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A lush triangle in northwest Italy, Tuscany is the fifth-largest
region in the country, something of a transitional area
between highly industrialized regions of Italy and those
that are still primarily agricultural. Its western and
southwestern borders lie on the sea, where resorts abound,
and Tuscany also claims the Tuscan archipelago as its
own, and is especially proud of the Island of Elba with
its jagged and dramatic coastline. The region also includes
the stately Apennines mountain range. In between the ocean
and the mountains: miles of enchanting landscapes, verdant
green hills and valleys, powerful winding rivers. |
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What is human made in Tuscany blends beautifully and discreetly with the natural terrain — that is the law of the land. The region is dotted with towns that feature museums, cathedrals, and other historical buildings plus charming plazas and outdoor cafes. The largest cities include Florence, Siena, and Pisa.
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Tuscany boasts many ancient Etruscan and Roman ruins. Also evident—-especially if you veer off the main tourist routes—is what was once Medieval Tuscany, and you’ll find little walled towns, castles, fortresses, watchtowers, and the like...some in ruins, others painstakingly preserved. Agriculturally, the principal products of the region are wheat, olives, and wine, with the latter produced mainly in the Chianti area. The gentle hilly slopes are lavish with vineyards and olive groves and have given Tuscany its traditional image.
The region’s weather conditions and hilly soil are ideal for growing grapes. In fact, well before the ancient Etruscans made the scene, wild grapes grew all over Tuscany’s sunny slopes. Thanks to paintings and decorated pottery uncovered by archaeologists, historians believe that the Etruscans domesticated and bred those wild grapes into what—over the centuries—became such popular grapes as the Lambrusco and Sangiovese. The latter is now the most grown grape in Tuscany.
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It is often combined with other Tuscany grapes—such as Canaiolo, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Ciliegiolo—to create not just the region’s world-renowned Chianti and Chianti Classico wines, but other favorites of the connoisseur, such as Carmignano, Brunello di Montalcino, and Morellino di Scansano. Some other Tuscany grapes include Colorino, Gamay, Moscatello, Mammolo, Aleatico, Grand Noir, Vernaccia, Barbera, Raspirosso, and Malvasia.
While Tuscany is generally celebrated for its red wines, local vintners produce some excellent “biancos” (whites), as well. Wine experts are most laudable about the Vernaccia de San Gimignano, but Bianco di Pitigliano, Bianco d’Elba (from the island of Elba), Vermentino, Bianco di Val di Nievole, and Bianco di Bolgheri are held in high regard, as well. Tuscany is also famous for its delicious dessert wine, Vin Santo (“Holy Wine”), which is usually made from Trebbiano grapes that have been left to dry until the start of the week before Easter.
Some visitors become so enchanted with Tuscany that they buy primary or vacation homes there. One such starry-eyed convert is poet and university professor Frances Mayes, who wrote the best-selling book Under the Tuscan Sun to describe her experiences. Mayes and her husband Ed fell in love with a magnificent (but badly in need of repair) house near the Tuscan town of Cortona. The house had a name: Bramasole, from bramare, to yearn for, and sole, sun. Her account of the purchase of her dream home is both hilarious and charming. She talks about a meeting, with her husband, her Italian real estate agent, an interpreter, and the house’s former owners in the office of a notaio, who, she says, is nothing like a notary; she’s the legal person who conducts real estate transactions in Italy. The transaction included much archaic language, such as an eighteenth-century legal description of the amount of land, measured by how long it would take two oxen to plow it!
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If you, too, want to live in Tuscany you can buy a deserted barn for $150,000 or a farmhouse on a hill for $1 million or more. But you must maintain the exterior look. You have to preserve the stone walls, build a new villa, and put the old walls back on the outside, finishing with wooden doors and windows that look traditional.
Should you just want to visit, we recommend, as a start, that you buy the excellent Eyewitness Travel Guide to Florence & Tuscany. From the introduction: “Tuscany is renowned throughout the world for its art, history, and beautiful landscape. Here the past merges with the present to a remarkable degree, for its people pride themselves on their heritage. Independent and combative, for centuries they have preserved their surroundings and traditions, in which must lie much of Tuscany’s eternal fascination for the outsider.”
One of our favorite Tuscany stops is Arezzo, which is probably the wealthiest city in the region because it produces gold jewelry for shops all over the Continent. In Arezzo, you’ll find the 13th-Century church of San Francesco, which houses Piero della Francesca’s masterpiece frescoes, “The Legend of the True Cross,” painted between 1452 and 1466.
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Also not to be missed are Sienna and the villages nearby. The Piazza del Campo in Sienna is the site every July 2nd and August 16th of Tuscany’s most famous event, the Palio, a bareback horse race that dates back to 1283 and possibly earlier.
Other highlights of Sienna and environs include the Monte Oliveto Maggiore, an abbey where you can sing Gregorian chants with the monks, and San Gmignano, “the city of the beautiful towers.” The latter is one of the best-preserved medieval towns in Italy. And do be sure to visit a winery in the Sienna area. Brunello di Montalcino, for example, is lovingly produced here.
And then there’s Florence. Here’s an astonishing statistic: According to UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), 60 percent of the world’s most important works of art are in Italy and about half of those are in Florence. We will cover Florence in more depth in a future issue.
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Story by Jacqueline Shannon
Photography by Michael Blassis
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