Tuscany is a region of central Italy bordering Liguria to the
north-west, Emilia-Romagna to the north, Marche and Umbria to the east
and Lazio to the south.
Thanks to its history and its strong
cultural and linguistic unity, it is one of the Italian regions with the
oldest and most defined identity, so much so that it is considered by
some to be a real "nation". The name is very ancient and derives from
the ethnonym used by Greeks and Latins to define the land inhabited by
the Etruscans: "Etruria", later transformed into "Tuscia" and then into
"Tuscany".
The Tuscan territory is mostly hilly (~67%); includes some plains
(~8%) and important mountain massifs (~25%).
The main Tuscan
mountains are: Monte Prado (2,054 m), Monte Giovo (1,991 m), Monte
Rondinaio (1,964 m), Monte Pisanino (1,946 m), Alpe Tre Potenze (1,940
m), while Monte Amiata (1,738 m) and Monte Castello (445 m on the island
of Capraia) are classified as (inactive) volcanoes.
The main
rivers are: Arno (241 km), Ombrone (161 km), Serchio (111 km), Cecina
(73 km), Magra (70 km), Sieve (62 km), while the main lakes are: Lake
Bilancino (artificial reservoir of 5.0 km²), Lake Chiusi (3.9 km²), Lake
San Casciano (2.0 km²), Lake Montepulciano (1.9 km²).
To the
west, its 397 km of continental coasts are washed by the Ligurian Sea in
the central-northern section between Carrara (mouth of the Parmignola
stream, border with Liguria) and the Gulf of Baratti; the Tyrrhenian
Sea, on the other hand, bathes the southern coastal stretch between the
Piombino promontory and the mouth of the Chiarone, which marks the
border with Lazio.
In addition to the main territory, both the
Tuscan Archipelago and a small exclave located within the borders of
Emilia-Romagna are part of this region, in which some fractions of the
municipality of Badia Tedalda are located.
From a climatic point of view, Tuscany has different characteristics
from area to area. The average annual temperatures, which record the
highest values around 16 °C along the Maremma coast, tend to decrease as
one proceeds towards the interior and towards the north; in the plains
and in the internal valleys (middle Valdarno and Val di Chiana) summer
maximum values are reached, which often approach and touch 40 °C and
contrast with rather rigid winter minimums, sometimes even a few degrees
below zero.
Snowfalls, frequent in the winter season on all the
Apennine hills and on the summit of Monte Amiata, can also reach the
neighboring hilly areas but it is not impossible that the snow also
reaches the plains and more rarely elsewhere.
The regional festival, established in 2001, occurs on November 30, in memory of the aforementioned day in 1786 when the death penalty was abolished in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
Florence - was the cradle of the
Italian Renaissance. Here worked, protected and favored by the lords of
the city, the Medici, the greatest protagonists of art in all its
manifestations and sciences. The Florentine genius left churches,
palaces and monuments of extreme beauty to the city; its museums collect
an infinite number of masterpieces, like its churches and palaces. A
city of international renown, it is a destination for world tourism that
shows no sign of diminishing. Capital of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany,
then for a brief period also the capital of Italy, Florence is now
rightfully one of the world capitals of culture.
Siena — Piazza del Campo and its Palio are
world famous. In addition to them, the city offers an extensive and
well-preserved historic centre, nestled in the hills of the Crete Senesi
Arezzo - It was an Etruscan and Roman city,
then a proud and proud municipality that fought for a long time with
Florence which finally subdued it. Its monumental heritage boasts among
the most important architectures the Romanesque parish church of Santa
Maria, San Francesco, the Gothic cathedral. The Medici fortress recalls
the definitive subjection to Florence, from whose dominion even the
Arezzo citizens had repeatedly tried to escape.
Grosseto
Pisa — its Leaning Tower is one of the
best-known monuments in the world. An international tourist destination,
the ancient Maritime Republic boasts numerous important monuments, but
it is above all for the Piazza dei Miracoli that it can boast the
qualification of World Heritage Site
Pistoia
Prato - Second
largest city in Tuscany by population, third in central Italy after Rome
and Florence, suffers from the cumbersome proximity of Florence, with
which it is in fact conurbated. Known nationally for the textile
industry and for the cantucci, biscuits with almonds that are often
dipped in Vin Santo, it offers us a splendid Romanesque-Gothic cathedral
in which Michelozzo and Donatello worked.
Leghorn
Lucca — Walled city, preserves an artistic
heritage of great stature; the Duomo, where you can see the famous tomb
of Ilaria del Carretto, San Michele in Foro, San Frediano are its most
significant churches. In the medieval village there are the Torri dei
Guinigi and the palaces and towers of via Fillungo. The Piazza del
Mercato, surrounded by a curtain of houses that follow its perimeter,
overlaps the Roman Amphitheater.
San Gimignano
Carrara
Colonnata
Arcipelago Toscano National Park
Emperor's Castle
Grosseto Maremma
Montalbano (mountain)
Mount Amiata
Valdarno
Val di Chiana
Cecina Valley
In its Tuscan
stretch, the Tiber passes through the following centres:
Anghiari — Badia Tedalda, Caprese Michelangelo, Monterchi, Pieve
Santo Stefano, Sansepolcro, Sestino.
Casentino
Chianti
hills
Hills of Albegna and Fiora
Colline Metallifere —
These include the towns of Sassetta, Campiglia Marittima,
Suvereto, Monteverdi Marittimo, Pomarance, Castelnuovo di Val di
Cecina, Radicondoli, Chiusdino, Monterotondo Marittimo,
Montieri, Roccastrada, Massa Marittima, Gavorrano, Scarlino and
Castiglione della Pescaia.
Crete Senesi
Mugello -
Corresponds to the valley of the Sieve, a tributary of the Arno.
Florentine plain
Val d'Orcia — Inscribed in the list of World
Heritage Sites, the Val d'Orcia extends in the province of Siena
with the exception of a stretch of the lower valley in the
province of Grosseto. There are the Sienese centers of
Castiglione d'Orcia, Montalcino, Pienza, Radicofani, San Quirico
d'Orcia, with the hamlets of Monticchiello, Bagno Vignoni, Rocca
d'Orcia, Campiglia d'Orcia, Bagni San Filippo, Vivo d' Orcia,
and the village of Montenero d'Orcia in the province of
Grosseto.
Getting to Tuscany is very easy thanks to the excellent national and
international connections enjoyed by the region, mainly centered on the
city of Florence.
By plane
The major Tuscan airports for
passenger traffic are:
Galileo Galilei Airport in Pisa.
Amerigo Vespucci Airport of Peretola in Florence
Marina di Campo
Airport on the Island of Elba
Other airports are in Grosseto (civil
airport) and Siena (Ampugnano airport).
By car
Tuscany is
crossed in a north-south direction by the A1 motorway which connects
Florence and Arezzo to the main Italian cities (Milan and Bologna to the
north, Rome and Naples to the south). Florence is well connected to the
Tuscan coast thanks to the A11 motorway, which also passes through
Prato, Pistoia, Montecatini Terme and Lucca before ending at the Pisa
north exit. This toll booth is also found along the A12 motorway, which
connects the city of Pisa to Viareggio (from this exit link road to
Lucca), Massa-Carrara, La Spezia and Genoa to the north and Livorno
Rosignano Marittimo Cecina to the south (waiting for the future
completion of the stretch up to Civitavecchia for the total construction
of the Genoa-Rome motorway). The northwestern tip of Tuscany (Lunigiana)
is also crossed by the A15 motorway, which connects Parma and La Spezia
through Pontremoli and Aulla.
The SS 3bis/E45 expressway which
connects Umbria to Romagna, crossing the Valtiberina at Sansepolcro and
Pieve Santo Stefano in the easternmost part of the region, wedged
between Romagna and Umbria.
