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Tuscany and women

Women who follow their instict, and strive to fulfil their dreams, who find space and time and come to Tuscany.
Tuscany Welcomes Women is designed to meet the destre of these free, indipendent and romantic women who love travelling and meeting other people, pampering themselves and living themselves a holiday, a moment of pleasure in search of emotion and knowledge.
Tuscany Welcomes Women welcomes you to a region that has come up with this possibility, making made to measure offers for women travelling alone, with children or female fiends.
The women who come here will find the care and attention of selected structures with different programmes and proposing different ideas, with special offers and discounts for beauty treatments, spa treatments and cultural events.
Think of the holiday that awaits you, of what you will experience, get an advance taste of your Tuscan experience by plucking from your imagination a name, a location, a trip, that inspires you and that has drawn your attention. Then forget all the rest.
You can count on the female entrepreneurs who care part of Tuscany Welcomes Women to organise a holiday rich in emotions.
We knew that with their help we would be alble to offer a lot: a rich and open region, welcoming and generous with women who want to communicate and rediscover the things that count.
Besides, with their sensitivity what better approach could there be to the region’s treasures than a woman’s.
You will be able to come in contact with different worlds, from the splendour of the Medici cities to the infinite number of small villages, ridde and enveloped in the charm of a never ending story.
A closely woven fabric, dense in emotions in which art leale room for the countryside and the flavours of the countryside, and the flavours of the cuisine are the cue for getting to know the territory, cultures and traditions.
In the Tuscany Welcomes Women project the rules are changed, another language reigns, the language of relaxation, rest, but also of discovery research, pleasure, all designed to fit in with your desires.

The project is arranged into several themes:
. knoledge and learning
. active holidays
. society life
. well being spiritualità and meditation
. ecology and country life

These themes are basic concepts that can be furtherexplored tank to numerous possible activities designed especially for women.
Let yourselves be guided and you will discover a unique Tuscany where harony and equilibrium reign, the colours conjure up desires and views trigger off sweet sensations.
Against this background you can experience your holiday increasingly in the driving seat, and lessa s onlookers.
Women travelling with children can find ad hoc structures and staff, with ideas designed for children. “pearshaps also in the company of female friends” you can celebrate an event, create a personalized stay, devote your time to shopping and society life, to cultural life and your healt with walking, cycling and horse riding.
The tourist packages of various kinds, from days devoted to relaxation in a spa to visiting a wine cellar with wine tasting, from a course in local cuisine to a walk in the woods or in the regional parks, a dinner in a typical restaurant to taste the flavour of tradition and play at the theatre or in a town square following the “events calendar” for the period and the city you are visiting.
In addition, there are holidays designed for those who want to learn something new: including activities starting in the morning, at a leisurely time, for you to relax and forget the frenetich rhythms of every day routine, until the evening, when you late in the many night spots that offer entertainment of all types together with typical dishes.
Tuscany Welcomes Women provides a welcoming stay in a hotels, period residences, solida farms and bed & breakfast that are taking part in the iniziative. If you want to taste dishes from the traditional cuisine you can have lunch or dinner in the restaurants participating to the project Vetrina Toscana a Tavola.

Tuscany – Capalbio

Capalbio is a hilly land: located on a dominant hillock over Maremma, but it is also a maritime village with its coast along Costa d’Argento.
Capalbio is culture with its many events and exhibitions, village feasts, alleys, medieval buildings and Etruscan excavations.
It is a relaxing vacation with its farm holidays scattered in the countryside and it is gastronomy with its typical restaurants.

Itineraries:

The Tarot’s Garden:
It is easely recognizable also from far away, infact coloured and high figures emerge from the bush, created by Niki de Saint Phalle, ispired to the 22 Tartots’ Arcana; for more information visit www.nikidesaintphalle.com

Archeology:
To archeology lovers, in the surroundings, there are Etruscans and Roman walls’ruins: in Valle d’Oro area near the city of Cosa, Sette Finestre at the boundary with Orbetello, in Poggio Capalbiaccio, Monteti.

