Project by Toscana Promozione Turistica Editorial Project 3S Comunicazione - Corso Buenos Aires 92 - 20214 MILANO Tel. 02.87071950 - [email protected] Graphic project Art Director: Daniela Toccaceli [email protected] Edited by Claudio Bacilieri in collaboration with Gloria Lorenzini Publishing initiative realized under the interregional project Itineraries Cultural and Thematic in Italian historic towns - Years 2005-2009 TUSCANY UNIQUE VILLAGES TO LOVE Small villages certified as Borghi più belli d’Italia, Bandiere Arancioni (Orange Flag) by Italian Touring Club, Gioielli d’Italia by Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism and UNESCO World Heritage unique villages to love According to collective imagination, Tuscany is that Elsewhere that tourists coming, for example, from the Ruhr, the Midlands or Ohio are able, with a slight effort, to connect to an idea of beauty that is almost never under their eyes, before they personally experience it CONTENTS ANGHIARI 14 21 CASTELFRANCO DI SOPRA The battle and the lost painting The landscape of fairies BARBERINO VAL D’ELSA CASTELNUOVO BERARDENGA 15 On the ruins of the ancient Semifonte 22 The butterfly village to visit by bicycle BARGA CASTELNUOVO VAL DI CECINA 16 Giuseppe Pascoli’s nest 23 The village shaped like a pine cone BUONCONVENTO CASTIGLIONE DI GARFAGNANA 17 The colours of terracotta and clay 24 Sweet wildness CASALE MARITTIMO CASTIGLION FIORENTINO 18 Quietness near the Tyrrhenian Sea 25 Panoramas from the tower CERTALDO 19 CASCIANA TERME LARI 26 Between culinary art and wellness Boccaccio’s “castle” CASOLE D’ELSA CETONA 20 The small treasure of Val d’Elsa 27 Peaceful beauty unique villages to love CHIUSI 28 47 PITIGLIANO Porsenna’s labyrinth On top of a tuff spur COLLODI 29 48 POMARANCE Pinocchio’s village The passion for theater COREGLIA ANTELMINELLI 30 49 POPPI Old-fashioned figurines In the fabled Casentino CUTIGLIANO PORTO ERCOLE 31 Under the shadow of the chestnut trees 50 Caravaggio’s landing point FOSDINOVO 32 51 RADDA IN CHIANTI Trame di Lunigiana Chianti, a unique landscape GIGLIO CASTELLO 33 52 RADICOFANI In the flow of never-ending water A station on the Via Francigena LORO CIUFFENNA RAGGIOLO 34 Lunigiana plots 53 Magnificently outdated LUCIGNANO SAN CASCIANO DEI BAGNI 35 Flower battles 54 The spas of the Grand Dukes MASSA MARITTIMA SANTA FLORA 36 The mining town 55 Water in the square MONTALCINO SAN GIMIGNANO 37 “Grapes make girls’ legs beautiful” 56 A journey into the Middle Ages MONTECARLO SARTEANO 38 A castle between olive groves and vineyards 57 Between Val di Chiana and Val d’Orcia MONTEFOLLONICO SCARPERIA 39 Washers of cloths and Vin Santo 58 Where the blades shine MONTEMERANO SORANO 40 An enchanted corner of Maremma 59 Between ravines and ridges of tufa MONTEPULCIANO SOVANA 41 The Poliziani of the noble wine 60 Etruscan soul MONTERIGGIONI SUVERETO 42 The fortress on the Romea road 61 Vines sprinkled with sea salt MONTESCUDAIO TREQUANDA 43 Sentinel over the Tyrrhenian Sea 62 A castle between Siena and Chiusi MURLO VINCI 44 Etruscan people 63 Leonardo’s village PECCIOLI VOLTERRA 45 The breath of the art 64 The town of alabaster PIENZA 46 The ideal town TUSCANY, THE PLEASURE OF ROAMING AROUND VILLAGES long debate is currently open have in everyday life. Travellers want to be about sustainable tourism surprised and amazed, rediscover themsel- and exploitation of terri- ves when confronting Elsewhere. According tories as a thrust towards to collective imagination, Tuscany is that economic recovery. Tourism Elsewhere that tourists coming, for exam- works when combined with ple, from the Ruhr, the Midlands or Ohio Aculture, because well-informed tourists are able, with a slight effort, to connect nowadays are specifically asking to be able to an idea of beauty that is almost never to live, in the places they travel to, an expe- under their eyes, before they personally rience different from the one they normally experience it. But that Elsewhere is often 6 [ TUSCANY ] UNIQUE VILLAGES TO LOVE unknown even to Italians themselves: at least to those who have travelled abroad extensively but are unaware of the beau- ty just around the corner. Towers, castles, walled-up lands, landscapes, villas, abbeys, villages, the Apennines, hills and sea: we cannot possibly think of Tuscany as a sin- gle entity, there is indeed more than one, and they all contribute - each with its own colour and atmosphere - to paint a pictu- re among the most fascinating in the art gallery of the world. Tuscany is there, be- fore the eyes of everyone, neat and clear: Dante, the Middle Ages, castles, parish churches and scattered villages; Florence, the Renaissance, fields, gardens and “landow- Towers, ner houses”; the Tu- scan court, from the castles, Medici to the Lorena; share-cropping, agra- walled- rian reform and a land- scape of olive trees, vineyards, cypresses, up lands gentle elevations; and