toscana.

Buonasera!

Yesterday, after class and a bit of food, I found a nice little park, where I spent the afternoon reading. I have finished the book I needed to read for class this week! :) On my way back to the residence it started raining. It poured for about twenty minutes, and then cleared up completely. Anyway, the day before I ended up reading for a long time, and then talking to some of my family and Ioni (miss you all!), so I didn’t get a chance to write another post. Now, here is the promised post, all about Tuscany. I wanted to give a bit of background about Italy, but I have realised this would be way too much information!

Siena, where I am staying, is in Tuscany (or in Italian: Toscana). Just so you know, most of my information will be coming from my guide book and my good friend, Wikipedia, since I don’t know much about Italy’s history or culture. Plus I’ll throw in some of my own impressions of course!

Tuscany is home to some very popular destinations, such as Florence (which I have posted about previously), Pisa, Siena, and Chianti. Besides which, it is just a beautiful landscape. Most of my views of the countryside have been either from inside Siena or on the bus, unfortunately. However, I am going to Fiesole with my class on Thursday, plus I may have a walk around outside of Siena sometime in the near future. We’ll see how it goes.

Anyway, if you want to know more about Florence, see my previous post (firenze.). Right now, I’ll tell you a bit about the rest of Tuscany. I am staying in the southern part of Tuscany, just north of the Southern Hill Towns. This area is well-known among wine-lovers, with wines such as Chianti and Carmignano. There are also many medieval towns and abbeys, and rolling hills covered with sunflowers and fields.

Northern Tuscany is where Pisa is found. Pisa is, as you probably know, most famous among tourists for the leaning tower. This is also where Vinci, Leonardo’s birthplace, is found, as well as the marble mountains.

Before the rise of Rome, most of Tuscany was populated by the Etruscans. They were actually the original founders of cities such as Siena, Fiesole, and Pisa. Rome eventually started to expand, and after many wars, Rome took over many Etruscan cities. In about 88-90 BC Rome was in complete control.

Tuscany was originally called the Duchy of Tuscia in about the sixth century. The Lombards, a Germanic people from Northern Europe, had taken over in 568 and established this duchy.

During the Etruscan time, each city had been established as its own individual state. This tradition continued even after Rome had taken over. After a series of complicated wars, annexations, and successions, the area was mostly unified as the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in 1557, with Florence as the ruling city.

In about 1799, Napoleon invaded and captured Tuscany. After Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty took Tuscany over.

Tuscan cities became popular among tourists, for their immense volume of art and history. At this point (the early 1800s), Italy was still not united. However, since Napoleon had planted the vision of a unified Italy in the minds of the population, there was a move toward this vision. The Kingdom of Italy came into being, ruled by Savoy monarch Vittorio Emanuele II. Tuscany joined in 1860. Later, in the 20th century, Italy, of course, participated in the two world wars. The First, Italy fought on the side of the allies. In the second, Italy was forced, at first, to fight on the side of Germany thanks to Mussolini, who had taken power in Rome in 1922. However, in 1943, Italy switched sides. After the Second World War, Italy became a republic.

Nowadays, Tuscany is a very popular tourist destination. I can tell you, August may not be the best time for visiting Italy! There are people everywhere. Walking down the main streets of Siena it is hard to move, and Florence is even worse!

Of course, this weekend coming up is Siena’s famous, historic horserace: Il Palio. The choosing of the horses and the practice races are starting within the next couple days, and the race takes place this Sunday! I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll tell you more about Siena’s history and culture sometime in the next couple of days though. And I’ll even write an entire post just for Il Palio, but I’ll do that after the race itself.

I’m feeling a little bit homesick now; it’s been almost two weeks I’ve been in Italy! I can’t believe that one third of my trip is already over. A few more weeks, and I’ll be going home. Then regular classes start soon after that. It’s amazing how fast the time passes by!
Right now, I’ve got to write an outline for an essay that we are writing tomorrow in class. I’ll post again within the next couple of days!

Love and miss everyone!!
Ciao <3