FLORENCE:Florence and its art are inseparable. The
big Italian painting began here, the Renaissance created
the most important works of civil and religious architecture,
sculpture and painting. But all these arts were unthinkable
without the big previous flowering artistic time of the
Romanic and Gotic era between 1000 and 1300, when Florence
was economically very important; of this time are the
Baptistry of San Giovanni, the Church of San Miniato
al Monte, the Bargello Palace and Palazzo
Vecchio (the Old Palace), the Churches of Santa
Maria Novella and Santa Croce, the beginning
of the construction of the Cathedral and of the bell tower.
Responsible for the architectural renewal was Arnolfo
di Cambio, for painting Cimabue and Giotto,
his talented and revolutionary pupil. The fifteenth century
is famous for three great artists: Masaccio, Donatello
and Brunelleschi, the sixteenth century for Michelangelo.
Their works were very important for the Florentine painting,
sculpture and architecture. The roll of the artist changed
with their art.....
SIENA: Tuscan town
and Italian capital in the Middle Ages. Siena rises
on three hills between the valleys of the rivers Arbia
and Elsa and has a wonderful panoramic position. At the
beginning Siena was an Etruscan settlement, but
a legend tells that the town was founded by Senio and
Aschio, Remos children. Siena was certainly a Roman military
colony at Augustus time and became a free county in the
Carolingian age; later on in the tenth and eleventh century
it was run by the bishops and became a free Ghibelline-commune.
Thanks to the flowering commercial and financial activities
there was a very big economic and urbanistic growth. In
this time were built the characteristic medieval system,
the mighty boundary wall and the Piazza del Campo,
the heart of the inhabitants life. This piazza is fan-shaped
and is on the convergence point among the three hills
on which the town rises. Today Siena is visited by
many tourists, who are attracted and fascinated by
its buildings and by the cheerfulness of the inhabitants,
who have maintained an ancient traditional festival, the
Palio in the Piazza del Campo......
PISA: The Tuscan
province of Pisa has behind it the Pisa Mount and
on the horizon the sea. The Arno runs through it
and the tourists can admire it walking on its bright
sides, surrounded by noble Renaissance palaces
and a lot of small medieval alleys. The green Piazza
dei Miracoli contains four masterpieces of the Romanic-Pisan
style: the Cathedral, the Baptistry, the
leaning Tower and the monumental graveyard.......
SAN GIMIGNANO: lies
among the sunny hills of the Elsa Valley, on which
you find the grapes of the ancient Vernaccia, surrounded
by medieval thirteenth-century-walls, that today
are an open gallery for many art exhibitions. From its
Etruscan origins, testified by the finding of tombs
in its territory, San Gimignano developed remarkably about
the year 1000 and became an important centre of commercial
activities. Since the twelfth century it was a free commune
and after the fierce conflict between Guelphs and Ghibellines
it lost its autonomy and became one town with Forence
in 1351. But formerly the merchants (in the meantime rich
aristocrats) built its historical centre with its numerous
towers, that today are admired by the incredulous tourists......
Tuscan Tourist Residence Villa Hedy - Via del Capodoglio, 2 -
57027 San Vincenzo [Livorno] - Tuscany - Itay