Among the best-known road axes, which
today represent secondary extra-urban roads, we should mention the Via
Aurelia, the Via Cassia and the Via Clodia, which were built in Roman
times; the last of these was built on the pre-existing Vie Cave in the
section between Pitigliano, Sorano and Sovana, in the heart of the Tufo
area. Furthermore, Tuscany is also cut by the Via Francigena, which
partly coincides with the Via Cassia.
On boat
The port of
Livorno is the most important in Tuscany and one of the major Italian
ports and the entire Mediterranean Sea, for passenger traffic and mainly
for freight.
Ferries leave from Porto Santo Stefano for Corsica
and Sardinia, while from Livorno numerous navigation routes connect
Tuscany to the islands of Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily.
On the
train
The main railway lines that cross Tuscany are the line between
Milan and Rome which, following almost parallel to the A1 motorway,
touches the Tuscan cities of Prato, Florence and Arezzo from north to
south. Another main route is the Tyrrhenian railway which, following the
Via Aurelia in parallel, connects Genoa to Rome touching Carrara, Massa,
Viareggio, Pisa, Livorno and Grosseto. The third main line in Tuscany is
the one that connects Florence to Pisa via Empoli, where a secondary
section branches off for Siena from where it continues both for Chiusi
(Florence-Rome intersection) and for Grosseto (intersection with the
Tyrrhenian line).
By car
In addition to the motorways, we find trunk roads (S.G.C.)
with separate carriageways and two lanes in each direction (main
extra-urban roads). Among these there is the one that connects Florence
to Siena, the one that connects Florence to Pisa and Livorno through the
lower Valdarno (Empoli, Pontedera) and the one that connects Livorno to
Grosseto, called "Variante Aurelia".
On boat
Ferries leave
from Porto Santo Stefano for the island of Giglio and Giannutri; from
Piombino connections with the Island of Elba are ensured, while from
Livorno numerous navigation routes connect Tuscany to the islands of
Capraia and Gorgona.
On the train
Among the secondary
stretches, the one between Siena and Grosseto via Monte Antico is very
spectacular from a landscape point of view, with a trunk passing through
Buonconvento and one through San Giovanni d'Asso: trips are often
organized in vintage "littorine" on both branches of the Siena-Grosseto.
Other secondary sections, very crowded with commuters, are the
Florence-Prato-Pistoia-Montecatini Terme-Pescia-Lucca-Viareggio, the
Lucca-Pisa, the Lucca-Aulla, the Porrettana railway (which connects
Pistoia to Bologna) and the railway which joins Florence to Mugello
(Faentina).
Partially active, but very interesting from a
landscape point of view, is the Cecina-Saline railway of Volterra, a
non-electrified antenna which departs from the Maremmana line and which
originally reached the historic core of Volterra via a final rack
section.
Itineraries
Sentiero della Bonifica — The Sentiero della Bonifica
is a 62 km dirt bike path. It develops on the ancient road for the
maintenance of the Canale maestro della Chiana, which runs on the banks
of the same, between the cities of Arezzo and Chiusi.
Tuscany is one of the regions that have the highest wine production
in Italy, but this is not its only record. Ricasoli, which took
possession of the Brolio Castle in Gaiole in Chianti in 1141, is the
oldest winery in Italy, as well as one of the oldest in the world. Among
its best-known DOCGs are the prestigious Brunello di Montalcino and the
universally known Chianti (and the oldest Chianti Classico), as well as:
Carmignano, Elba Aleatico Passito, Montecucco Sangiovese, Morellino di
Scansano, Suvereto, Val di Cornia Rosso , Vernaccia di San Gimignano
(the only white), and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.
The list of
Tuscan DOCs is impressive, but Bolgheri Sassicaia undoubtedly stands out
among all, whose 2015 vintage was awarded the title of best wine in the
world in 2018.
Finally there are the supertuscans, a group of
wines that deliberately did not respect the official dictates (which
also included Sassicaia itself), so although technically they were
"simple table wines", they were and still are of the prestigious wines
often with an exclusive cost, such as Tignanello and Solaia degli
Antinori and Ornellaia dei Frescobaldi.
Tourist infrastructure
In
terms of tourism, Tuscany offers many possibilities, from the coast of
Versilia, which hosts places such as Viareggio or Forte dei Marmi or
cities of art such as Florence, Siena, Lucca and Pisa. However, Tuscany
is not devoid of landscapes, because you can find numerous bed and
breakfasts with wonderful views in the Chianti or Maremma, or hotels in
the important centers of the Tuscan coast.
The Pontremoli area (and nearby Luni) were the heart of the ancient
civilization of the Stele Statues, in the 3rd millennium BC. There are
also numerous findings from the Villanovan civilization.
Etruria
was the heart of the Etruscan civilization and included almost the
entire territory of present-day Tuscany. Extraordinary finds remain of
the rich and flourishing southern Etruscan cities, especially in the
areas of Maremma, the Livorno coast, the Siena and Grosseto hinterland.
Of exceptional importance are the noteworthy Etruscan necropolises, such
as Sovana, Vetulonia and Populonia. Numerous settlements also existed in
northern Tuscany, but they were more isolated. Among these Pisa, with
the Tumulus of the Etruscan Prince, Sasso Pisano, Fiesole, Volterra,
Cortona, Carmignano (Prato) with the Etruscan tombs of Montefortini,
Boschetti, and the necropolis of Prato Rosello. Recent is the discovery
of an Etruscan city in Gonfienti, near Prato, probably the main trading
center until the end of the 5th century BC. with the Po Valley area.
Among the most important Etruscan finds discovered, the Magliano
Disc was of fundamental importance for the codification of the Etruscan
language.
In Roman times Florentia was founded and numerous cities prospered, such as Pisa, Pistoia, Arezzo, Volterra, Fiesole and Roselle. Among the excavations of the Roman era, that of the colony of Cosa is of particular importance, one of the best preserved dating back to the early years of the Republic.
Starting from late antiquity, Tuscany experienced a sort of "eclipse", a long period of which very few artistic traces remain, also because they were systematically demolished in the following centuries. For this reason, the few surviving architectures have an extraordinary value such as the Cathedral of Chiusi or the crypt of the church of San Baronto. The most important city at that time was Lucca, crossed by the Via Francigena, but early Christian or early medieval remains are rare here too, apart from an invaluable ancient book heritage.
In the Middle Ages, in many Tuscan municipalities, grandiose squares
were created with cathedrals, basilicas and imposing public buildings
and streets with valuable private buildings. The first city to enjoy
this extraordinary development was the maritime republic of Pisa,
followed closely by Lucca, Florence, Pistoia, Prato and Siena. The Pisan
Romanesque left extraordinary cathedrals, influencing many other areas
of the Mediterranean. In the rural areas, characteristic villages,
castles and fortifications developed and numerous parish churches and
abbeys were built.
Starting from the 13th century, sculpture also
rediscovered a monumental dimension, with masters such as Nicola Pisano,
Giovanni Pisano and Arnolfo di Cambio. At the end of the century,
painting seemed to have an unbridgeable gap behind other art forms,
still anchored to the Byzantine tradition. Little by little the masters
of Pisa and Lucca moved away from oriental models, but it was with
Cimabue and above all with Giotto that painting made giant strides,
rediscovering values which had long since disappeared such as real
space, realism, narration, creativity: starting from this revolution all
Western art found a new path.
The Gothic was implemented with
alternating events in Tuscany: if in Siena a school was born that was
very up to date with transalpine courtly models, with masters such as
Duccio di Boninsegna, the brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti and
Simone Martini, in Florence a classicist legacy had more weight, which
from there within a few years it would have flourished in the
Renaissance.