Frescoes:
In the old town you can admire San Nicola’s Church with its valuable frescoes of Umbria school and in Provvidenza’s oratory the most important fresco of all Costa d’Argento: a Providence Madonna, attributed to Perugino and to Pinturicchio.

Every time Capalbio will warmly embrace you and let you feel as you were at home and will make you want to stay here forever.

Tuscany – Suvereto

Suvereto is small medieval village whose origins date back before the year 1000.
The village is rich in history and art, situated on the slopes of the hills overlooking Costa degli Etruschi.
Suvereto ha san enchanting architectural harmony and its ancient walls enclose hold streets with stone house, churches and historical buildings.
The region is rich in farm holidays resorts, wineries, oil mills, agricultural enterprises; you can find and try local products and traditional dishes.
The historic center is very interesting, the Rocca, the castle garrison in ancient times, stands on the hill dominating the town.

Tuscany, Carnival in Viareggio

Carnival is the very old festival that precedes Lent and is traditionally a time for partying and making whoopee. Viareggio’s carnival dates back to 1873 when some young men, all frequenters of the same casino, decided to organise a procession of carriages on Shrove Tuesday evening, with the passengers in fancy dress. It was such a success that it was repente the following year, and, in a sense, every year thereafter (except for the periods of two World wars) growing ever more ambitious and elaborate.
By the end of the 19th century, carriages had been moine by carts drawn by horses oxen, with tableaux made of jute, wood, iron and plaster of Paris, very heavy and therefore very small by today’s standards. These had subjects such as The Little Zulus, The Triumph of the match in honour of the newly invented Cerini maches with wax sticks, and The Goddess of Flowers in praise of unspoilt nature, with prizes awarded for originality, design and ingenuity.
It wasn’t long before Viareggio’s local government began to appreciate the financial advantage of these parades wich attracted people from the surrounding villages as well as foreign tourists, all with money to spend. Public funding of the event began in 1910.
Two principal factors changed the rather earnest character of the event into the wonderfully exhilarating funfest that it is now.
The first was the use of paier-machè, introduced in 1925. This meant that enormous, hollow, lightweight figures could be made and animated by people with ropes and pulleys. The workshops where the’re made are in the purpose-built Cittadella del Carnevale, a multi purpose building opened in 2001 wich now also has a Carnival Museum.
The second was the increasing emphasis on satire and grotesquerie. No public figure, beh e President of the United States or the Pope, is exempt, Indeed, these two are amongst the main targets-what will the designers do with Barack Obama next year, I wonder? This year’s image is almost benign.
In a perverse way, however, being the the object of this savagery i san honour ( or at least a distinction of some kind) and politicians and other kent faces come to the opening Carnival to see how the paier-machè wizards have dealt with them. Before the event begins, the designers’ sketches are published with explanations of their message. The title of the one at the top of the page is “The cow licks and licks.. she ate the calf!!!”
This is the description. “The construction is a biking satire on the economic and political situation in Italy. At the centre of the float i san enormous cow representing our Republic.
She lies sprawled on a huge, wobbly, gilded armchair. She has her tongue hanging out and is guarded by two cavalry officers wearing breastplates. She would love to lick her calf which here represents the italian people, but only a dangling skeleton remains.
There’s nothing left to lick. Today, the builder is warning us, we must pay for everything and life for the people of Italy is down to the bone”.
Carnival doesn’t consist only of the major floats, however. There are smaller floats and lots of lorries carrying associations, school groups and people all dressed up, having fun and/or making a point. Many of the people who come to watch are wearing fancy dress and wigs and carrying spray cans of goo. It’s all so good-natured. There’s also a lot of very loud music.
The setting for the parade is the seaside “passeggiata” where the floats trundle back and forth at walking speed all afternoon till it grows dark. All that commotion and noise under the wide wintry sky, with the sea, the umbrella-less beach, the sagge mountainous backdrop… Magic

