Tag: Tuscany things to do

Tuscany tours

Lucca

Lucca and Pisa in Harmony

Forget all the old jokes about the ancient rivalry between Lucca and pisa. Not only is it the latest idea to promote both cities as a joint tourist destination, but this year, the annual concert for San Michele in Lucca will feature choirs from Lucca and Pisa combining in harmony.
On 25 September in Lucca, repeated on 26 September in pisa, audiences can hear the Polifonica Lucchese, the Società Corale Pisana and members of the vocal group Stereo Tipi come together to perform Braham’s towering choral work, the Deutsches Requiem
The initiative comes jointly from Egisto Matteucci, musical director of the Polifonica Lucchese and Gianpaolo Mazzoli, maestro of the Società Corale Pisana and also Director of Lucca’s prestigiuos music school, the Istituto Boccherini. In the version of the Requiem for two pianos and timpani, the choirs will be joined by pianists Carlo Palese and Simone Soldati and timpanist David Mazzei. the solo vocal parts are taken by two favourites with Lucca audiences, Korean soprano Hye Won Nam, and lucchese bass Francesco Facini.
First performed in 1868, when Brahams was 34 years old, the Deutsches Requiem, so called because it was written with German (rather than Latin) text, has been variously described as ” a masterpieces of exceptional vision”, a masterful fusion of new and old techiniques and by Clara Schuman as ” a truly tremendous piece of art”. It was dedicated by Brahams to his mother and to Robert Schuman, both of whom had recently died, but also “to humanity in general”.

Concerto per San Michele, at Church of San Michele in Foro, Lucca at 5.30 pm on Saturday 25 September, tickets at the door, euro 10,00. In Pisa on Sunday 26 in the Church of San francesco at 9 pm.

The adventures of Pinocchio

The adventures of Pinocchio

The Adventures of Pinocchio comes to life in Italy’s Pinocchio Park, in the village of Collodi. Carlo Collodi, Pinocchio’s creator, took his pen name from Collodi, birthplace of his mother. The park tells Collodi’s version of the Pinocchio story through sculpture, mosaics and puppet shows.

Pinocchio Park is a great place to take kids. A winding path leads visitors through the Village of Pinocchio as they encounter statues of characters from the story.
The park also has a snack bar and picnic area, amusement park for small children, a theater for puppet shows, and a museum and gift shop. There’s even an internet train to keep the parents occupied.

Pinocchio Park is open every day, 8:30 to sunset.
The medieval hillside village of Collodi, 17km northeast of Lucca in Tuscany, is an interesting place to visit, too. Also in Collodi, near Pinocchio Park, is the Garzoni Garden. A combination ticket is available to visit both places.

Web-site: www.pinocchio.it

Garzoni garden is a beautiful Baroque garden with pools, waterfalls, statues and a maze. From the entrance, the garden unfolds before your eyes, creating a magnificent scene. The Garzoni garden is considered to be one of the best gardens not only in Tuscany but in all of Italy.
Garzoni Castle dates from the early 1600’s and was built by the powerful Garzoni family from Pescia who were sent into exile. They decided to build a villa in Collodi near the ancient border of the Republic of Lucca. By 1652 the garden was laid out in its present form.

Garzoni Garden is in the village of Collodi, 17km northeast of Lucca. You can buy a combination ticket to visit both Garzoni Garden and the nearby Pinocchio Park. The garden is open all year from 9:00 until sunset but from November 15 – March 15 it’s only open on weekends and holidays.

Leslie Halloran
Please check out my website at: www.lihdesigns.net

“A frog in the well does not know the sea.” – Japanese Proverb

Lucca: S.Croce Celebrations

Luminara

Ante Diem Sanctae Crucis Medieval Market.
Arts and crafts. Piazza S. Frediano, real Collegio (behiand the church) Street Entertainment from 18.00.  (10, 11 and 12 september)

Luminara
The centre of the town is candlelit as the Religious Procession leaves San Frediano at 20.00 and proceeds to the Cathedral. 23.30 fireworks visble from city walls. (13 september).