The Renaissance developed starting from Florence and Tuscany,
subsequently spreading to the rest of Italy and Europe; intended as a
recovery of classical models, it began with a renewed interest from
greats such as Petrarca and Boccaccio.
Later it also spread to
the visual arts, recovering a "classical" line that crossed the
Romanesque and prevented the full affirmation of the Gothic. While
Filippo Brunelleschi "discovered" the rules of mathematical perspective,
painters like Masaccio proposed vivid figures like never before,
tormented by the feeling and the real volume of the bodies. In
architecture he simplified himself in search of "pure", solemn and
rational forms, demonstrating how human ingenuity could create even
unlikely works, such as the mammoth dome of Santa Maria del Fiore. A
revolution began stimulated by the patronage of a class of merchants and
bankers endowed with great culture and enormous economic means.
Botticelli, Piero della Francesca, Donatello, Lorenzo Ghiberti, are just
some of the Tuscan "geniuses" of the 15th century.
In this era,
great works characterized by completely innovative stylistic elements
were created, such as the basilicas of San Lorenzo and Santo Spirito in
Florence, the Cathedral and Palazzo Piccolomini in Pienza, the church of
San Biagio in Montepulciano and the Walls of Lucca.
The peak was
reached between the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th
century, with the greatest masters ever in Florence: Leonardo da Vinci,
Michelangelo Buonarroti and Raffaello Sanzio (who was also from the
Marche, but also worked in Tuscany in those years )
While the
Renaissance was moving towards increasingly complex forms, the
Florentine upheavals linked to Savonarola and the expulsion of the
Medici produced a setback that shocked the art world: while some artists
were experiencing a profound crisis, others sought their fortune in new
cities, spreading the achievements of the Renaissance throughout Europe:
Leonardo in Milan and France; Michelangelo in Rome; Jacopo Sansovino in
Venice, etc.
The impact of the great Renaissance masters produced a stimulus to
imitation in the following generation, which then translated, in the
best artists, into the search for something "different", which now
ignored reality, abstracting it into something more original, complex
and capricious. If on the one hand the art of the new grand ducal court
produced beautiful but somewhat conventional works (think of the artists
of Giorgio Vasari's circle), on the other hand the first restlessness
was born, the first "avant-garde", with highly original artists (and
often misunderstood) such as Benvenuto Cellini, Jacopo Pontormo and
Rosso Fiorentino.
The architectural scene, however, underwent
continuous development, with large construction sites throughout the
region driven by the Grand Duke's desire to demonstrate his power and
political supremacy: in Florence the ancient center of republican
politics was overturned by the renovation of Palazzo Vecchio and the
construction of the Uffizi; Piazza dei Cavalieri was born in Pisa by the
order of Santo Stefano, in Livorno a new port city was born equipped
with up-to-date fortifications. Power was also manifested through other
works, such as the network of Medici villas, completed by the creativity
of Bernardo Buontalenti.
The only area to remain independent was
Lucca, which although its importance was reduced compared to the Middle
Ages, built one of the most beautiful and best preserved fortification
systems of the time, precisely in fear of an attack by the invading
Florentines. The walls of Lucca are one of the best preserved city walls
and find a similar example, albeit with a reduced perimeter, in the
walls of Grosseto which were completely renovated in the second half of
the sixteenth century based on a design by Baldassarre Lanci.
The Florentine and Tuscan Renaissance and mannerist tradition,
glorified by works such as The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters,
Sculptors and Architects by Giorgio Vasari (the first treatise on the
history of art since the time of Pausanias), effectively prevented the
creativity of Roman Baroque for almost the entire 17th century.
Tuscany was not immune to the Baroque, which was instead characterized
by restraint and sobriety, and a certain tradition of art historians
downplayed its importance until the mid-20th century. Therefore, the
object of a recent rediscovery, Tuscan art between the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries reached some heights in sumptuous masterpieces such
as the Cappella dei Principi in Florence or the villas of Lucca, but the
enrichment of the urban fabric of almost all of them was also important
the cities of minor works responding to the new scenographic taste,
which became part of the image of the region. We remember the art of the
Nasini dynasty, who from Castel del Piano, on Monte Amiata, extended
their production, aimed more at devotion than at pomp, to numerous
centers in the Grosseto and Siena areas.
In the eighteenth century, the construction of sober and balanced
systems of Baroque taste continued in architecture, even if there were
numerous renovations of already existing buildings, such as the facade
of the church of San Marco in Florence. The second half of the century
turns towards more markedly neoclassical themes: Gaspare Paoletti will
be the founder of a series of architects active in the Grand Duchy until
the 1840s, such as Luigi de Cambray Digny and Pasquale Poccianti.
Alongside the impressive restorations for Palazzo Pitti and the Villa of
Poggio Imperiale, there was the construction of monumental buildings
such as the Cisternone of Livorno. In neo-Gothic the name of Alessandro
Gherardesca emerges.
In sculpture, the first half of the
eighteenth century is characterized for example by the work of Giovanni
Battista Foggini; subsequently, with neoclassicism, the names of Lorenzo
Bartolini and the Sienese Giovanni Duprè especially established
themselves, who developed the models offered by Canova, seeking a
mediation between "realism" and "purism".
Painting offers its
most interesting ideas in the nineteenth century, with the works of the
Macchiaiola school of Giovanni Fattori and others, who anticipated the
coloristic anxieties of French Impressionism.
In the twentieth century Tuscany had an important Liberty season,
with some peaks in places with strong urban development such as
Grosseto, Montecatini Terme, Viareggio, Torre del Lago Puccini, Bagni di
Lucca, Castiglioncello and Marina di Pisa.
Rationalist
architecture was more widespread throughout the regional territory, with
some international masterpieces such as the Florence Santa Maria Novella
station or the Artemio Franchi stadium by Pier Luigi Nervi.
In
the post-war period, the names of some internationally renowned
architects established themselves in architecture, such as Italo
Gamberini, Leonardo Savioli, Leonardo Ricci, but it was above all
Giovanni Michelucci who imposed a modern, functional style, with a dry
but also exciting and recognizable aesthetic . Works such as the church
of the Autostrada del Sole are among the most significant creations of
the century in Tuscany, declined in countless imitations and homages.
Among the painters we should mention Amedeo Modigliani (died in
1920), Ottone Rosai and Giuseppe Viviani.
The Tuscan territory is mostly hilly (66.5%); it includes some plains
(about 8.4% of the territory) and important mountain massifs (25.1% of
the region).
Main mountains: Monte Prado 2054 m, Monte Giovo 1991
m, Monte Rondinaio 1964 m, Monte Pisanino 1946 m, Alpe Tre Potenze 1940
m.
Main mountain passes and passes: Passo dell'Abetone 1388 m, Passo
della Pradarena 1579 m, Passo delle Radici 1529 m, Passo del Cerreto
1261 m, Passo de La Calla 1298 m, Passo dei Mandrioli 1173 m, Passo
della Cisa 1045 m.
Volcanoes: Monte Amiata 1738 m, Monte Castello 445
m (Island of Capraia).
Main rivers: Arno 241 km, Ombrone 161 km,
Serchio 111 km, Cecina 73 km, Magra 70 km, Sieve 62 km.
Main lakes:
Montedoglio lake (artificial reservoir) 7.7 km², Bilancino lake
(artificial reservoir) 5.0 km², Chiusi lake 3.9 km², San Casciano lake
about 2.0 km², Montepulciano lake 1, 9 km².
Main coastal lagoons and
lakes: Orbetello lagoon 26.2 km², Diaccia Botrona marshes 12.78 km²,
Massaciuccoli lake 6.9 km², Burano lake 1.4 km².
Internal marshes:
Fucecchio marshes about 18 km².
