Sights in Tuscany
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Museo del Brunello
Make your way south of town, off the road to the Abbazia di Sant'Antimo, to visit this new museum. The exhibits will be of interest to wine buffs, but most of the interpretative material is in Italian only.
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Museo Casa Natale di Puccini
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Museo Archeologico
About 200m southeast of the piazza is this museum, whose rich collection of finds, including most of the Medici hoard of antiquities, plunges you deep into the past and offers an alternative to Renaissance splendour.
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Mercato Nuovo
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Mercato Centrale
Housed in a 19th-century iron-and-glass structure, Florence's oldest and largest food market is noisy, smelly and full of wonderful fresh produce to cook and eat. For a snack while you're here, follow the stream of stallholders making their way to Da Nerbone.
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Lucca Center of Contemporary Art
A refreshing change from the historic Tuscan norm, Lucca's contemporary art museum hosts some riveting temporary exhibitions.
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Loggia dei Lanzi
What makes this gorgeous square so agreeable is, in part, its wealth of fountains and statues, climaxing with this 14th-century loggia where works such as Giambologna's Rape of the Sabine Women , Benvenuto Cellini's bronze Perseus (1554) (c 1583) and Agnolo Gaddi's Seven Virtues (1384–89) are displayed. The loggia owes its name to the Lanzichenecchi (Swiss bodyguards) of Cosimo I, who were stationed here, and the present-day guards live up to this heritage, sternly monitoring crowd behaviour and promptly banishing anyone carrying food or drink.
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Il Corso
The main street, called in stages Via di Gracciano nel Corso, Via di Voltaia del Corso and Via dell'Opio nel Corso, climbs uphill from Porta al Prato, near the car park on Piazza Don Minzoni. At the upper end of Piazza Savonarola is the Colonna del Marzocca, erected in 1511 to confirm Montepulciano's allegiance to Florence. The splendid stone lion, squat as a pussycat atop this column is, in fact, a copy; the original is in the town's Museo Civico. The late-Renaissance Palazzo Avignonesi by Giacomo da Vignola is at No 91. Several mansions line Via di Gracciano nel Corso, including the Palazzo di Bucelli at No 73, the lower courses of whose facade are recycled Etruscan and…
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Fortezza
An imposing 14th-century structure that was later expanded under the Medici dukes, Montalcino's fortress dominates the town's skyline. You can sample and buy local wines in the enoteca and also climb up to the fort's ramparts (though the view is almost as magnificent from the courtyard). Buy a ticket at the bar.
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Fattoria Le Capezzine
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Eremo Le Celle
Adopting the contemplative religious life becomes everyone's fantasy after a visit to this Franciscan hermitage set amid dense woodland 3km north of Cortona. The group of rustic buildings sits next to a picturesque stream complete with an 18th-century stone bridge, and the wonderfully tranquil atmosphere is disturbed only by the bells calling the resident friars to vespers and mass in the cave-like Chiesa Cella di San Francesco.
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Cripta
Next to the Baptistry (and accessed through it) is this space below the cathedral's pulpit. It was rediscovered and restored in 1999 after having been filled to the roof with debris in the 1300s. The walls are completely covered with pintura a secco ('dry painting', better known as 'mural painting', as opposed to frescoes, which are painted on wet plaster, making them more durable) dating back to the 1200s. There's some 180 sq metres' worth, depicting several biblical stories, including the Passion of Jesus and the Crucifixion.
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Civic Archaeological Museum
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City Walls
Lucca's monumental mura (walls) were built around the old city in the 16th and 17th centuries and remain in almost perfect condition due to the long periods of peace the city has enjoyed over its history. Twelve metres high and 4km in length, the ramparts are crowned with a wide tree-lined footpath that looks down on the centro storico and out towards the Apuane Alps. This path is the favourite Lucchesi location for a passeggiata (traditional evening stroll), be it on foot, bicycle or inline skate. Children's playgrounds, swings and picnic tables beneath shady plane trees add a buzz of activity to Baluardo San Regolo, Baluardo San Salvatore and Baluardo Santa Croce –…
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Chiesa e Museo di Orsanmichele
This thoroughly unusual and inspirational church with a splendid Gothic tabernacle by Andrea Orcagna was created when the arcades of an old grain market (1290) were walled in and two storeys added during the 14th century. A real must-see, its exterior is exquisitely decorated with niches and tabernacles bearing statues. Representing the patron saints of Florence's many guilds, they were commissioned in the 15th and 16th centuries after the signoria ordered the city's guilds to finance the church's decoration.
These statues represent the work of some of the greatest Renaissance artists. Only copies adorn the building's exterior today but all the originals except one are…
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Chiesa di San Nicola
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Chiesa di San Michele in Borgo
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Chiesa di San Michele degli Scalzi
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Cattedrale di San Martino
Lucca's predominantly Romanesque cathedral dates to the start of the 11th century. Its stunning facade was constructed in the prevailing Lucca-Pisan style and designed to accommodate the pre-existing campanile. The reliefs over the left doorway of the portico are believed to be by Nicola Pisano.
The cathedral interior was rebuilt in the 14th and 15th centuries with a Gothic flourish. The Volto Santo (literally, Holy Countenance) is not to be missed. Legend has it that this simply fashioned image of a dark-skinned, life-sized Christ on a wooden crucifix was carved by Nicodemus, who witnessed the crucifixion. In fact, the Volto Santo has recently been dated to the 13th…
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Cappella di Monte Siepi
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Baptistry
The unusual round Baptistryhas one dome piled on top of another, each roofed half in lead, half in tiles, and topped by a gilt bronze John the Baptist (1395). Construction began in 1152, but it was nota-bly remodelled and continued by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano more than a century later and was finally completed in the 14th century – hence its hybrid architectural style: the lower level of arcades is Pisan-Romanesque; the pinnacled upper section and dome are Gothic.
Inside, the beautiful hexagonal marble pulpit (compare it to Giovanni's notably more ornate one in the cathedral) carved by Nicola Pisano between 1259 and 1260 is the undisputed highlight. Inspired by the…
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Villa Reale
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Villa Oliva
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