Tag: Tuscany tours

Tuscan towns

Lucca walls

Quality of life in Lucca.
In the province of Lucca, as in the rest of Tuscany as a whole, people recognise, and have, a good quality of life both for those who invest and work in the teritory as well as those who simply whish to spend some time here in the name of culture, countryside, sea and as a means of visiting other important places in Tuscany.

The province of Lucca occupied 31st position in the national table for quality of life, taking into account indicators such as the way of life, work and business, services and the environment, the population and leisure time.
The families of Lucca have an average disposable income, taken as the sum of the active resources which each family sets aside for the acquisition of goods and servis and for saving, which puts them under the regional average (6th place among the provinces of Tuscany), even if close to the national average, which is strongly penalised by the income of the families from the South of Italy.

Compared with this the average assets of the families of Lucca i.e. the total of real assets (houses, land) and financial assets (financial and property investments), is in second place in the regional classification behind Siena. 63% of these assets are represented by property and 37% by investments and other financial assets.

The overview of the affluence of our province sees a quite low level of income but with quite high values of assets.
This aspect of the assets is probably explained by the historic propensity of lucca families to save manoey and to invest in property, while the income aspect is ascribable, at least in part, to the lack in the province of large employment structures with medium -high wages.

Bagni di Lucca, Tuscany

The Casino, now part of tourist office

Bagni di Lucca, “land of princes and poets”, is the largest mountain commune in Italy with a great number of hamlets.  It is situated in the valleys of the rivers Serchio and Lima, surrounded by green hills covered with century-old forests of chestnut trees.
Scattered in the area are many elegant mansions of the 19th century, surrounded by rich gardens populated with rare plant species, which poets and musicians used as a romantic retreat and source of inspiration, while royalty found a refuge from the turmoil of busy European capitals.
Inhabited since the Bronze Age, as shown by remains of Ligurian sepulchres of the 8th century BC, the area was known for its mineral springs by Etruscan and Romans, and a Roman settlement was established at Villa Therentiana (presently Pieve dei Monti di Villa).
In the 11th century AD the valley was a fiefdom of powerful Tuscan families.
Bagni the main spa center in Italy, welcoming guests from all over Europe.
In Napoleonic times the place was a favorite retreat of the Buonaparte family, coming for the spas as well as for a casino. After the Congress of Vienna, the Dukedom of Lucca became an international court, and Bagni was the summer retreat.
After 1860, when Tuscany was included in the kingdom of Italy, the decadence of the place as a fashionable resort began.

Points of Interest:
Villa Ada, a previous Renaissance mansion of the local De Nobili family, was renovated in the 19th century by a British consul who added the two 6-sided towers, and surrounded it with large, romantic gardens, including also an artificial grotto. It is now a property of the municipality, and is used for spa therapies.
Thermal Baths, already known in Roman times, and a spa center documented since the Middle Ages, had visitors from all over Europe since medieval times. The spas consist of 19 natural springs with different concentrations of calcium and sulphur, and a maximum temperature of 54 degrees centigrade.
Orrido di Botri is a  natural reserve in a deep canyon of great beauty, preserving rare plant species and hosting many rare rapacious birds, as the royal eagle and the owl.
Devil’s Bridge, also called ‘Maddalena’s Bridge, was constructed during the era of the Countess Matilde di Canossa (1046-1115).
This medieval bridge spans the Serchio River and is said to have been built with the aid of the devil himself.
Sitting on now submerged islets, there are five asymmetrical arches.

Some links:
www.termebagnidilucca.it
www.comunebagnidilucca.it

San Miniato Tour; Otis and his Family

San Miniato sits at a historically strategic location atop three small hills where it dominates the lower Arno Valley between Florence and Pisa. Evidence indicates that the site of the city and surrounding area has been settled since at least the Paleolithic era. It would have been well-known to the Etruscans, and certainly to the Romans, for whom it was a military post called “Quarto”.

The first mention in historical documents is of a small village organized around a chapel dedicated to San Miniato built by the Lombar’s in 783.  The first walls, with defensive towers, were thrown up in the 12th century.  During the latter years of the 13th century and the entire 14th century, San Miniato was drawn into the ongoing conflict between the Ghibelline and Guelph forces.   By 1347 San Miniato was under Florentine control, where it remained, but for brief periods from 1367-1370 and 1777- 1779.  It was still part of the Grand Duchy of Florence when the Duchy was absorbed into the newly-formed Kingdom of Italy in 1860.

Points of interest:

Duomo was dedicated to both Sant’Assunta and Santo Genesio. The cathedral’s capanile is called the Matilde Tower and features an asymmetrical clock.
Diocesan Museum a museum-gallery contains works by Filippo Lippi, Empoli, Neri di Bicci, Fra Bartolomeo, Frederico Cardi and Verrocchio.
Palazzo Comunale, a 4th century building, is still San Miniato’s Town Hall. Its great hall was decorated by Cenno di Francesco Cenni. It also features a small oratory, containing a 16th century altarpiece.
San Domenico, a church originally constructed in the 14th century, has an incomplete façade. Its interior contains terracotta works by Luca della Robbia, a fresco attributed to Masolino da Panicale and a burial monument sculpted by Donatello.


Tuscany wine tasting tours

Tuscan wine cellar
Tuscan wine cellar

A magic tuscany winery tour…why not?
On leaving Florence, following the Chianti road, we can find many medieval villages.
The first is Verrazzano with its beautiful old castle, the second is Greve in Chianti with its small centre famous for ancient wine cellars.
Continuing the tour, we find Radda in Chianti, famous for  label called “Gallo Nero”. In a south west of Radda, from the top of gently hill, Castellina dominates an ancient holiday town; on the other side of the hill there are San Gimignano and Monteriggioni, two town of extra-ordinary beauty!
In these areas is possible to vsit many farms as Dievole, Verrazzano, Montagliari and many other.