Small wetlands: Laghetto Traversari
di Camaldoli, Metaleto, Asqua, La Lama, Pozza del Cervo, Fonte del
Porcareccio, Prato al Fiume, Lago di Porta.
Coastline: 633 km total
(397 km continental and 230 km insular).
Seas: Ligurian Sea,
Tyrrhenian Sea.
Main islands: Elba Island 223.5 km², Giglio Island
21.2 km², Capraia Island 19.3 km², Montecristo Island 10.4 km², Pianosa
Island 10.3 km².
Both to the north and to the east, Tuscany is surrounded by the
Apennines but the territory is mainly hilly. The highest peak in the
region is Monte Prado (2,054 m), in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines in
Garfagnana, on the border with Emilia-Romagna.
In the region
there are other noteworthy mountain reliefs outside the Apennine ridge:
the Apuan Alps to the north-west, Monte Pisano between Pisa and Lucca,
the Pistoia mountains north of Pistoia, the Calvana mountains north of
Prato, the Monti del Chianti between the provinces of Siena and Arezzo.
In the province of Arezzo the Pratomagno divides the Casentino from the
Valdarno, still in the province of Arezzo to the north-east the Alpe di
Catenaia is divided from the Apennines by the course of the Tiber, the
Alpe delle Luna to the east of the province of Arezzo, the Metalliferous
hills to the south-west between the provinces of Livorno, Pisa, Siena
and Grosseto and the massifs of Monte Amiata and Monte Cetona to the
south-east, Mount Falterona, where the Arno river is born and Mount
Fumaiolo where the Tiber is born.
Among the hilly systems, in the
central part of the region we find, from west to east, the Livorno
Hills, the Pisan Hills, the Balze di Volterra, the Montalbano, the
Chianti hills and the hills of the Valtiberina. The southern area of the
region is characterized to the west by the Metalliferous Hills, the
hills of the Val di Merse, the Crete Senesi, the hills of the Ombrone
Valley, the Albegna and Fiora hills, the Tufo area and the hills of the
Val d'Orcia and Val di Chiana.
In Tuscany there are flat areas both along the coast and inland.
The coast includes the plains of Versilia, Viareggio, the last
stretch of the Lower Valdarno which opens into the Piana di Pisa and the
Maremma, the largest plain, while in the hinterland the main plain is
the Valdarno which extends from east to west along the course of the
homonymous river, including the cities of Arezzo, Florence and Pisa.
Other inland plains are the Florence-Prato-Pistoia plain in continuity
with the middle Valdarno, the Lucca plain, the Valdinievole, the
Valdera, the Valdelsa, the Val di Chiana, the Val di Cecina, the Val di
Cornia, the Val di Pecora, Val d'Orcia, Valdisieve, Valle dell'Ombrone,
Val di Bisenzio, Valdambra and Valle del Serchio.
Tuscany, bordered by the Ligurian Sea in the central-northern part
and by the Tyrrhenian Sea in the southern part, is characterized by a
very diversified continental coast in its characteristics. Overall, the
continental coasts are low and sandy, with the exception of some
promontories that rise between Livorno and Vada, north of Piombino,
between Scarlino, Punta Ala and Castiglione della Pescaia, between
Marina di Alberese and Talamone, on the Argentario and in Ansedonia.
The Tuscan Archipelago consists of seven main islands and some
smaller islets, many of which are simple shallows or outcropping rocks,
largely protected by the Tuscan Archipelago National Park. The main
island is Elba, bathed to the north by the Ligurian Sea, to the east by
the Piombino Channel, to the south by the Tyrrhenian Sea and to the west
by the Corsica Channel: the island has an alternation of low and sandy
coasts and higher and more jagged coasts where suggestive coves open up.
To the north of the Island of Elba are the Island of Capraia, in the
Corsica Channel, and the Island of Gorgona in the Ligurian Sea, both
with indented coasts. To the south of the Island of Elba are the Island
of Pianosa, completely flat and with slight undulations, with both sandy
and rocky coasts, the Island of Montecristo with high and jagged coasts
except for the landing area, the 'Isola del Giglio with predominantly
high and rocky coasts, with the exception of some coves and the Campese
beach, the Isola di Giannutri with rocky coasts although presenting a
territory characterized only by very slight undulations and gradients.
Among the smaller islands, the shoals and outcropping rocks, there
are the islands of Cerboli, Palmaiola, the Formiche di Grosseto, the
Formica di Burano, the Scoglio d'Africa or Formica di Montecristo, the
Secche della Meloria and the Secche di Go.
From a climatic point of view, Tuscany has different characteristics
from area to area.
The average annual temperatures, which record
the highest values around 16-17 °C along the Maremma coast, tend to
decrease as one proceeds towards the interior and towards the north; in
the plains and in the internal valleys (middle Valdarno and Val di
Chiana) the maximum summer values are reached, which often approach and
touch 40 °C (41 °C in Florence in August 2003, 39 °C in Lucca and 40
always in Florence in 2021) and contrast with relatively cold winter
lows, which sometimes reach zero.
Precipitation is very abundant
close to the Apennine hills along the west-east axis between Versilia
and Casentino, with maximum values over 2000 mm per year on the highest
peaks of the Apuan Alps and the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines; on the
contrary, along the coastal strip of the Grosseto Maremma, especially in
the Argentario area, the annual average of 500 mm is laboriously
reached. The Crete Senesi and some areas of the Val d'Orcia and Val di
Chiana where the average annual values are between 600 and 700 mm are
also heavily penalized from a rainfall point of view.
The
snowfalls, frequent in the winter season on all the Apennine hills and
on the summit of Monte Amiata, can also reach the neighboring hilly
areas but it is not impossible that the snow also reaches the plains and
more rarely on the central-northern coasts, while they appear to be
truly unique episodes along the Maremma coast of Grosseto.
The
heliophany (sunshine duration) appears to be very significant along the
coastal strip of the province of Grosseto, where it reaches values close
to the absolute maximum of the entire Italian national territory, with
an annual average of over 7 hours per day (minimum value in December
with an average of about 4 hours a day and maximum values above 11 hours
a day in June and July).
In Tuscany there are 14 official meteorological stations marked with
WMO and ICAO codes in accordance with the standards of the World
Meteorological Organization: 13 of them are managed by the Air Force,
one of them by ENAV. All the other stations present in the regional
territory, on the other hand, mainly refer to the Regional Hydrological
Service of Tuscany; there are also stations of other entities, including
those of the LaMMA Consortium, as well as those of other public or
private entities.
Historically, the meteorological station of
Florence Monastero degli Angeli deserves a special mention, one of the
first stations established worldwide, which began to carry out
meteorological observations and thermometric recordings on the
Florentine scale of 50° starting from 1654 within the network
meteorological station established by Ferdinando II de' Medici and
operational at the European level at that time.
From north to
south, the following are the various official weather stations in the
region:
Cisa Pass
Refredo Mugello
Porretta pass
Florence
Peretola
Pisa San Giusto
Arezzo Molin White
Gorgon
Volterra
Siena Poggio al Vento (decommissioned)
Weather station of Siena
Ampugnano (decommissioned)
Piombino weather station (decommissioned)
Radicofani
Grosseto Airport
Elba-Monte Calamita
Pianosa
(decommissioned)
Monte Argentario
Protected natural areas cover almost 10% of the regional territory, for a total area of 227,000 hectares. Three national parks are part of it, one of which, the Tuscan Archipelago National Park, falls entirely within Tuscany while the other two are shared with Emilia-Romagna (Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona and Campigna National Park and the Apennine National Park Tuscan-Emilian). There are also 3 regional parks, 2 provincial parks, 36 state nature reserves, 37 provincial nature reserves and 52 A.N.P. THE. (Protected Natural Areas of Local Interest). Within the Natura 2000 network, 123 Sites of Community Interest (SIC) and 30 Special Protection Areas (SPA) have also been proposed.
