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Anyone up for a trip to Italy? If so, we’ve found the perfect place to stay with family or friends (or both!). The beautiful villa from the movie “Under the Tuscan Sun” is available to rent, and can accommodate up to 20 people — so bring all your loved ones along! Located in the Tuscan countryside near the town of Cortona, Italy, the 10 bed, 10 and...

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This is the story of the knight Galgano and how a vision made him renounce to wealth, war and women in name of a life of meditation and prayer. This is a story where faith, legend, history and literature merge in one intriguing tale, to the dénouement of which, in truth, we won’t be able to come. This is a story of Tuscan hills, hermits, abbeys and...

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You can spot it from several locations in Florence, yet relatively few seem to venture to the Basilica of San Miniato al Monte, which stands atop one of the highest points in the city, on a hill that overlooks it from the south side of the river Arno. This year may be just the right time to visit as this Benedictine abbey celebrates 1,000 years sin...

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Trying to pack in all of Italy's sights can start to feel a lot like hard work. So why not swap the obligatory attractions for actual labour on one of the country's organic farms? As contributor Paul Batty discovered in the Tuscan countryside, a working holiday doesn't have to be a dull one. From the leaning tower of Pisa to the marble marvels of F...

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On June 24th each year, Florence's main square turns into an arena for a sport which is a brutal combination of rugby, football, and wrestling. The Local explores the history of the unique tradition. Calcio Storico (Historical football) is a game thought up by 16th-century Florentines and as the name suggests, it's an early - and very violent - for...

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L’Italia ospita dei tesori unici e uno di questi è sicuramente Bagno Vignoni, un piccolo borgo di 30 abitanti, una frazione di San Quirico d’Orcia, in provincia di Siena. Ciò che rende straordinario questo luogo tra le verdi colline toscane è la sua piazza d’acqua alimentata da una sorgente d’acqua termale. Avete capito bene, qui non troverete la c...

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Even though present-day hospitals all around the world are basically centers providing medical assistance and rehabilitation of the sick, the forerunners to these institutions were originally conceived in a broader sense as "places of hospitality:” hence the similarity between the two terms (both deriving from the Latin hospes, that is, guest). In...

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The Leaning Tower of Pisa and its 5.5 degree lean have vexed engineers for centuries. Partially constructed on unexpectedly soft soil, the ancient bell tower began to lean before it was even finished, a historical goof that went on to become one of the world's historical oddities — and made the tower a UNESCO World Heritage site. How can something...

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The weaving of plant fibres is one of humanity’s most ancient activities, and takes inspiration from nature and has been used over time to create a wide variety of containers and hats that protect against the sun’s glare. In Signa in 1714, Domenico Michelacci, known as Bolognino, began to cultivate 'grano marzuolo', a variety of wheat with small ea...

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Vermentino is a grape that can be found in a number of regions within Italy and as if it's not hard enough to learn about all the indigenous grapes of Italy, but in certain regions it is known under a different name. This grape can be found in Tuscany, Piedmont where it's known as Favorita, Sardinia and Liguria where it's known as Pigato.

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