Lonely planet florence tuscany williams

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Lonely Planet Florence & Tuscany Williams

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Florence & Tuscany

Contents

PLAN YOUR TRIP

Welcome to Florence & Tuscany

Florence & Tuscany's Top 18

Need to Know

First Time Florence & Tuscany

What's New

If You Like…

Month by Month

Itineraries

Accommodation

Getting Around

Eat & Drink Like a Local

Activities

Travel with Children

Regions at a Glance

ON THE ROAD

FLORENCE

Neighbourhoods at a Glance

Galleria degli Uffizi

Duomo

Palazzo Vecchio

Basilica di Santa Maria Novella

Galleria dell'Accademia

Sights

Tours

Festivals & Events

Eating

Drinking & Nightlife

Entertainment

Shopping

SIENA & CENTRAL TUSCANY

Siena & Central Tuscany Highlights

Siena

Opera della Metropolitana di Siena

Museo Civico

Chianti

Greve in Chianti

Badia a Passignano

San Casciano in Val de Pesa

Castellina in Chianti

Radda in Chianti

Gaiole in Chianti

San Gimignano

Monteriggioni

Volterra

Val d'Orcia

Montalcino

Pienza

Montepulciano

Montepulciano

Wine Tour of Chianti

Exploring the Val d'Orcia

SOUTHERN TUSCANY

Massa Marittima

Vetulonia

Pitigliano

Sovana

Sorano

Grosseto

Parco Regionale della Maremma

Orbetello

Monte Argentario

CENTRAL COAST & ELBA

Road Distances (km)

Central Coast & Elba Highlights

Livorno

The Etruscan Coast

Castiglioncello

Bolgheri

San Vincenzo

Suvereto

Golfo di Baratti

The Tuscan Archipelago

Elba

Capraia

NORTHWESTERN TUSCANY

Northwestern Tuscany Highlights

Pisa

Piazza dei Miracoli

The Apuane Alps & Garfagnana

Castelnuovo di Garfagnana

Barga

Bagni di Lucca

Carrara

The Versilian Coast

Pietrasanta

Viareggio

The Lunigiana

Pontremoli

The Via Francigena

EASTERN TUSCANY

Eastern Tuscany Highlights

Arezzo

Sansepolcro

Valle del Casentino

Poppi

Parco Nazionale delle Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona e Campigna

Val di Chiana

Castiglion Fiorentino

Cortona

Go Slow in the Valle del Casentino

UNDERSTAND

Understand Florence & Tuscany

Florence & Tuscany Today

History

The Tuscan Way of Life

The Tuscan Table

Tuscany on Page & Screen

Art & Architecture

SURVIVE Directory A–Z

Climate

Customs Regulations

Discount Cards

Electricity

Embassies & Consulates

Food & Drink

Gay & Lesbian Travellers

Health

Insurance

Internet Access

Legal Matters

Maps

Money

Opening Hours

Post

Public Holidays

Telephone

Time

Toilets

Tourist Information

Travellers with Disabilities

Visas

Transport

Getting There & Away

Getting Around

Language

Behind the Scenes

Our Writers

SPECIAL FEATURES

Lazy Days

Medieval Masterpieces

Why Pisa Leans

Magnificent Monasteries

Tuscan Artists

Tuscan Architecture

Welcome to Florence & Tuscany

Withits lyricallandscapes, world-class artanda

superbcucina contadina(farmer's kitchen), the Tuscan experience isperfectly in symbiosis withthe land.

Perfect Landscapes

Tuscany has a timeless familiarity with its iconic Florentine cathedral dome, gently rolling hills dipped in soft morning mist and sculptural cypress alleys. But then, this regionein central Italy is postcard material. Golden wheat fields, silver olive groves and pea-green vineyards marching in sharp terraced rows on hillsides form a graceful prelude to soul-soaring medieval hilltop villages, mountain ranges and fecund forests in the north, and a garland of bijou islands beaded along the coastal south. Get out, explore, hike and ding your bicycle bell, as this rousing landscape demands.

Sensational Slow Food

No land is more caught up with the fruits of its fertile earth than Tuscany, a gourmet destination whose residents spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about, discussing and consuming food and wine. Local, seasonal and sustainable is the Holy Trinity and Tuscans share enormous pride in the quality of their produce. Tuscan travel is grassroots: to wineries to taste blockbuster wines like Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano; to a family-run pastificiotradizionalewhere artisan pasta is cut by hand; and road trips in quest of the best bisteccaallafiorentina(chargrilled T-bone steak). Buonappetito!

