Florence is the capital of Tuscany. And Tuscany is one of the most (not ‘the’ but I will come to that later) charming and beautiful provinces of Italy. We have so-called Tuscan houses here in S A, but they are not really Tuscan.
Tuscany (or Toscana) have hills and vineyards and olive trees and beauty and quant little medieval towns, so therefore they have wine (a pretty good wine if you like wine as I do) and olive oil and a lively tourist trade.
A day trip from Florence is probably not enough but it does give one a good idea of what Tuscany is like. Or you can take a bicycle trip (12 km) and go to a wine farm if you are very energetic. I believe I could live in Tuscany on a wine farm. And make a serious attempt at learning Italian. A very serious attempt. Not just bonjourno or ciao or prego or vino or basta….(which is basically my whole vocabulary for the time being).
All the medieval little towns have walls around them and are now tourist attractions. Most of them are up on a hill because the Romans probably settled there 1200 years before. And the Romans had to have a good view for strategic purposes.
Romulus and Remus, as the myth goes, & the twin sons of the priestess Rhea Silvia, were supposedly the traditional founders of Rome (circa 717 BC). It was ordered for them to be killed (Wikipadia will give you the whole story) but, like Moses, they were put into a basket and then nursed by a wolf. This famous statue is in the town of Sienna
We had some lunch at Monte Rigiori and a beer each because the MD was driving so no vino and went off to another little (bigger) medieval village called San Gimignano. Here we had some really good Italian Ice cream.
People live probably above their shops in these villages and cater for tourists. Italian tourists know about these villages and they are very popular even to stay at. All these little towns have hotels where one can stay. I would have loved to buy some of their ceramics if transporting the stuff back here wasn’t such a big issue. Can see a large pot with flowers at the entrance and a ceramic light holder at the front door but….
But one often lands up with stuff which you bought as souvenirs just to throw them out eventually. What will a fridge magnet from an Italian village mean to somebody else anyway? I did get a pourer for the salad oil (olive of course) bottle here though.
Tuscany (or Toscana) have hills and vineyards and olive trees and beauty and quant little medieval towns, so therefore they have wine (a pretty good wine if you like wine as I do) and olive oil and a lively tourist trade.
A day trip from Florence is probably not enough but it does give one a good idea of what Tuscany is like. Or you can take a bicycle trip (12 km) and go to a wine farm if you are very energetic. I believe I could live in Tuscany on a wine farm. And make a serious attempt at learning Italian. A very serious attempt. Not just bonjourno or ciao or prego or vino or basta….(which is basically my whole vocabulary for the time being).
All the medieval little towns have walls around them and are now tourist attractions. Most of them are up on a hill because the Romans probably settled there 1200 years before. And the Romans had to have a good view for strategic purposes.
Romulus and Remus, as the myth goes, & the twin sons of the priestess Rhea Silvia, were supposedly the traditional founders of Rome (circa 717 BC). It was ordered for them to be killed (Wikipadia will give you the whole story) but, like Moses, they were put into a basket and then nursed by a wolf. This famous statue is in the town of Sienna
We had some lunch at Monte Rigiori and a beer each because the MD was driving so no vino and went off to another little (bigger) medieval village called San Gimignano. Here we had some really good Italian Ice cream.
People live probably above their shops in these villages and cater for tourists. Italian tourists know about these villages and they are very popular even to stay at. All these little towns have hotels where one can stay. I would have loved to buy some of their ceramics if transporting the stuff back here wasn’t such a big issue. Can see a large pot with flowers at the entrance and a ceramic light holder at the front door but….
But one often lands up with stuff which you bought as souvenirs just to throw them out eventually. What will a fridge magnet from an Italian village mean to somebody else anyway? I did get a pourer for the salad oil (olive of course) bottle here though.
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