Sights in Northern & Western Tuscany
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Parco Nazionale dell'Arcipelago Toscan
According to local legend, when Venus rose from the waves, seven precious stones fell from her tiara, creating seven islands off the Tuscan coast. They range from the 530 sq km of Elba, the largest, to tiny Montecristo, at just over 1000 hectares. All except Montecristo, nowadays a closed marine biological reserve, rely mainly on income from tourism. This national park was established in 1996 to protect the delicate ecosystems of the islands.
But it's not only the land that's protected - the 60,000 hectares of sea that washes around the islands make up Europe's largest marine protected area. Here, typical Mediterranean fish abound and rare species, such as the wonderfully…
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Cemetery
Soil shipped from Calvary during the Crusades - and reputed to reduce cadavers to skeletons within days - is said to lie within the white walls of this hauntingly beautiful cemetery, a beautiful final resting place for many prominent Pisans, arranged around a garden in a cloistered quadrangle. Many of the more interesting sarcophagi are of Greco-Roman origin, recycled in the Middle Ages.
During WWII, Allied artillery destroyed many of the cloisters' precious frescoes. Among the few to survive was the Triumph of Death - a remarkable illustration of Hell - attributed to an anonymous 14th-century painter known as 'The Master of the Triumph of Death'. Fortunately, the mirrors…
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Duomo
Pisa's duomo was paid for with spoils brought home after Pisans attacked an Arab fleet entering Palermo in 1063. Begun a year later, the cathedral, with its striking cladding of alternating bands of green and cream marble, became the blueprint floor for Romanesque churches throughout Tuscany. The elliptical dome, the first of its kind in Europe at the time, was added in 1380.
It is the three pairs of firmly closed, 16th-century bronze doors of the main entrance (west), designed by the school of Giambologna to replace the wooden originals destroyed (along with most of the cathedral interior) by fire in 1596, which the crowds ogle over. Quite spellbinding, hours can be spen…
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Duomo
At first glance Prato's 12th-century Duomo, with its stark exterior of white-and-green marble bands, solitary terracotta lunette by Andrea della Robbia and magnificent Filippo Lippi frescoes behind the cathedral's high altar, appears a typical Tuscan affair. But look closer and the Pulpito della Sacra Cintola to the right of the western entrance pops into vision. This highly unusual exterior pulpit was grafted on to the outside of the cathedral to display the Virgin Mary's sacra cintola (sacred girdle) five times a year (Easter, 1 May, 15 August, 8 September and 25 December).
The girdle, so the story goes, was given by the Virgin to St Thomas, and brought to Prato from Je…
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Chiesa di Santa Maria della Spina
One of Pisa’s architectural gems is the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Spina. A fine example of Pisan-Gothic style, this now-deconsecrated church was built between 1223 and 1230 to house a reliquary of a spina (thorn) from Christ’s crown. Its ornately spired exterior is encrusted with tabernacles and statues but the interior is simple and perfectly suited to quiet reflection. Inside, the focal point is Andrea and Nino Pisano’s Madonna and Child (aka Madonna of the Rose, 1345–48), a masterpiece of Gothic sculpture that still bears traces of its original colours and gilding. At the other end of the church is a copy of the graceful Madonna del Latte (Our Lady of Milk, 1…
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Museo Nazionale di San Matteo
From Piazza Garibaldi, veer east along the Lungarno to visit the Museo Nazionale di San Matteo, a repository of medieval masterpieces housed in a 13th-century former Benedictine convent. This fine gallery has a notable collection of 14th- and 15th-century Pisan sculptures, including pieces by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, Andrea and Nino Pisano, Francesco di Valdambrino, Donatello, Michelozzo and Andrea della Robbia, but its collection of paintings from the Tuscan school (c 12th to 14th centuries) is even better, with works by Berlinghiero, Lippo Memmi, Taddeo Gaddi, Gentile da Fabriano and Ghirlandaio on show. Don’t miss Masaccio’s St Paul, Fra’ Angelico’s Madonna …
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Volto Santo
Lucca-born sculptor and architect Matteo Civitali (1436-1501) spent most of his life working on churches and villas in and around in his hometown and refused to be influenced by his counterparts in Florence. He is considered the leading exponent of a strictly Lucchese Renaissance art, and he designed both the Cattedrale di San Martino pulpit and the 15th-century tempietto (small temple) in the north aisle that contains the Volto Santo.