The region is crossed on the northern and eastern sides by the
Apennine chain which was formed by the approach and collision of the
Euro-Asian plate to the north with the African-Adriatic plate to the
south.
The resulting structural units, originally belonging to
the African-Adriatic continental margin, are included in two main
groups, the Umbria-Marche Domain (sandstone-marly flysch) and the Tuscan
Domain, the latter subdivided into an underlying metamorphic succession
(meta sandstone, metalimestones, dolomites, Triassic and late Palaeozoic
groups, Hercynian basement) and in an overlying non-metamorphic
succession (external and internal sandstone flysch, argillites, marls,
limestones and dolomites). The non-metamorphic succession above is in
turn characterized by two minor structural units, the Falda Toscana and
the Cervarola Falterona Unit, with whose rocky extensions they form the
backbone of the Tuscan Apennine ridge.
Above the Tuscan Domain is
the transitional Sub-Ligurian Domain (sandstones and argillites) where
there was the overthrust of rocks of the Ligurian-Piedmontese Domain,
subdivided in turn into the complex structural units of the external
Ligurian Domain (helminthoid flysch, sandstones, argillites , polygenic
breccias), internal Ligurian Domain with non-metamorphic oceanic
succession (sandstone flysch, argillites, radiolarites, ophiolites) and
metamorphic oceanic succession (calschists, ophiolites).
With the
decrease and cessation of thrust thrusts during the Apennine orogeny,
sedimentation basins were formed with Epiligurian deposits (marls and
calcarenites).
In the most recent phases there were marine
invasions of the lower margins of the chain, called successions of
neo-autochthonous basins and never involved in the phenomena of thrust
between domains and structural units; later, subsiding basins were
formed within the chain, favorable for future fluvial-lacustrine
environments.
At the same time, acidic subvolcanic magmatic
intrusions also occurred (Elba Island, Giglio Island and Montecristo
Island) and effusive pyroclastic volcanic manifestations (Capraia
Island, Monte Amiata and Tufo Area).
The eustatic oscillations
and the further settling phases of the chain brought the levels of
rivers and lakes to the current values; the alluvial deposits complete
and close the geological history of the region.
On the basis of PCM Ordinance n.3274 of 03/20/2003, the Tuscan
regional territory has been divided into three distinct zones based on
seismic risk, zone 2, zone 3 and zone 4; no municipality in Tuscany
falls within zone 1 with high seismicity.
The seismic
classification is shown schematically below.
Zone 2 (medium-high
seismicity)
186 total Municipalities involving the entire provinces
of Florence, Massa and Carrara and Prato, the northern and eastern areas
of the province of Arezzo which include the upper Valdarno, Pratomagno,
Casentino and Valtiberina, the eastern end and a limited area in the
northern part of the province of Grosseto, almost all of the province of
Livorno including the island of Gorgona, the Garfagnana, the
central-northern part of the province of Pisa, the eastern part of the
province of Pistoia, the western part and the extreme southeast (Monte
Amiata and Monte Cetona) of the province of Siena. Furthermore, the
tsunami risk, albeit rather moderate, along the entire central-northern
stretch of the Livorno coast should also be noted.
Zone 3 (low
seismicity)
77 total Municipalities involving the south-western area
of the province of Arezzo corresponding to the Val di Chiana in Arezzo,
the northern end and the eastern part of the province of Grosseto, a
large part of the province of Lucca, the southern end of the province of
Pisa , the western part of the province of Pistoia, the area of the
province of Siena including the Crete, the Val d'Orcia and the Sienese
Val di Chiana.
Zone 4 (very low seismicity)
A total of 24
Municipalities involving all the islands of the Archipelago excluding
Gorgona, the southern end of the province of Livorno and the western
part of the province of Grosseto which includes the entire coastal
strip, the Maremma plain and the immediate hilly hinterland.
The history of Tuscany embraces a long span of time, which ranges
from prehistory to the present day, resulting fundamental from the
Middle Ages onwards for the birth of the Italian language, literature
and science, as well as for the Italian cultural identity (especially
the Renaissance, in addition to the medieval age).
The first
certain traces of human presence date back to the Paleolithic, with
communities of hunter-gatherers. In the VIII millennium BC. the
so-called cardial pottery culture appears in the Tuscan territory,
marking the introduction of the Neolithic revolution. Between the end of
the Neolithic and the Chalcolithic, in the region there are important
testimonies left by the Rinaldone culture, and by the bell-shaped vase
culture. With the Bronze Age the Apennine culture flourishes which will
be followed by the Proto-Villanovan culture in the final phase of the
Bronze Age.
Between the 10th and 8th centuries BC, the Villanovan
culture, which represents the most ancient phase of Etruscan
civilization, found its maximum expression in the Iron Age. While the
areas of north-western Tuscany are inhabited by the ancient Ligurians.
However, the border between Ligurians and Etruscans changed several
times during the Iron Age. In northwestern Tuscany, the area between the
Arno and Magra rivers was culturally aligned with the Etruscans in the
early Iron Age, and came under Ligurian control in the late Iron Age.
The culmination of the splendor of the Etruscan civilization was
reached around the 6th century BC, with possessions that ranged from the
northern area of the Po Valley, known as Padana Etruria, to Campania,
called Campanian Etruria: roads were built, including the well-preserved
Quarries (between Sovana, Pitigliano and Sorano), they built a majestic
sacred thermal complex in Bagnone a Sasso Pisano, some marshes were
reclaimed and important Tuscan cities were built, such as Pisa, Arezzo,
Chiusi, Volterra, Populonia, Vetulonia, Roselle, Fiesole in addition to
the last important discovery, still anonymous, which arose near Prato,
by Gonfienti. The level of civilization reached by this great people is
testified by the interesting similarities - unusual for the
Mediterranean of the time - between the rights of men and women and
laying the fundamental foundations for Roman town planning.
In
the III century BC. the Etruscans were defeated by the military power of
Rome and, after an initial period of prosperity, due to the development
of craftsmanship, of the extraction and processing of iron, of trade,
the whole region declined economically, culturally and socially. The
Romans, who settled in the pre-existing Etruscan localities, also
founded new cities such as Florentia and Cosa, currently one of the best
preserved with the walls, the forum, the acropolis and the capitolium,
originally built as the Temple of Jupiter, as well as having its own
currency. However, it will be from the Latin name of the Etruscans,
Tusci plural of Tuscus, that the current region took the name of Etruria
in Roman times, Tuscia in medieval times, and finally Tuscany.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the region passed through
the Ostrogothic and Byzantine dominations, before becoming the object of
conquest by the Longobards (569), who erected it as a duchy with
headquarters in Lucca (Duchy of Tuscia). With the fall of the Lombards
by Charlemagne, the duchy became a county and later a marquisate of
Lucca (Marca di Tuscia). In the 11th century the Marquisate passed to
the Attoni, great Canossian feudal lords, who also owned Modena, Reggio
Emilia and Mantua. The famous Countess Matilde di Canossa belonged to
that family, in whose castle the meeting between Pope Gregory VII and
the German emperor, Henry IV, took place. It was in this period that the
phenomenon of castle building began to develop throughout the region.
In the 11th century Pisa became the most powerful and important city
in Tuscany, with the extension of the dominion of the Maritime Republic
to almost all of Tyrrhenian Tuscany, to the islands of the Tuscan
Archipelago and to Sardinia and Corsica. To the south is the dominion of
the Aldobrandeschi, an important lineage of Lombard origin, which
controlled the southern part of the current provinces of Livorno and
Siena, as well as the entire province of Grosseto, the territory of
Mount Amiata, up to Upper Lazio, often entering in conflict with the
Papacy, until the emergence of the city of Siena, which will later
compete with Florence.