Flag throwing
Piazza S. Martino 19.00 on 14 September.

Secret place in Tuscany

Badia di Cantignano Church

Badia di Cantignano (Capannori City)

The name refers to an instrument of Cantignano 783 “in Actum Cantinianu” concerning a donation made by a Lombard Lucca for a daughter. The small church dating back to centuries. VII-VIII, with adjoining Benedictine abbey dedicated to St. Saviour seems to have been built on an old Roman building intended to baths, and was subsequently replaced by a new Romanesque church with a Latin cross in the sec. XIII, when the Benedictine monks Camaldolesi took over after the Cluniac reform.

The Benedictines took place first and reclamation of sewage water, thus bringing new land under cultivation, the Camaldolesi is also devoted to the cultivation of land and forestry. This place was given in fief to the bishops of Lucca by Otto with diploma of December 14, 1209, confirmed February 15, 1355 by Emperor Charles IV. The monastery was suppressed in 1419 and then aggregated with his possessions to the church and canons of the Cathedral of Lucca with the obligation to keep a parish priest.

In sec. XVIII The church was converted into Baroque style – eighteenth century, the length was shortened and demolished Romanesque façade. During the years 1965-66 it was restored the priesthood and the apse and there were important archaeological discoveries.Camaldolese the church is still visible outside the apse with pilasters suspended. The bell tower replaced the earlier, smaller, 1898. Inside is a valuable painting by Agostino Marti.

Pienza

Pienza

Pienza, a small town near Siena, is a rare example of Renaissance town building. Defined, from time to time, the “ideal city”, the “utopian city”, it represents one of the best planned Renaissance towns, where a model of ideal living and governing was realized thus working out the idea of a town able to satisfy the need for a pacific, civil and hardworking living. It represented the so called utopia of the “civitas” vainly cherished by people for centuries.Pienza has at present two museum, a third one into being. Its location in the middle of Val d’Orcia, a wonderful and untouched valley, enables the town to perfectly embody the basic interest which the humanistic architecture gave to the relationship man – nature.

Nowadays Pienza is part of a territorial system called “Parco artistico, naturale e culturale della Val d’Orcia”, which aims at preservation of the extraordinary artistic heritage of the five boroughs which constitute it: Castiglion d’Orcia, Montalcino, San Quirico d’Orcia, Radicofani and Pienza.
The center of Pienza was completely redesigned by Pope Pius II in Renaissance times. He planned to transform his birthplace into a model Renaissance town. The architect Bernardo Rossellino was commissioned to build a Duomo, papal palace and town hall, the construction were completed in three years.

Duomo
Piazza Pio II – Open daily

The Duomo was built by the architect Rossellino (1459) and is now suffering from serious subsidence at its eastern end. There were cracks in the walls and floor of the nave, but the splendid classical proportions are remained inctact. It is flooded with ligth from the vast stained glass windows request by Pius II; he wanted a domus vitrea (litterally “a house of glass”), which would symbolize the spirit of intellectual enlightenment of the Humanist age.

Palazzo Piccolomini Piazza Pio II – Open Tuesday – Sunday

The palazzo is next door to the Duomo and was home to Pius II’s descendants until 1968. Rossellino’s design for the building was influenced by Leon Battista Alberti’s Palazzo Rucellai in Florence. The appartments open to the public include Pius II’s bedroom and library. At the rear of the palazzo there is an ornate arcaded courtyard and a triple-tiered loggia looking out on the garden. From here there are spectacular views across to the wooded slopes of the Monte Amiata.

Pieve di Corsignano Via delle Fonti. Open by appointment. 
Phone to the tourist office: (+390578749071)
Pope Pius II was baptized in this 11 th. century Romanesque parish church on the outskirts of Pienza. It has an unusual round tower and a doorway decorated with flower mytholgical motifs. A crib is sculptured on the architrave of the side doorway.

Leslie Halloran
Please check out my website at: www.lihdesigns.net

“A frog in the well does not know the sea.” – Japanese Proverb