A holiday destination which offers an enlightening insight into European culture, particularly of the Renaissance age, is this sunny wine-growing and cultural heart of Italy Among the numerous hitherto exotic tourism destinations favoured by the fast-expanding middle- and upper-income groups is Tuscany, the sunny, wine-growing and cultural heart of Italy — a holiday destination which offers an enlightening insight into European culture, particularly of the Renaissance age. It’s a study-cum leisure destination worth checking out since neighbouring Milan is conveniently located on the air routes to Britain and the US. Tuscany or Toscana offers the best of Italian cuisine, wine and cheese, magnificent Renaissance buildings and art, operatic Italian arias and ever chic Italians. Situated in northern Italy it is famous for its photogenic vistas of the rolling hills of Florence or Firenze and the bare limestone peaks of the Siennese Hills. In addition to inspiring landscape, the abundant vegetation consists of yellow wheat fields interspersed with the silvery grey of olive grove and the bright green of rows of grape vineyards meandering down hillsides. Quite obviously a Tuscan holiday is no ordinary experience. Tuscany is the annual summer holiday destination of some of Europe’s rich and famous including former British prime minister Tony Blair apart from other notables who arrive en famille to soak up sunshine, wine, music and Europe’s most well-preserved cultural treasures. Most of central Italy was controlled by the Etruscans (who were perhaps natives of Italy or may have come from Asia Minor) from about 700 BCE. During the period 600 200 BCE Etruscans and Romans engaged in perpetual warfare until 59 BCE when Julius Caesar established a colony for army veterans along the river Ammo which later blossomed into Florence, the largest city in Tuscany. In circa 500 AD the Roman Empire in the west crumbled and Italian unity collapsed as wave after wave of Goths, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Huns and Lombards rampaged their way through Italy until law and order was restored by Byzantine Emperor Charlemagne. In 1100 AD the cities of Florence, Sienna and Lucca had established themselves as independent city states. Gradually, Tuscany became a patchwork of confident city states. In 1434 banker Cosimi d’ Medici became king of Florence in all but name and the Medicis ruled the flourishing city for the next 300 years. Cosimi d’ Medici was a patron of the arts and began funding works of art and grand cathedrals which are the pride of contemporary Florence. Patronage of the arts which made Florence the cultural capital of Italy reached its apogee under Lorenzo the Magnificent, who financed and possibly ignited the Renaissance in Italy. In 1799 Tuscany came into the possession of Napoleon who, however, was defeated in 1816 thus allowing Grand Duke Ferdinando III to return to Florence. For a brief period (1865-1870) Florence became the first capital of a united Italy (since Rome was holding out against the forces of unification). FLORENCE Indisputably Italy’s cultural capital, Florence (pop. 700,000) hosts some of Michelangelo’s awesome sculptures. To…