Around the 12th century, the period of
free Municipalities began, and Pistoia became the first municipality in
Italy, with the Statute of the consuls of the Municipality of Pistoia.
The first forms of participatory democracy and the arts and crafts
associations were born, which made Tuscany an unrepeatable example of
cultural, social and economic autonomy.
Among the flowering of
the various Tuscan cities, the city of Lucca can be seen becoming a very
rich and prosperous center thanks to the textile production and silk
trade, as well as being an important destination on the Via Francigena.
Among the cities of the region, the Municipality of Florence quickly
established itself, for cultural and economic but also military reasons.
In this period, which goes from the tenth to the thirteenth century,
various attempts were made to create political coordination between the
various Tuscan powers, from that carried out by the Marquises of Tuscany
(from Hugh the Great to Beatrice of Lorraine) to that expressed by the
municipalities of Tuscan League (1197). In any case, Florence will
establish itself as a pan-Tuscan unifying force between the 14th and
16th centuries.
Thanks to numerous writers and artists, between
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Tuscany, and in particular the
city of Florence, gave a decisive contribution to the Italian
Renaissance. Having become a politically autonomous entity starting from
the XII century, Tuscany also fragmented into a myriad of states among
which the Republic of Florence and the Republic of Siena were the most
important. The flowering of commerce led to the birth of banks in some
cities of the region (Florence and Siena in primis). The unification of
Tuscany under a single city began with the expansionist Florentine
policy as early as the fourteenth century, when the republic began to
engulf the Tuscan territories in succession, only held back by the
republic of Siena, which in turn annexed almost all the territories of
the Maremma and of Mount Amiata, and from the Republic of Lucca.
During the fifteenth century the Medici family came to power which, like
the major Florentine families, had enriched itself with banks and had
obtained political importance in the republican institutions starting
from the mid-fifteenth century, with Cosimo the Elder. Starting from
Lorenzo the Magnificent, Medici power was consolidated (apart from two
republican interruptions from 1494 to 1512 and from 1527 to 1530): in
1532 Alessandro obtained the title of Duke of Florence and in 1569
Cosimo I that of Grand Duke of Tuscany. At this time the whole Tuscan
area, except Lucca which remained an autonomous republic, Piombino which
constituted a principality in its own right, and the area of Orbetello
and Monte Argentario placed in the State of the Presidii, was under the
Florentine lordship having fallen the republic of Siena in 1555 in the
hands of the Spanish-Florentines who from 1557 had the sovereignty.
The Medici family continued to reign uninterruptedly over Tuscany
until 1737. The last grand duke of the family was Gian Gastone de'
Medici who had no heirs, while the last of the family, Anna Maria Luisa,
electress Palatine, took charge of the Grand Duchy from death of his
brother and managed thanks to his foresight to ensure that the immense
artistic heritage that had become the family's heritage over the
centuries could not be taken away from Florence even by the future
rulers that the Grand Duchy would have.
The Grand Duchy of
Tuscany, on the death of Gian Gastone, passed to the Lorraine family, in
particular to Francesco Stefano di Lorena, former husband of Maria
Theresa of Habsburg, Empress of Austria. He never set foot in either
Tuscany or Florence, and left the administration to his son Pietro
Leopoldo. The most important innovation desired by the Lorraines, thanks
to Pietro Leopoldo, was the abolition (for 4 years, until 1790 when it
was reinstated) of the death penalty in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, an
innovation of no small importance at the time. The provision entered
into force on November 30, 1786 and, taking inspiration from this, the
Festa della Toscana was recently established, which is held every year
on the day of this anniversary.
The only interruption to Lorraine
sovereignty was the Napoleonic parenthesis which lasted until 1814, when
Ferdinand III, son of Peter Leopold, was restored to the serene
grand-ducal throne. Lucca and Piombino instead managed to maintain a
certain autonomy with the government of Elisa Bonaparte, Napoleon's
sister, during the Principality of Lucca.
Napoleon brought to
Italy, and therefore also to Tuscany, which was annexed to France, the
modern idea of "nation" (a concept born with the industrial revolution).
Also as a reaction to French nationalism, in fact, there was also the
birth of nationalist thought in Tuscany, which fueled the ideals of
Italian nationalism, which had its driving force in Tuscany: the "great
Tuscans" became "great Italians" and Dante, Petrarch , Boccaccio, but
also Niccolò Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei, were "enrolled" as symbols
of an "Italy" to be "reborn" to new life, together with all its values
of communal "freedom", creativity and independence.
Thus it was
that Tuscany became one of the most important centers of the Italian
independence and Risorgimento movement. Conscious of the peculiarity,
not to say superiority, of their homeland, the leaders of the Tuscan
Risorgimento movement worked hard for Italy´s independence.
Even
the last reigning grand duke, Leopold II of Tuscany, and the last Tuscan
prime minister, Bettino Ricasoli, were, at different times and in
different ways, convinced that in the unification of Italy, Tuscany
could better maintain and develop its own identity ethnic, using a more
modern term.
In short, Tuscany, which had its own well-defined
ethnicity from ancient times (just look at the history of the name,
which is not a Latinism - like "Italia", which was not an Italianism,
otherwise it would have been "Itaglia" - but the development of the very
ancient ethnonym of Etruria), he preferred to "invest" in the
"Italianist" project so that in the 19th century he will give the
Kingdom of Italy its immense cultural and ideal heritage, and for some
years also the capital.
The last Grand Duke of Tuscany was
Ferdinand's son, Leopold II, who reigned until the entry of the Tuscan
territory into the nascent Italian unitary state. The Lorraine period
was an enlightened period for Tuscany, starting with the government of
Pietro Leopoldo (who reformed the judicial system), up to the last grand
duke who obtained very positive results, with the construction of the
first railways, the creation of the cadastre and the reclamation of the
Maremma.
After the revolutions of 1848-1849, Leopold's return was
however supported by an Austrian garrison which alienated popular
sympathy. In 1859, when Tuscany was about to enter the kingdom of
Northern Italy, he did not tenaciously oppose his dismissal, but left
Florence peacefully leaving it in the hands of the revolutionaries. The
curious expression used on the occasion, given that the revolt had begun
at five in the morning, was that at six the same morning, when the grand
duke left Florence, the revolution went off to breakfast. The transition
from the Grand Duchy of Tuscany to the Unified Italian State was the
result of a bloodless revolution.
In 1847 Tuscany was completely
unified with the entry of the Duchy of Lucca into the Grand Duchy of
Tuscany not many years after the Unification with the Kingdom of Italy.
On 11-12 March 1860 a plebiscite was celebrated, which confirmed the
union of Tuscany with the constitutional monarchy of Vittorio Emanuele
II. The results of the vote were proclaimed in Florence on 15 March 1860
by Enrico Poggi, one of the ministers of the Tuscan Provisional
Government. Tuscany was thus annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia and then
to the nascent Kingdom of Italy.
The union with Piedmont was seen
by the Tuscan moderate ruling class (headed by prominent personalities
such as Bettino Ricasoli and Gino Capponi) as the best way to enhance
the Tuscan peculiarities, the freedoms of the city, preserve the power
of the aristocracies from the modernizing intrusiveness of Lorraine
rulers. The idea, in fact, of the Tuscan moderates was to establish a
sort of federation with the other Italian lands[24]. It is therefore no
coincidence that in the first years of Unity, in Tuscany there was a
strong federalist and autonomist movement that united all those who -
from Catholics to Garibaldians, to ex-Mazzinians, from pigtails and
legitimists to democrats, from Catholics to autonomists - they opposed
Piedmontese administrative centralism and hoped for a federal structure
of the state. This party (whose exponents include Giuseppe Montanelli,
the pupil of Carlo Cattaneo, Alberto Mario, Luigi Castellazzo, Giuseppe
Mazzoni, Clemente Busi, Eugenio Alberi, Father Bausa O.P., Luigi
Alberti, Giuseppe Corsi, the archbishop of Pisa Cosimo Corsi, etc.)
represented the most important alternative to the moderate-liberal party
of the unitary government (among whose exponents was Bettino Ricasoli),
and had some magazines of a certain prestige such as La Nuova Europa
(federalist-democratic), La Patria and Florence (federalist-Catholics).