Living History

Ever since the Etruscans dropped by to party and stayed, Tuscany has seduced. The Romans stocked their grain silos here, Christians walked stages of a medieval pilgrimage route, and Napoleon plundered art (and suffered terribly in exile in a beautiful neoclassical villa with fig trees and sea view on the paradisiacal island of Elba). Florence's historic churches and monuments were a key stop for British aristocrats on the Grand Tour in the 19th century – and remain so. And at sundown when the River Arno turns pink, whether you like things old-fashioned and simple or boutique chic, know that this handsome city will oblige.

An Artistic Powerhouse

Then there's the art. And, oh, what art! The Etruscans indulged their fondness for a classy send-off with exquisite funerary objects, and

the Romans, always partial to puffing up their own importance, left their usual legacy of monumental sculptures. But it was during the medieval and Renaissance periods that Tuscany really struck gold, with painters, sculptors and architects creating world-class masterpieces. Squirrelled away and safeguarded today in churches, museums and galleries all over the region, art in Tuscany is truly unmatched. Edgy street art in Florence and countryside sculpture parks bring the art scene right up to the 21st century.

Why I Love Florence & Tuscany

Tuscany won me over at a farm in the Garfagnana. We were tucking into dinner when the farmer's wife rushed in mid-secondiand urged us to join her in the stable to watch a calf being born. Later, when she joyfully declared 'We'll call her Kaya after your daughter!' I was speechless. So my seven-yearold now has a cow in Tuscany and I the honour of being privy to yet another intimacy of this wildly diverse, soulful, earth-driven region. This (and its truffles, Florence, aperitivitradition, Renaissance art and Chianti wine) is why I love Tuscany.

Florence & Tuscany's Top 18

The Duomo, Florence

The duomo isn't just the most spectacular structure in Florence – it's up there with Rome's Colosseum and Pisa's Leaning Tower as one of Italy's most recognisable icons. Its polychrome marble facade is vast, striking and magnificent. But what makes the building so extraordinary is Filippo Brunelleschi's distinctive red-brick dome, one of the greatest architectural achievements of all time. Scale the steep, narrow staircase up to the base of the dome and peer down on the toy-like cathedral interior far below – then climb some more for a stunning city panorama.

AB_ICP / Alamy ©

Top Experiences

Piazza del Campo, Siena

Horses race around it twice a year, local teens hang out on it, tourists inevitably gasp on seeing it for the first time – Siena's strangely sloping, perfectly paved central piazza is the city's geographical and historical heart, staked out since the 12th century. Presided over by the graceful Palazzo Comunale and fringed with bustling cafe terraces, Piazza del Campo is the finest spot in Siena to promenade, take photographs and lap up the soul-soaring magic of this unique, gloriously Gothic and architecturally harmonious city.

Cezary Wojtkowski / Shutterstock ©

Top Experiences

Chianti

This ancient wine region is the Tuscany of postcards, where cypress alleys give way to pea-green vineyards and silver olive groves, honeycoloured stone farmhouses and secluded Renaissance villas built for Florentine and Sienese nobility. Luxurious accommodation and the very best of modern Tuscan cuisine provide the ingredients for an idyllic short escape – peppered with romantic walks and road trips along narrow green lanes to wine cellars for tastings of Italy's bestknown wine, the ruby-red, violet-scented Chianti Classico.

Prangnarin Wongpunya / Shutterstock ©

Top Experiences

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Few art galleries evoke such an overwhelming sense of awe and wonderment as the world-class Uffizi, at home in a 16th-century Medici palazzoin Florence. Vast, labyrinthine, architecturally magnificent and rich in history, the building alone stuns. Add to this an art collection chock-full of Renaissance masterpieces, with works by Giotto, Botticelli, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Raphael, Titian and Caravaggio all jostling for the limelight, and you'll know you've arrived in art-lover heaven. Allow ample time to savour slowly, in several bite-sized visits if need be.

Vereshchagin Dmitry / Shutterstock ©

Top Experiences

Flavours of Tuscany

'To cook like your mother is good, but to cook like your grandmother is better' says the Tuscan proverb. And indeed, in foodie Tuscany age-old recipes are passed between generations and form the backbone of the local cuisine – a highlight of any Tuscan trip. Devour feisty T-bone steak in a family-run trattoria such as Mario by Florence's central food market, savour modern Tuscan fare amid a sea of ancient Antinori vines at Rinuccio 1180, shop at local markets bursting with seasonal produce and wish fellow diners 'Buon appetito!'

KiltedArab / Shutterstock ©

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