Legend has it that this simply fashioned image of a life-sized Christ on a wooden crucifix, in fact dated to the 11th century, was carved by Nicodemus, who witnessed the crucifixion. A major object of pilgrimage, it's carried in procession…
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Leaning Tower
Yes, the really does lean.
In 1160 Pisa boasted 10,000-odd towers – but had no bell tower for its cathedral. Loyal Pisan Berta di Bernardo righted this in 1172 when she died, leaving a legacy for construction of a campanile (bell tower). Work began in 1173 but ground to a halt a decade later, when the structure’s first three tiers were observed to be tilting. In 1272 work started again, with artisans and masons attempting to bolster the foundations but failing miserably. Despite this, they keep going, compensating for the lean by gradually building straight up from the lower storeys and creating a subtle curve.
Over the centuries, the tower has tilted an extra 1mm eac…
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Museo dell'Opera del Duomo
No museum provides a better overview of Piazza dei Miracoli's trio of architectural masterpieces than the Museum of the Cathedral, the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. Home to cathedral canons between the 12th and 17th centuries, it has a profusion of works of art once displayed in the tower, cathedral and baptistry. Highlights include Giovanni Pisano's ivory carving of the Madonna and Child (1300) carved for the cathedral's high altar and his Madonna del Colloquio (Madonna of the Colloquium).
Legendary booty includes various pieces of Islamic art including the griffin that once topped the cathedral and a 10th-century Moorish hippogriff.
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Casa di Puccini
Just north of the Piazza Cittadella is Casa di Puccini, the modest house where one of the 20th century's greatest composers was born in 1858. He lived there until studies at Milan's music conservatory beckoned him aged 22.
Inside, everyday objects tell the tale of the composer's life. Specs and pen lay poised on the desk next to the Steinway piano on which Puccini, the last in a line of celebrated Lucca musicians, wrote much of Turandot (1926) while staying at his seaside villa in Viareggio in 1921. The opera, unfinished when he died, was the last before throat cancer got the better of him after last-ditch surgery in Brussels failed in 1924.
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Fattoria di Celle
A tea house, aviary and other romantic 19th-century follies mingle with cutting-edge art installations created in situ by the world’s top contemporary artists at the Fattoria di Celle, 5km from Pistoia. The extraordinary private collection and passion of local businessman Giuliano Gori, this unique sculpture park showcases 70 site-specific installations sprinkled around his vast family estate. Visits – reserved for serious art lovers – require forward planning (apply in writing at least five weeks in advance) and entail a three- to four-hour hike around the art-rich estate, led by the collection’s curator, Miranda McPhail.
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Piazza dei Miracoli
No Tuscan sight is more immortalised in kitsch souvenirs than the iconic tower teetering on the edge of this famous piazza, which is also known as the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) or Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral Square). The piazza’s expansive green lawns provide an urban carpet on which Europe’s most extraordinary concentration of Romanesque buildings – in the form of Cathedral, Baptistry and Tower – are arranged. Two million visitors every year mean that crowds are the norm, many arriving by tour bus from Florence for a whirlwind visit.
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Museum of the Cathedral
Housed in the Cathedral’s former chapter house, the Museum of the Cathedral is a repository for works of art once displayed in the Cathedral and Baptistry. Highlights include Giovanni Pisano’s ivory carving of the Madonna and Child (1299), made for the Cathedral’s high altar, and his mid-13th-century Madonna del Colloquio (Madonna of the Colloquy), from a gate of the Duomo. Legendary booty includes various pieces of Islamic art, including the griffin that once topped the Cathedral and a 10th-century Moorish hippogriff.
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Chiesa e Battistero dei SS Giovanni e Reparata
The 12th-century interior of the deconsecrated Chiesa e Battistero dei SS Giovanni e Reparata is a hauntingly atmospheric setting for early evening opera recitals staged by Puccini e la sua Lucca, which are held at 7pm every evening from mid-March to October, and on every evening except Thursday from November to mid-March. Professional singers present a one-hour programme of arias and duets dominated by the music of Puccini. Tickets are available from the church between 10am and 6pm.
In the north transept of the church is a baptistry crowning an archaeological area comprising five building levels going back to the Roman period.
Today's church is largely the 12th-century …
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Palazzo Pfanner
The privately owned Palazzo Pfanner is a 17th-century palace where parts of Portrait of a Lady (1996) with Nicole Kidman and John Malkovich were shot. Take the outdoor staircase to the frescoed and furnished piano nobile (main reception room), and then visit the ornate 18th-century garden, the only one of substance within the city walls. (Felix Pfanner, may God rest his soul, was an Austrian émigré who first brought beer to Italy – and brewed it in the mansion’s cellars.)
