Once the capital of Tuscany, Lucca is the very picture of what a trip to this region of Italy brings to mind. With green, rolling hills, medieval cathedrals and even a cooking school, visitors will find an entire vacation’s worth of things to see and do here. The city itself offers walls built during the […]

Tuscany may be the world’s only truly organic work of art. The region and all it contains is one enormous museum, both natural and man-made. Here, as in few other places, the beauty of nature and human creation are integrated into a harmonious whole. For centuries the region has been the site of olive groves, […]

Many visitors to this region of Italy are interested in only one kind of art: the art of winemaking. Or, more accurately in the tourist’s case, their interest in wine tasting. But whether for art or hedonism, the wineries around Tuscany are the place to enjoy both. Chianti Chianti may bring to mind cheap table […]

The Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze, or Academy of Beautiful Art of Florence, as it’s more formally known, is just what the name states: a school of art. And it’s true that students do study art here. They have since the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Pietro Leopold, gathered several schools under one roof in 1784. […]

Tuscany is filled with both man-made and natural beauty from the Middle Ages. That makes it hard to conceive of some of the more grisly things that were common during the period. The Museo Della Tortura in San Gimignano will provide visitors with a look into just what some of those were. Ironically, housed inside […]

After over a decade of being strapped in steel cables and inaccessible to tourists, La Torre di Pisa is open once again. Nearly $30 million was spent to prevent the tower from leaning any further to avoid total collapse. Now it is good for another 300 years. Begun in 1173 AD, the tower has been […]

It will come as no surprise that much of the Roman character of Tuscany has been preserved. One special example of that fact is to be found in Fiesole. A superb respite from busy Florence below, Fiesole offers views of the city, the Arno and much more from atop its peak. The town itself far […]

It’s rare for an art museum to have too many masterpieces to display. That happy fate befell the Uffizi Gallery in Florence when the last of the Medici, Electress Anna Maria, willed the entire family collection to the gallery in 1743. The results, collected over several centuries, provide a view of one of the finest […]

Siena is certainly less famous than its nearby cousins, Pisa and Florence. While not the equal of the latter magnificent city, it nevertheless holds sights that will delight any visitor to Tuscany. Not least of them are the Museo Civic, the famed Il Palio horse races and the deservedly highly praised Duomo or cathedral. Museo […]

The Bed and Breakfast scene in Tuscany is booming. For good reason, since it offers something considerably different from its counterparts in other countries. Here, one can stay in a huge castle over 1,000 years old, or a tiny villa a ‘mere’ 100 years of age. Add in the surrounding countryside with its million and […]