The history of Tuscany is identified, from this moment, with that of
the Italian State, of which it belongs, while retaining its specificity
that distinguishes it from all other regions.
Pending the
transfer of the capital to Rome, which occurred after the Savoyard
conquest of the city in 1870, Florence hosted the nation's government
for five years. In the context of the post-unification contesting
events, historians have inserted the mystical-revolutionary adventure of
David Lazzaretti, a preacher who managed to move the crowds of the area
of Mount Amiata and southern Tuscany in the name of a religious and
social alternative, to faced not so much with the new national
arrangements, but above all with the social fragility of that territory
and the decline in the customs of the Roman clergy. For having organized
a procession on Arcidosso, in which the institutions and the bourgeoisie
of the time feared assaults on private property as a product of a
socialism that was then only in its infancy, he was killed by the police
in 1878.
During the Resistance, Tuscany was the scene of a
ferocious and violent war between the partisan brigades, supported by a
large part of the population (always involved in trade union and
anti-fascist struggles) and the German army supported by the fascist
squads. Massacres such as Sant'Anna di Stazzema remind us of the great
contribution of the Tuscans to the War of Liberation and how much blood
was shed without blinking, in order to free the territory from Nazi
occupation.
Tuscany has more than three and a half million inhabitants who
represent about 6% of the Italian population, with a density of about
163 inhabitants per km² which is lower than the national average.
Just over 10% of the Tuscan population resides in the regional
capital and about a third of the regional total in the
Florence-Prato-Pistoia metropolitan area which develops without
solutions of continuity in the corresponding intermontane basin. Other
densely populated areas are, in descending order, the Pisan area and the
lower Valdarno, the Livorno area, the coastal strip of the province of
Massa and Carrara and Versilia, the Valdinievole and the Piana di Lucca
and finally the Valdarno area superior between Arezzo and Florence.
On the contrary, the entire Apennine area (from Lunigiana and
Garfagnana to the Casentino), the Grosseto Maremma, the Metalliferous
Hills, Monte Amiata and the area south of Siena including the Val
d'Orcia and the Crete Senesi with the Desert of Accona are the
territories with the lowest population density.
From the 1970s
onwards, Tuscany has seen a continuous decline in birth rates. However,
the total regional population remained fairly stable until the late
1990s, when a steep increase began to occur. All this has been possible
thanks to immigration from other Italian regions (especially the
southern ones) and from foreign countries (a phenomenon which has become
much more pronounced in the last two decades).
In 2009 there were
32,380 births (8.7‰), 42,210 deaths (11.3‰) with a natural decrease of
-9,730 units compared to 2008 (-2.6‰). Families have an average of 2.32
members. On 31 December 2009, out of a population of 3,730,130
inhabitants, there were 309,651 foreigners (8.3%).
Tuscan is, after the Sardinian language, the idiom that has least
deviated from Latin and has evolved in a linear and homogeneous way. It
is the basis of the Italian language, thanks to the writings of Dante
Alighieri, Francesco Petrarca, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli
and Francesco Guicciardini, who gave it the dignity of "literary
language" of the peninsula. With the unification of Italy it was adopted
as the official language, thanks also to the prestigious theory of
Alessandro Manzoni concerning the choice of language for drafting I
promessi sposi con "i lavavati in Arno". For this reason, Tuscany is the
region where Italian is spoken the most in the family (83.9% of the
inhabitants in 2006).
The speakers are over 3 million,
subtracting from the total number of inhabitants of the region those of
the province of Massa and Carrara, where northern dialects belonging to
the Gallo-Italic group are spoken (Massese dialect, Carrara dialect,
Lunigiana dialects). In the southern part of the region, however, the
dialect of Tuscia is widespread, belonging to the western subgroup which
includes the dialects of the eastern part of the province of Grosseto,
in particular the Argentario area, the Tufo area and the Monte Amiata
area.
The Tuscan dialect is a set of minor local dialects
(vernaculars) that have some differences that distinguish them from each
other. Below is the subdivision into northern, eastern, southern and
western Tuscan dialects (in other classifications the western Tuscan
dialects are included among the northern Tuscans, while the eastern
Tuscan dialects are treated separately). However, among the dialects of
Tuscan origin, the Cismontana variant of the Corsican spoken in northern
Corsica should also be included.
After the administrative reform of 1850, the former Grand Duchy of
Tuscany was divided into the "compartments" of Florence, Lucca, Arezzo,
Siena, Pisa, Grosseto and Livorno with the island of Elba and into the
sub-prefectures of Pistoia, Prato, San Miniato , Rocca San Casciano,
Volterra, Montepulciano, Portoferraio. The so-called Romagna Toscana was
also part of it, while Lunigiana and Alta Garfagnana were excluded.
In 1607 the Grand Duke Ferdinando I de' Medici purchased a series of
lands from the Gonzagas of Novellara, which currently constitute a small
enclave administered by Tuscany in the Romagna territory, whose
localities are fractions of the municipality of Badia Tedalda, (Arezzo)
like the fraction of Santa Sofia Marecchia.
With the Kingdom of
Italy in 1860 the provinces of Florence, Siena, Arezzo, Pisa, Lucca,
Livorno, Grosseto were confirmed. The province of Livorno, made up of
the capital and the islands of Elba, Gorgona, Pianosa and Montecristo,
will be resized a few years later, limiting its extension to its own
municipal territory. Since the 1871 census, the province of Massa and
Carrara is considered a Tuscan province and no longer an Emilian one.
In 1923 Tuscany was divided into seven provinces, Florence, Siena,
Arezzo, Pisa, Livorno (limited to the municipal territory only), Lucca,
Massa and Grosseto.
In the same year, the municipalities of
Bolano, Calice al Cornoviglio, Castelnuovo Magra, Ortonovo, Rocchetta di
Vara, Santo Stefano di Magra and Sarzana were detached from the province
of Massa and Carrara and ceded to the new province of La Spezia in
Liguria.
Also in 1923, the district of Rocca San Casciano, the
so-called Romagna Tuscany, was detached from the province of Florence,
passing to the province of Forlì in Emilia-Romagna (municipalities of
Bagno di Romagna, Dovadola, Galeata, Modigliana, Portico and San
Benedetto, Premilcuore , Rocca San Casciano, Santa Sofia, Sorbano,
Castrocaro Terme and Terra del Sole, Tredozio and Verghereto).
In
1925 the province of Livorno was expanded, to which the municipality of
Capraia Isola, detached from the province of Genoa, and some coastal
municipalities detached from the province of Pisa were added: Bibbona,
Campiglia Marittima, Castagneto Carducci, Cecina, Collesalvetti,
Piombino, Rosignano Marittimo, Sassetta and Suvereto. The islands of the
Tuscan archipelago are returned to the province of Livorno: the island
of Elba, Gorgona, Pianosa and Montecristo while as partial compensation
the northern area of the provincial territory corresponding to the
localities of Tirrenia and Calambrone is ceded to the province of Pisa.
