscan region of Italy you can find all of the classical landscapes for which Italy is famous. Anyone who is familiar with Renaissance paintings will recognise the scenes. The typical medieval hill towns offer a backdrop of rows of cypress trees, vineyards and olive groves; always with villas and farmhouses nearby. This is of course a stereotype that has been used by the tourist industry very successfully as large numbers of people now descend on the area every summer to experience the typical Tuscan weather and food.

In fact we were just as guilty when we decided to travel from the Monaco to Rome. We first of all explored the Portofino region, the subject of some other articles, before wanting to see the Tuscan countryside and try the local food. Having never been to the area our expectations were also coloured by popular views. Although as you will see from the general area photos below it does match with the popular view quite well.

Currently Tuscany is one of the wealthiest regions of the Italy. It’s a wealth partly founded on tourism but also agriculture where beef, wine and olive oil are the main produce. However there are large industrial centres which are mainly engaged in textile production. These are best avoided and are mostly located in the Arno valley.

Despite this Tuscany is still predominantly rural with huge swathes of the countryside still looking as they did 500 hundred years ago. In fact just like the paintings I mentioned earlier. Many of the towns seem to glue themselves to the peaks of the hills, with rows of vines following the lower contours of the hills. The open fields which cross the valleys form a natural break between these little peaks.

Tuscany was the centre of what has come to be known as the Renaissance. At its heart is the city of Florence and it stands as a monument to the great leap that was made in the arts and architecture. Buildings by Brunelleschi and Alberti still highlight the fabric of the city. Once you enter many of its churches you can admire paintings and sculptures by artists who put the study of the human form back into art: Donatello, Masaccio, Botticelli, Uccello, Ghirlandaio, Michelangelo, and their forerunners, Cimabue and Giotto. The city’s museums contain an amazing quantity of masterpieces. The pinnacle of these galleries would be the Uffizi containing the world’s best showcase of Renaissance art.

This is just a general view of the region the next article will deal with some of the practical issues of touring here. Then we can look in more details at cities like Pisa and Florence.