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Museum of Mural Painting
The Museum of Mural Painting, within the Chiesa di San Domenico, houses a collection of largely Tuscan paintings. Artists represented include Filippo Lippi, Paolo Uccello and Bernardo Daddi with his touchingly naive polyptych of the miracle of the Virgin's girdle. Enjoy too the 14th- to 17th-century frescoes and graffiti.
A combined ticket, bought at any of the three sites, gives entry to the Museo di Pittura Murale, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo and Castello dell'Imperatore.
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Palazzo Blu
West of Corso Italia, facing the river, is the Palazzo Blu, a magnificently restored 14th-century building that sports over-the-top 19th-century interior decoration. Home to the Foundation CariPisa art collection, which comprises predominantly Pisan works from the 14th to the 20th century, the palazzo also hosts temporary exhibitions. Access is via a 20-minute guided tour only (at 4pm, 4.30pm and 5pm daily unless pre-booked).
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Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci
South of the old city, the Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci is devoted to contemporary art. Temporary exhibitions and performances complement its permanent collection which stars monumental creations by international artists such as Sol LeWitt, Jan Fabre and Julien Opie. Designed by architects Sarteanesi and Bacchi, the building alone is a work of art - two walls rotate rendering the exhibition space in a constant state of flux.
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Villa dei Mulini
The Villa dei Mulini, Napoleon’s home while he was emperor of this small isle, has a splendid terraced garden and library. During his Elban exile, he certainly didn’t want for creature comforts – contrast his Elba lifestyle with the simplicity of his camp bed and travelling trunk when he was on the campaign trail. While the history lesson is nice, the dearth of actual Napoleonic artefacts is a tad disappointing.
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Cattedrale di San Zeno
The Pisan-Romanesque facade of Cattedrale di San Zeno boasts a lunette of Madonna col Bambino Fra Due Angeli (Madonna and Child Between Two Angels) by Andrea della Robbia. The cathedral’s other highlight – the silver Dossale di San Giacomo, begun in 1287 and finished off by Brunelleschi two centuries later – is in the gloomy Cappella di San Jacopo off the north aisle.
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Museo dell'Opera del Duomo
View the original panels of the pulpit at Duomo, adorned with playful putti (winsome cherubs) designed by Donatello and Michelozzo in the 1430s, in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo where paintings by Filippo Lippi, Caravaggio, Bellini and Santi di Tito hang.
A combined ticket, bought at any of the three sites, gives entry to the Museo di Pittura Murale, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo and Castello dell'Imperatore.
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Basilica di San Frediano
The facade of the Basilica di San Frediano has a unique (and much-restored) 13th-century mosaic in a markedly Byzantine style. The main feature of the beautiful basilica’s interior is the Fontana Lustrale, a 12th-century baptismal font decorated with sculpted reliefs, just to the right as you enter. Note, too, the fine capitals, many recycled from the nearby Roman amphitheatre.
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Cattedrale di San Martino
Lucca’s mainly Romanesque Cattedrale di San Martino, dedicated to San Martino, dates to the 11th century. The exquisite facade was constructed in the prevailing Lucca-Pisan style and designed to accommodate the pre-existing campanile. Each of the multitude of columns in its upper part is different. The reliefs over the left doorway of the portico are believed to be by Nicola Pisano.
The interior was rebuilt in the 14th and 15th centuries with a Gothic flourish. Lucca-born sculptor and architect Matteo Civitali designed both the pulpit and the 15th-century tempietto (small temple) in the north aisle that contains the Volto Santo. Legend has it that this simply fashioned …
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Chiesa di San Michele in Foro
This dazzling Romanesque church was built on the site of its 8th-century precursor over a period of nearly 300 years, beginning in the 11th century. The exquisite wedding-cake facade is topped by a figure of the Archangel Michael slaying a dragon. Inside, don’t miss Filippino Lippi’s 1479 painting of Sts Helen, Jerome, Sebastian and Roch (complete with plague sore) in the south transept.
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Artistic Treasures
The rich portico of the nearby Ospedale del Ceppo (Piazza Giovanni XXIII), with its detailed 16th-century polychrome terracotta frieze by Giovanni della Robbia, will stop even the most monument-weary in their tracks. It depicts the Sette Opere di Misericordia (Seven Works of Mercy), while the fi ve medallions represent the Virtù Teologali (Theological Virtues), including a beautiful Annunciation.
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