Tuscany

Tuscany is one of the 20 Regions of Italy. The capital is Florence. It has an area of 20,990 km² and about 3,6 million inhabitants. Tuscany is divided into ten provinces: Arezzo, Firenze, Pisa, Siena, Lucca, Pistoia, Grosseto, Massa Carrara, Livorno, and Prato. Tuscany was founded by the Etruscans in the 11th century BC. The region was originally called Etruria and constituted the majority of the area controlled by the Etruscans. Most of what we know about the Etruscan people was learned from archeological data collected in Tuscany. For its landscapes and its artistic legacy, Tuscany is considered the most beautiful region in Italy. The complex culture of the Etruscans and their appreciation for art, beauty, and the Greek style of democracy led to peaceful people's defeat. In the third century BC the region came under the power of the Roman Empire and was renamed Tuscia. After the Roman Empire fell the region was invaded by several peoples including the Goths, Lombards, Byzantines, and Franks. In 1860 Tuscany became part of Italy.

Tuscany is a delighted land, blessed by the genius of man and gifts of the nature, and often by the combined efforts of both. Tuscany entrances us today because it holds together as a region, from the tiniest hamlet to Florence the Magnificent. Think of the vineyards: rows of baby green vines that manage somehow to march in arrow-straight formation up the gently rolling hillsides, bounded by single files of darker green cypress trees, snaking sandy roads leading to rust-colored farmhouses and moss-coated castles, symmetrically rounded hilltops surmounted by towns so homogeneous as to seem one single building. Every inch of land has been sculpted, first by the elements and then by generations of inhabitants whose goals were always twofold: make the land produce as much as possible, make the land as beautiful as possible.