Tuscany, Ugolino – a Gruesome Tale

In Lucca it’s a common joke that the mountains between Lucca and pisa keep the people from having to see each other. A tunnel now leads to the Pisa side but the ideological separation is still felt by football fans, graffiti artists and ordinary citizens. In Lucca e read Dante’s story about Count Ugolino della Gherardesca as the potrait of a power-hungry Pisan at his worst. Dante froze Ugolino within the deepest circle of Inferno because he betrayed his homeland and his political party.
In Italy, where peope identify with their hometown very strongly, this story’s theme is not at all archaic.
According to popular legend, Ugolino cannibalized his children.
Archbishop Ruggieri locked the father and sons in the Torre della Muda ( forever after known as Famine Tower ), leaving them to starve to death.
Part of the tower still stands on the northen side of Piazza dei Cavalieri. This is one of Pisa’s most beautiful piazzas and site of Pisa University’s Scuola Normale, where the brightest students are admitted to study.
A corner of the original tower is within Palazzo dell’ Orologio and a plaque on the wall refers to Ugolino. However, scientific literalism demolished the legend in 2002.
A Pisan paleoanthropologist excavated Ugolino’s body and examined some DNA from his ribs which showed he had not eaten meat ( let alone human flesh ) before dying. However, ” truth ” should never get in the way of a good story from history…
Ugolino belonged to an important Ghibelline family. The Ghibellines supported Papal authority, unlike the Guelph city-states Florence and Genoa which favored more local control.
Ugolino was both Podestà ( supreme civil authority ) and Ghibelline leader. During Pisa’s battles with Genoa and other Guelph states, Ugolino aligned with Giovanni Visconti, a Guelph.
The alliance was discovered, Ugolino imprisoned and Visconti exiled.
With the help of Florence and Lucca, however, Ugolino escaped and become a Guelph, again betraying the Ghibellines! In 1284, he returned as head of a Pisan fleet. He again betrayed his countrymen when they were at war with Genoa, feigning surrender and causing their defeat.
When Ugolino returned to power, he gave away Pisan castles to Lucca and Florence as a political expedient. Ghibelline fortunes improved, and Ugolino, then a Guelph, allied with the Ghibelline Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini. Ugolino exiled his Guelph grandson in 1288 and consolidated his relationship with Ruggieri. Soon Ruggieri betrayed Ugolino by inciting the public against him and then ordering the imprisonment of Ugolino, his two sons and two grandsons.
Finally the Archbishop threw away the key and left him and his children to starve to death.
In Canto XXXIII, Dante has Ugolino gnawing on the Archbishop’s head for all eternity. ” You are to know I was Count Ugolino, and this one here, Archbidshop Ruggieri; and now I’ll tell you why I am his neighbor.” For Dante, the concept of neighbor becomes an unholy alliance in the depth of Inferno!
With ambiguous words, Dante ha Ugolino say, ” After they were dead, I called them for two days; then fasting had more force than grief.”
This line may be interpreted in two ways: either Ugolino devoured his offspring’s corpses after being driven mad with hunger, or starvation killed him before he died of grief.
The more ghastly interpretation is more popular and Ugolino was sometimes known as the ” Cannibal Count “. The corpses were buried in Pisa at in the Church of San Francesco.
For Dante, however, eating one’s children may have served an anagogical ( religiously – significant ) purpose.
All the happenings in the Inferno are reverse-images of happenings in Paradiso. The Eucharist ( celebration of the Mass ) thus becomes a horrific reverse Eucharist in the Ugolino scene.
Soon we will visit also Dante’s Paradiso to present a more positive character – Matilde the Church-Builder, Contessa of Tuscany, famous in Lucca for having built the Ponte della Maddalena ( also know as the Devil’s Bridge ) during the Middle Ages.