then walled cities, mar- ket towns and “new lands”. But if our aim were to go in search of the very soul of this landscape to share it with our guests and visitors, then the first thing to do would be “roaming around villages”: a pleasant activity that has also once again become very fashionable than- ks to television programmes, magazines and the efforts of associations such as I Borghi più belli d’Italia and the Italian Tou- ring Club, thanks to the project Bandiere UNIQUE VILLAGES TO LOVE [ TUSCANY ] 7 There are places where nature manages to provide us with masterpieces: the Chianti, the Amiata, the Colline Metallifere, the Val d’Orcia Arancioni. The substantial endurance in a period of economic crisis and indeed the increase, in recent years, of tourism in small historical centres, owing mainly to foreign presences, has led the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism to proclaim 2017 “Year of the Villages”, considering When the Etruscan the development of a local tourism merging culture power waned, the and innovation as economically strategic. ancient settlements A CASTLE ON THE HILLOCK adopted a Roman Tuscany is one of the Italian regions with the hi- urban structure ghest concentration of villages. This obviously stems from its history. History that is deeply roo- ted in a very ancient time, roughly between the 7th and 5th century BCE, when the Etruscans founded settlements such as Populonia, Volterra, Chiusi, Sarteano, Sorano, Sovana, Pitigliano, Saturnia. The Vie Cave between Sorano, Sovana and Pitigliano 8 [ TUSCANY ] UNIQUE VILLAGES TO LOVE and the monumental tombs reproducing an Hellenistic age Etruscan temple at Sovana The association I Borghi più belli are a testimony of the imprint left by the Tyr- d’Italia have certified twenty rhenian people in this region. When the Etru- villages, the Touring Club Italiano more than thirty and one was scan power waned, the ancient settlements even awarded as “Comune adopted a Roman urban structure. Once the Gioiello d’Italia” (Pienza, which Empire had collapsed and after the end of a is also a Unesco World Heritage long and desolate barbarian age, the coun- Site like San Gimignano and tryside of the region started repopulating in the Val d’Orcia). Some villages scattered settlements and through manorial are at the same time among the economy (in Italian “curtense”, from Latin cur- Borghi più belli d’Italia and the tis, “court”) which merged the economy of the Bandiere Arancione because they Roman villa with an estate one, typical of feu- obtained both awards: Anghiari, dalism. Starting from the 11th century CE, Barga, Cetona, San Casciano dei the manors evolve into hamlets. Approxima- Bagni, Santa Fiora, Pitigliano and Suvereto. tely between 950 and 1150 the phenomenon of the first encastellation took place, i.e. the tres of rural power (manor, parish church creation of castles on the territory as a re- and monastery) are at the base of the emer- sponse to domestic (power struggles) and ex- gence of villages, which are almost all of ternal (raids of the Saracens) insecurity and medieval origin. In the context of encastella- as a consequence of demographic recovery tion, in fact, the first village structures deve- and trades. The emergence of castles marks lop, even though in a not uniform way: in the the resurgence of a whole civilisation. The re- Casentino area, for example, centralisation lationships of the castles with the other cen- of inhabitants around the castle of the lan- dlord did not take place. Instead, every small There are places where nature manages to provide us village continued to live isolated and inde- with masterpieces: the Chianti, the Amiata, the Colline Metallifere, the Val d’Orcia pendent, producing its own defensive stra- tegy: either through a small castle or placing houses against each other to build a barrier against enemies. In strategic points, the landscape began to be enriched with towers for control reasons and visual signals. But it was demographic growth and the increa- se in mouths to feed, in particular, to push part of the population that depended on the lords of the castle to settle, starting from the 12th century, in towers and tower-hou- ses outside the fortified settlements. Slowly these tower-houses, which in their archi- tecture echoed back to elements of military art (battlements, drains, brackets), turned into groups of crofts for the “lords in villa”, in farms and then in farm-houses. Unlike in other regions of Italy, in Tuscany fortresses and villages were almost never built in inac- cessible mountain areas, but at an altitude ranging approximately between 400 and UNIQUE VILLAGES TO LOVE [ TUSCANY ] 9 600 meters, so as to exploit the agricultural land, pastures, woods and brooks. Generally the castle stands on a hillock, on high ground away from the valley floor, often tracing sites already chosen by the Etruscans.