Montaione is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Florence in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 35 km southwest of Florence.
The town has ancient origins, the town is rich in culture, traditions and history.
In a surrounding area is possible to admire a charming landscape of Tuscany countryside of Chianti hills. Montaione is characterized by gentle hills cultivated with olive groves and chianti vineyards, is an ideal place where to make a travel and to spend a relaxing holiday with nature.
Montelupo Fiorentino, is a town on the immediate outskirts of Florence, between Montalbano and the river Arno.
Its location and the presence of waterways helped to develop numerous craft activities, especially ceramics, which reached its greatest splendour in the course of the 15th and 16th centuries.
This art is still alive in the numerous artistic ceramics workshops. Every year in the month of June there is the Festa Internazionale della Ceramica (International Ceramics Festival) where the area’s history and traditions are re-enacted in a series of exhibitions and artistic events. The origins of Montelupo probably coincide with the building of a castle at the end of the High Middle Ages.
Orbetello is a town and commune in the province of Grosseto, is located on the eponymous lagoon, which is home to an important Natural Reserve.
Orbetello was an ancient Etruscan settlement, which in 280 BC passed under the control of the Romans, who had founded their colony of Cosa (near the modern Ansedonia).
The small island where it stands is surrounded by the Levante and Pontente Lagoons, known respectively as Tombolo della Feniglia and Tombolo della Giannella. These offer the visitor many kilometers of charming beaches.
Not far from the S.Frediano Basilica one finds the thirteenth century Church of S. Agostino.
Inside the Church there is the image of the Madonna, with er arms the Holy Child, and on the right shoulder a kind of bruise… at the feet of the Holy Image, a trap closed by a metal grill with a lock. We are talking of the “Madonna del Sasso”., whose name goes back to a dramatic event.
The story goes that a hardened gambler, having lost all his goods and blinded by anger, trew a stone against the holy image. Two simultaneos extraordinary events immediatly occorre: to avoid the Child from being hit the Holy Virgin changed His position from the right arm to the left one and practically at the same time, while Her harmed shoulder was bleeding, an abyss opened-up under the fanatic’s feet that had refused to repent himself and swallowed him.
The two simultaneos miracles were seen by many persons.
The eventi s recalled by a latin inscription whose transaltion says: “the impious person didn’t know the Holy Virgin was about to forgive him if only he had repented himself”.
Piazzale Michelangelo is a famous square with a magnificent panoramic view of Florence, and is a popular tourist destination in the Oltrarno district of the city. The view from this most famous observation point of the city landscape.
It was built in 1869 and designed by architect Giuseppe Poggi on a hill just south of the historic center, on completion of retraining of the left bank of the shore.
The Michelangelo square, dedicated to the great Renaissance artist Michelangelo, has copies of some of his famous works in Florence: the David and the four allegories of the Medici Chapel of San Lorenzo.
These copies are made of bronze, while the originals are all in white marble. The monument was brought up by nine pairs of oxen on 25 June 1873.
The panorama encompasses the heart of Florence from Forte Belvedere to Santa Croce Lungarni through the bridges of Florence and in sequence, especially the Ponte Vecchio, are the Duomo,Palazzo Vecchio, the Bargello and the octagonal bell tower of the Badia Fiorentina, without forgetting opposed to the hills north of the city with the center and Settignano Fiesole.
The square can be accessed by car along the tree-Viale Michelangelo, or walk the stairs going up the ramps of the monumental Piazza Poggi Poggi in the district of San Niccolò.
