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Pisa rises on the east coast of Tuscany, just over 80 km from Florence and easily accessible by car, train or bus. The birthplace of Galileo Galilei was one of the four Italian maritime republics in medieval times. It is rich in history, culture and art. Piazza del Duomo in Pisa stands just on the edge of the urban agglomeration. It is a large squa...

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The historical centre of San Gimignano (known as the city of beautiful towers) was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in December 1990 in Banff, Alberta (Canada), because it has preserved its authentic medieval structure in terms of both architecture and urban planning. San Gimignano is in Tuscany, 56 km south of Florence, in the northern tip of...

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Secret gardens, public and private parks, and verdant hills, Florence’s reputation for being “green” goes beyond its eco - sustainability efforts.  One of the most beautiful attractions you can discover when you visit the city of Florence, or when you live there, are its historic gardens, especially in the spring, when the beauty of these lush, gre...

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Uffizi Director Eike Schmidt said Friday that the Florence museum was seventh-top in the world last year for visitor numbers despite the COVID-19 pandemic. "The pandemic hit extremely hard but the Uffizi Gallery hung in there," Schmidt told the Foreign Press Association of Italy. "In 2020 we had a total of 1,206,175 visitors, 27.5% of the number of...

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At a recent tasting of wines from Maremma, I began to think…this region of Tuscany is often compared to Provence, northwest of the area by some 400 miles and around the bend of the Ligurian Sea, but comparisons with Sicily, almost 650 miles due south, bear remarkable similarities. Both see fewer tourists than other Italian regions, yet there are so...

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The historical centre of Florence is a Unesco World Heritage Site because of its environment, which has remained unchanged over the centuries, and because of the great works of art it contains. Florence, surrounded by the Tuscan hills and crossed by the river Arno, was born from an Etruscan settlement, later transformed into a Roman colony under th...

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The piazza is as Italian as it gets: not as an architectural or urban feature, but rather from a cultural and social point of view. In small villages, it’s where people meet, discuss and buy food, when it’s market day. In cities, the piazza is the equivalent of a grand palace’s living room, the place where you show the best your home has inside.  W...

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A castle, vineyards, barrels, a cellar, then lunch cooked by a Michelin-starred chef paired with Brunello — one of the Val d’Orcia top experiences in Argiano, Tuscany, a stone's throw from Montalcino, home to one of the oldest and most renowned Brunello wineries. Established in 1580, Argiano is home to Villa Bell'Aria, a noble country residence who...

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In Palazzo Vecchio in Florence lies a more modern contribution to Italian art. This is the Gucci Garden, created in 2011 by Alessandro Michele, Gucci’s current creative director. The exterior of the structure at first glance looks like many of the other ancient buildings in Florence, but with a baby pink banner hanging from some stones. However, th...

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Piazza del Campo is the heart of Siena, its historical soul. It is famous all over the world for its beauty, architectural integrity and unique shell shape. It is a Unesco World Heritage site since 1995, along with all of Siena’s historic center.  In the past, Piazza del Campo was a green area, used to host open-air markets; today, it is the meetin...

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