CITIES & VILLAGE TUSCANY ITALY
Florence | Pisa | Lucca | Siena | Montalcino | San Gimignano

tuscany city/cities Italy - Tuscany Last Minute Toskana Last Minute book online

In the late Middle Ages and throughout the Renaissance, Tuscany was a center
of the arts and of learning. The Tuscan spoken language became the literary
language of Italy after Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, and Boccaccio used it.
Notable schools of architecture, sculpture, and painting developed from the
11th cent. in many cities, particularly Florence, Pisa, Siena, and
Arezzo.

Since the 16th century, however, intellectual and artistic life was almost
wholly concentrated in Florence. There are universities at Florence, Pisa,
and Siena.

Tuscany has considerable industry, although farming is still an important
chief occupation. Manufactures include cotton and woolen textiles, metal
products, chemicals, machinery, motor vehicles, precision instruments,
glass, refined petroleum, and fertilizer. The region is also well-known for
its artisans, especially those in Florence, and tourism is an important
industry.

Modern Tuscany corresponds to the larger part of ancient Etruria, and most
of our knowledge of Etruscan civilization is derived from findings there.
The Romans conquered the region in the mid-4th cent. B.C. After the fall of
Rome, it was a Lombard duchy (6th-8th cent. A.D.), with Lucca as its
capital, and later a powerful march under the Franks (8th-12th cent.).
Matilda (d.1115), the last Frankish ruler, bequeathed her lands to the
papacy, an act which long caused strife between popes and emperors.

In spite of the dual claims, most cities became (11th-12th cent.) free
communes; some of them (Pisa, Lucca, Siena, and Florence) developed into
strong republics. Commerce, industry, and the arts flourished. Guelph
(pro-papal) and Ghibelline (pro-imperial) strife, however, was particularly
violent in Tuscany, and there were strong rivalries both within and among
cities. After a period of Pisan hegemony (12th-13th cent.), Florence gained
control over most Tuscan cities in the 14th-15th cent.; Siena (1559) was the
last city to fall under Florence's influence.

Under the Medici, the ruling family of Florence, Tuscany became (1569) a
grand duchy, and thus again a political entity; only the republic of Lucca
and the duchy of Massa and Carrara remained independent. After the
extinction of the Medici line, Tuscany passed (1737) to ex-duke Francis of
Lorraine (later Holy Roman Emperor Francis I), who was succeeded by Grand
Duke Leopold I (1765-90; later Emperor Leopold II) and then by Ferdinand III
(1790-1801; 1814-24). The French Revolutionary armies invaded Tuscany in
1799, and it was briefly included in the kingdom of Etruria (1801-7) and was
ruled under the duchy of Parma, before it was annexed to France by Napoleon I.
In 1814, Tuscany again became a grand duchy, under the returning Ferdinand
III and then under Leopold II (1824-59) and briefly under Ferdinand IV
(1859-60). In 1848, Leopold was forced to grant a constitution, and in 1849
he had to leave Tuscany briefly when it was for a short time a republic.
However, in 1852 he was able, with the help of Austria, to rescind the
constitution. In 1860, Tuscany voted to unite with the kingdom of Sardinia.
Tuscany is one of Italy's world famous regions. Tuscany, with its enchanted
landscapes from the mountain to the sea. Tuscany, with its towns with
museums, cathedrals, historical buildings, streets, towns like Florence,
Siena, Pisa and more. Tuscany, full of ancient Etruscan and Roman ruins...
But one can not pass through this land without being aware of Medieval
Tuscany. 
Still visible are the small walled towns which are a testimony to
the Middle Ages just as much as its great cities. Castles, fortresses,
watch-towers, and town walls appear everywhere; some are well preserved,
others are in ruins, but the main remnants are not on the tourist routes. In
this site, created to inform people of the existence and preservation state
of these testimonies to the medieval era, you will find history, photos, and
plans of some of these fortifications.