In 1927 the province of Pistoia was created, detaching from the
province of Florence the municipalities of Agliana, Cutigliano,
Lamporecchio, Larciano, Marliana, Montale, Pistoia, Piteglio, San
Marcello Pistoiese, Serravalle Pistoiese and Tizzana (today Quarrata).
In the same year, the municipalities of Monterchi and Monte Santa
Maria Tiberina, which until then had been in the province of Arezzo,
were detached and assigned to the province of Perugia, in Umbria.
In 1928 the province of Pistoia was enlarged with some
municipalities taken from the province of Lucca: Bagni di Montecatini,
today Montecatini Terme, Buggiano, Massa and Cozzile, Monsummano Terme,
Montecatini Val di Nievole, today Montecatini Alto, a hamlet of
Montecatini Terme, Pescia, Ponte Buggianese, Uzzano and Vellano, today a
hamlet of Pescia.
In 1936, on the occasion of the establishment
of the municipality of Abetone, an area beyond the pass that was already
part of the Emilian municipality of Fiumalbo on the Modena side was
assigned to Tuscany.
In 1939, following protests from the
population, the municipality of Monterchi returned to the province of
Arezzo.
In 1992 the new province of Prato was established, which
includes, in addition to the capital, the municipalities of Cantagallo,
Carmignano, Montemurlo, Poggio a Caiano, Vaiano and Vernio taken from
the province of Florence; the number of Tuscan provinces thus rises to
ten.
In absolute terms, referring to the period 2000-2008, Tuscany is the
sixth region in Italy in terms of GDP produced, just behind Piedmont and
Emilia-Romagna, while in terms of GDP per inhabitants, Tuscany is the
eighth region according to data from the period 2000-2008.
The
regional data divided by macro sectors of activity is in line with the
same data expressed on a national basis. The region's economy is
predominantly based on the tertiary sector, fueled mainly by tourism.
Tourist arrivals in 2007 were 5,542,937 Italians and 5,885,545
foreigners. However, in Tuscany there are numerous industrial districts
scattered throughout the territory, which have a profound impact on the
economy on a local scale. Agriculture and livestock farming, thanks to
their quality products, are also of considerable importance, despite
creating a marginal number of jobs compared to other sectors.
The Tuscan territory, occupied by urbanized areas for just over 4% of its extension, is covered for almost 44% by woods, which mainly affects the Apennine and Amiata mountain areas, the higher hilly areas such as the Colline Metallifere and the Chianti mountains and areas near the coastal strip. Broad-leaved trees are the predominant essences, while conifers dominate along the coastal strip (maritime pine forests) and in the high mountains (fir trees); in the Grosseto Maremma and in the surrounding hilly areas the cork oak (Quercus suber) is also widespread. The cultivated areas represent approximately 39% of the regional territory and mainly occupy the plains (arable land), the internal valleys and the medium-low hill areas (vineyards and olive groves). The shrubby vegetation covers almost 7% of the territory and is characterized by the low Mediterranean scrub and the garrigue in the areas close to the Maremma coastal strip, and by the bushes of the internal reliefs. Pastures and natural meadows occupy approximately 5% of the territory, especially scattered in the internal hilly areas and more clearly in the Grosseto Maremma, especially in the heart of the Maremma Natural Park. 0.6% of the territory is characterized by areas with the absence or scarcity of vegetation (badlands and biancane of the Accona Desert and the Crete Senesi and rocky hilly and mountainous areas), while approximately 0.4% is occupied by humid areas ( lagoons, swamps, lakes and ponds).
Agriculture and livestock farming are still of considerable importance in the twenty-first century, given the quality of the products supplied. Furthermore, Tuscany was the first region in Europe to have approved a specific law prohibiting the cultivation and production of genetically modified organisms and their consumption in public canteens (L.R. 53 of 6 April 2000); in fact the regional territory can be defined as GMO-free.
In mountain areas, agriculture is characterized by marginal
production characterized by the collection of mushrooms, chestnuts and
truffles.
The hill is essentially characterized by olive groves
and vineyards.
Regarding extra virgin olive oil, it is worth
mentioning the presence of a regional PGI (Tuscan), one of which
mentions Montalbano (as per the regulations), and five PDOs (Chianti
Classico, Colli Fiorentini, Lucca, Terre di Siena and Tuscia ).
For wines, we highlight the global importance of Tuscan wines which
include 6 DOCGs - Carmignano (Province of Prato), Brunello di Montalcino
Chianti (with its 8 sub-areas), Morellino di Scansano (from the 2007
vintage), Vernaccia di San Gimignano and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano -
and 34 DOC.
The lower hills and the plain are characterized by
nursery farming (province of Pistoia), horticulture, cereal-fodder
crops, sunflowers, corn, beetroot and saffron (provinces of Siena,
Grosseto and Florence).
The Tuscan cigar is very famous
throughout the world, produced with Kentucky-type tobacco leaves grown
in Val di Chiana and in the Tuscan Valtiberina. Sunflowers and fruit
trees are also grown in Tuscany.
Breeding and animal husbandry are mainly based on native cattle and
pig breeds which provide highly prized meat.
Among the cattle,
the Chianina, Maremmana, Calvanina and Garfagnina breeds stand out, all
bred in the wild, a characteristic which meant that their meat was
highly sought after even during the years of the crisis in the sector
due to BSE (a disease never found in native breeds Tuscan). Among the
pigs, the highly prized Cinta Senese breed stands out above all, bred in
the wild and semi-wild state in various areas of the provinces of Siena
and Florence and in the Colline Metallifere area.
Among the
native sheep breeds, the Massese, originally from the area of the city
of Massa, the Pomarancina and the Zerasca, originally from Lunigiana,
are being recovered, in a period contrasted by sporadic cases of the
"red tongue disease".
The most widespread native horses at a
regional level are the Maremma and the Bardigiano which are bred for
tourist and sporting events (the Monterufolino horse is in the recovery
phase after having risked extinction).
The white Leghorn hen,
also known as the Leghorn breed, has international fame and its
international diffusion began in the 19th century.
Trade and the tertiary sector represent one of the main sources of the economy for the region, being a source of employment for approximately 2/3 of the residents. In addition to the traditional Tuscan trade model (based on small or medium-sized businesses, often family-run and on local fairs and markets), both tourism and services (banks and insurance) are of considerable importance.
Tourism represents one of the main economic resources of the region.
In 2019, there were approximately 16,500 accommodation facilities, for a
total number of beds exceeding 566,000 units. 83% of the offer is made
up of the non-hotel sector with a prevalence of agritourism facilities
which represent over 30% of the accommodation offer.
If we
compare the accommodation offer, in terms of beds, with the resident
population, the municipalities of Bibbona, Capoliveri, San Vincenzo and
Castiglione della Pescaia are those with the greatest intensity, with a
percentage accommodation rate that exceeds 200%, therefore in these
places the accommodation facilities present can host a potential number
of visitors that is more than double the resident population. Without
considering the rental flows, Tuscany in 2019 counted over 48,400,000
presences and 14,500,000 arrivals.
The average stay of those
staying in Tuscany is around three days, but, with specific reference to
the non-hotel sector, it rises to five days. The most numerous
foreigners come from: Germany, United States of America, Netherlands,
France, United Kingdom and Switzerland (including Liechtenstein).
80% of tourist demand is concentrated in art cities and seaside
resorts, the rest is divided between the countryside, hills and
mountains. The municipalities with the relatively higher percentage of
presences, in decreasing order, are: Florence, Pisa, Montecatini Terme,
Castiglione della Pescaia, San Vincenzo, Orbetello, Grosseto, Siena,
Bibbona, Viareggio, Capoliveri. In the Tuscan tourist areas, together
with the Florentine area, the Etruscan Coast holds the relatively
largest share of presences, immediately followed by Maremma, Terre di
Pisa and Elba Island.