Firenze
Cimabue and Giotto, the fathers of Italian painting, lived in Florence as well as Arnolfo and Andrea Pisano, Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio - forefathers of the Renaissance, Ghiberti and the Della Robbia, Filippo Lippi and Angelico; Botticelli, Paolo Uccello; Leonardo and Michelangelo. Their works, together with those of many other generations of artists are gathered in the many museums of the town, primary of which is the Uffizi, the finest gallery in the world. The Bargello Tower houses the sculptures of the Renaissance; the Museum of San Marco has Angelico's works; there are the chapels of the Medici; Buonarroti' s house with the sculptures of Michelangelo; and the famous museums: Bardini, Horne, Stibbert, Romano and Corsini. Great monuments are the landmarks of Florentine artistic culture: the Baptistery with its mosaics; the Cathedral with its sculptures, the medieval churches with bands of frescoes; public as well as private palaces: Palazzo Vecchio, Palazzo Pitti, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Palazzo Davanzati; monasteries, cloisters, refectories; the "Certosa".

Lucca
Lucca, of all the city states of Tuscany, maintained its independence the longest, until 1847. True evidence of the loving care of the nobles from Lucca who protected the freedom of the "Civitas" with its intact ancient walls.

Siena
Siena (tower, right) is an international centre of culture, with a university 750 years old and great institutions such as the Chigiana Music Academy, the University for Foreigners, Accademia dei Fisiocratici, Accademia degli Intronati. It also has the first town council in Europe that decided to close the streets of the city centre to traffic, in 1996. The atmosphere is unique, for everything bears witness to an ancient past, which is still alive in the celebrations for "Palio" - and its famous horse races around the square - that take place every year with unbridled enthusiasm.

Arezzo
A charming hill town in the east of Tuscany, Arezzo boasts ancient origins. It was one of the greatest Etruscan "Lucumonie". Later it became a Roman town of strategic importance and gained fame for its foundries and the artistic manufacture of red-painted vases (the so called coral vases) which spread all over the Roman world. In the Middle Age, Arezzo was a free city state where the Ghibellina supporters often prevailed in an atmosphere of friction with nearby Florence.

Livorno
Livorno was regarded as an "ideal town" during the Renaissance period. Nowadays, it reveals its history through its neighbourhoods, crossed by canals and surrounded by fortified town walls. The Venice district preserves most of its original town planning and architectural features such as the bridges, the narrow lanes, the noblemen's houses and a dense network of canals which once linked the port to its storehouses. The town has a cosmopolitan soul and a history of its own. Once it was a cross-roads for the world and home to foreign communities, the past existence of which are still witnessed by churches, synagogues and gardens.

Pisa
Pisa, famous all over the world for its Leaning Tower (left) which dominates and exhalts the magnificence of Piazza del Duomo, boasts a millenary history which mostly developed at the time of the Maritime Republics. Pisa is a real jewel-case with its Roman and Gothic churches, its squares and palaces that give splendour to the old streets and to the quarters winding along the Arno river. It is one of the most important university towns of Italy.

Maremma
The area including the province of Grosseto is widely known as "Maremma ", from the Spanish word marismas for marsh. Until a century ago, Maremma was a marshy and unhealthy land. Now it is a mixture of sea, pine woods, Mediterranean maquis and marsh, sunny plains and mild hills: a wild landscape where man has been working hard to tame it for agricultural purposes, with some success.

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