villa with swimming To rent

Florence		top page
	Florence, city loaded with history, culture, monuments, from centuries hands on its fascination to the visitors, that they remain always en tusist from the atmosphere that is breathed here. One of the beautiful cities of Italy, stops an impressive monument number therefore that would be necessary pages and pages in order to describe them all. The more important are the dome, old palace, Old bridge, the lungarni.
APT Florence Municipality of Firenze - Official WEB site
Pisa		top page
The city of Pisa, conserve a a remarkable patrimony artistic and cultural, legacy to the its period rinascimentale, when as republic marinare dominate the Tyrrhenian. Numerous they are the architectonic works, between which celebre the hanging tower, the wonderful Dome and baptistry, the lungarni. Many are the manifestations that are celebrated to Pisa, the greater part di.le which are celebrated in june: the game of the bridge, the historical luminara, regattas.
Municipality of Pisa - Official WEB site
The tower of Pisa is the bell tower of the Dome. The construction began in August of 1173 and continued (with two long interruptions) for approximately two hundred years, with full fidelity to the original plan, whose author is not famous with certainty. In passed many they will believe that the slope of the Tower was intentional part of the plan, but hour we know that it is not therefore. WEB site of tower of Pisa Opera primarziale of Pisa
Lucca		top page
	To little kilometers from the sea, placed side by side to the Alps Apuane and to the Pisano mount, the city is encircled from the fortifications walls cinquecentesche, point of reference in order to turn the city. Lucca is one of the cities to measure of man of the Tuscany, the historical center in fact is closed nearly totally to the traffic to veicolare. The better periods in order to visit this city are the late summer and the first autumn when the city festivities put to fire the more typical aspects of the from Tuscany landscape.
Monuments: Lucca is the only European city that maintains to the town-walls building around the city still integral. It walls constructed between 1504 and the 1645 are remained always equal. Roman amphitheater, buried of 3 meters, has been constructed in the I and II secodo d.C.. Mansi palace laughed them to XVII the century, has furnishings of the XVIII. S. door Peter has been reconstructed in 1556. Pretorio palace begun in 1492, has been widened in the past century and has a clock of century XVII on the facade. Palace constructed Ducale nel 1578 has the courtyard dell' Ammannati. Museums: library Capitolare Feliniana (v. of the Archbishopric). National Pinacoteca (via Rates) Museo the Work of the Dome.
Siena		top page
Founded from the Etruschi, Siena was roman colony to the time of Augusto. Episcopal Divenne center in the ' 700 after the occupation longobarda, but in the XI secolo' was asserted like common lay. Sour fights divided Siena from Florence, a lot that this last one, in 1260, came defeat to Montaperti. After to have been governed from several lordships, the city fell under the imperial dominion and entered to make part of the Mediceo state, then of that Lorenese until 1859, given in which it was annexed to the Reign of ltaly.
Monuments: Hospital of S. Maria of the Scale: founded towards the X and XI century, is many affeschi of several ages. Medicea fortress of XVI the century. Tolomei Palace: it is the palace more ancient than existing Siena already in the XlII century. Public palace in gotico-civil style of the XIII and XIV the century with frescoes of the Martini and the Lorenzetti. Tower of going back Mangia to XIV the century. Siena goes remembered also for its famous Racing silk of Siena that celebrates 2 times to the year. Info www.siena.turismo.toscana.it
Montalcino		top page
	The city of Montalcino is placed on a hill to 564 mt. on the sea level, even if the maximum altitude of 661 mt. comes caught up in the overhanging hill Civitella Hill, archaeological situated important - Etruscan of the ilcinese territory. Montalcino comes also remembered for the Festival of the Tordo (the last Sunday of October). One important historical rievocazione of the ancient montalcinese State, characterized from the presence of the
four Quarters of the city: Borghetto, Pianello, Wrinkle and Suffering, than in that day after along corteo, with customs of age, along the city ways accompanied from the dancers of the "Trescone", ancient popular dance, are defied in a contest of shooting with the arc that recalls the huntings to the wild boar of the late-gotico period. Municipality of Montalcino - Official WEB site
San Gimignano		top page
Saint Gimignano erge with the profile of its towers, on a hill (m.334) to dominion of the Val d' Elsa. Center of a small Etruscan village of hellenistic period (III-II sec. a.C.) inziò its history around to X the century taking the name of the Saint Vescovo of Modena: Saint Gimignano, that the village from the orde would have saved barbaric.
It had great development during the Middle Ages thanks to the way Francigena that crossed it. Tant' is that Saint Gimignano had an extraordinary closing of art works that adorned churches and convents. In the 1199 divenne free common, it fought against the Bishops of Volterra and the common ones limitrofi, it suffered fights registers some dividendosi in two factions to the continuation of the Ardinghelli (guelfi) and the Salvucci (Ghibelline). Eight May 1300 accommodated Dante Alighieri, ambaciatore of the alloy guelfa in Tuscany. The terrible spopolamento and plague in 1348 threw Saint Gimignano in one serious crisis. The citizen had therefore to submit itself to Florence. From the degradation and abandonment of the centuries succeeded to you he only exited himself when he began himself riscoprire the beauty of the city, its cultural importance and the original agricultural identity. Municipality of San Gimignano - Official WEB site