Sit will be for the art, the landscape, the culture of good living. The fact is that the only Italian reality is an unmissable region to visitaccording to volume Best in Travel 2024 by Lonely Planet, it’s Tuscany. Frances Mayes, bestselling author Under the Tuscan Sun (later written for the film of the same name by Audrey Wells), which narrated his experience in Cortona, he had already seen it for a long time years ago. With Tuscany on the podium we therefore set off to explore what’s new for next year.
The revealed beauty of Apollo
There are discoveries, as we know, that rewrite history. If in 2022 in San Casciano dei Bagni, a village near Siena, over twenty bronze statues had emerged and hundreds of votive offerings that documented the devotion at the thermal sanctuary, 2023 brought to light a travertine altar with a rare bilingual Etruscan-Latin inscription, and recently, near the source of San Casciano, a young marble Apollo two meters highalmost entirely recomposable, Roman copy of a Greek work attributed to Praxiteles.
In Tuscany the roots linked to the Etruscan civilization, antiquity and culture in general are decidedly deep. The first Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo I de Medici, whose 450th anniversary of death marks the 450th anniversary of his death in 1565, on the occasion of the wedding of his son Francesco I, commissioned Giorgio Vasari to Vasari Corridor, 960 meters of pure beauty in Florence, between Palazzo Vecchio and Palazzo Pitti, which will be reopened and renovated next May with a collection of marble epigraphs.
San Casciano dei Bagni, in Tuscany.
From villa to villa with the Medici
The family’s contribution to other wonders, like theirs, was notable 12 Medici Villas and the two Gardens, Boboli and Pratolino, all jewels created between the 15th and 17th centuriesdeclared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013 and located between Florence and the surrounding areas. Back then they were summer residences in the countryside, places of leisure dedicated to pleasure and the arts, in line with the Medici philosophy of patronage. Today each one stands out for its particularity, to be visited in an ideal itinerary that starts from Villa La Petraia, considered among the most beautifuland, on the hilly area of Castello, on the outskirts of Florence, continues Villa di Poggio Imperiale, on the Arcetri hillin neoclassical style, reaches Villa of Poggio a Caianowhich houses the Still Life Museum, and then continues to the others open to the public.
The frescoed covered courtyard of the Medici Villa della Petraia, in the hilly area of Castello, in Florence.
Welcome to Puccini’s house
From the province of Florence to that of Lucca in honor, in 2024, of the hundred years since the death of Giacomo Puccini. Destination, your favorite places, how Lake Towerin the Puccini villa museum on Lake Massaciuccoli, where he lived and composed many works and where his memorabilia can still be admired, including the piano on which he worked at night. It represents the fulcrum of the “Project 2024. Redevelopment, Conservation and Enhancement of the Puccini Legacy” focused in particular on «Torre del Lago, supreme gaudio, paradise, eden, empyrean, eburnea turris, spiritual vas, palace. Quiet country with splendid spots all the way to the sea, populated with deer, wild boars, hares, rabbits… lustful and extraordinary sunsets” as the composer defined the place, who arrived here at the end of the nineteenth century inspired by the small village, by nature and by the reflections on the water . They were years of great artistic fervor, Tuscan cities such as Florence and Lucca were close to the great European art capitals, including Paris, in a vortex of creativity and talent. Intellectuals met in homes or cafés: Puccini preferred the Liberty-style Gran Caffè Margherita in nearby Viareggio (his table with the commemorative plaque still exists), where he arrived by skidding in his Fiat 501, and where he then settled until his death in 1924.
A glimpse of Celle, a hamlet of Pescaglia (Lucca) in Garfagnana.
Love duets by the lake
But let’s take a step back, going to Celle, a hamlet of Pescaglia, in Garfagnananear the smallest historic theater in the world, a FAI asset, and the house of the musician’s grandparents, now a museum, but above all in Lucca, where Puccini was born. Inside his House-Museum, in Piazza Cittadella, you can browse from room to room, among antique furnishings, original costumes of the Turandot, the Steinway & Sons piano, the books, the sketches and that incomparable view over the rooftops of Lucca, which inspired the scenography of the Bohemian. He had various residences, but he always remained tied to that home. Fans then wait for the Puccini Festival (12 July -24 August 2024), with on the billboard The Villi /Edgar, Manon Lescaut, La Boheme, Tosca, Turandot And Madame Butterfly to the Large Open Air Theater of Torre del Lago.
Monte Amiata, an area between the provinces of Grosseto and Siena.
Regenerate with mental wellness
But Tuscany is not just art, architecture, music and history. It is also a wellness destination, where you can take time for yourself, with a sporting but also holistic and spiritual approach. There are many trekking paths, where walking at a slow pace becomes meditative, and those of Mount Amiata, around Abbadia San Salvatore, allow you to enjoy the wonder of the woods in absolute silence. And then there is a Tuscany where mental wellness is internal balance. «Mental wellness means putting yourself at the service of the guest, letting yourself be guided by the messages of his body. The first step is the iridological analysis, which allows us to discover predispositions, any nutritional deficiencies or problems that can be compensated for by natural integration, an ad hoc diet, breathing” explains Laura Quinti, naturopath and iridologist at the Terme di Saturnia Natural Destination, in the province of Grosseto. Here mental wellness is practiced in the name of regeneration also during the “Detox Yoga Retreats” (14-17 December and 4-7 January): the heart opens and the mind calms to reach new levels of relaxation and awareness.
Tours of the jewel villages
Between one session and another, it is beautiful to visit the villages of Pitigliano, built overlooking a tuff cliff, and Montemerano, with a small medieval square surrounded by stone houses. Afterwards you rest in the swimming pool fed by the precious thousand-year-old spring. Water is also the queen of well-being in the nearby Sienese Valdichiana, which includes spa centers such as Chianciano, in which traditional treatments alternate with cutting-edge treatments or those linked to oriental traditions, such as Ayurveda. Because the beauty of Tuscany is also this. Set off for a Puccini opera or to discover a Medici Villa and find yourself toning your mind and body, cradled in the embrace of nature.
Where to sleep in Tuscany
Medici Villa of Lilliano, Via Lilliano e Meoli, Grassina (Florence).
Hotel in a Medici Villa, on the outskirts of Florence. Also wine estate. Double room from 170 euros for two, breakfast included.medicovilla.com
Fonteverde Resort & Spa Località Terme 1, San Casciano dei Bagni (Siena).
Among the best-known hotels with spas, in a Medici Villa in Valdichiana Senese. “Equilibrium” self-awareness package: 4 nights, breakfast, lunch and dinner with Ayurvedic food plan, spa program, medical consultations and various treatments, from 3644 euros. Fonteverdespa.com
Where to eat
Osteria La Dritta Piazza San Francesco 33, Lucca.
Authentic and genuine flavors of Tuscan cuisine, of great quality. Work of the sisters Chiara and Silvia Menozzi. osterialadritta.eatbu.com
Osteria La Solita Zuppa Via Porsenna 21, Chiusi (Siena).
Traditional Tuscan cuisine with excellent soups on the menu: chickpeas and porcini mushrooms or lentils and chestnuts. lasolitazuppa.it
What to buy
The corner Via Vittorio Veneto 29, Lucca.
Perfumery for shopping and olfactory curiosities by Simonetta Giurlani Pardini, who created a fragrance dedicated to Giacomo Puccini, Bohème.
Montefollonico ceramics Via Coppoli 16, Torrita di Siena (Siena).
Shop of artisanal and artistic ceramics created by Mariella Spinelli.
Info
VisitTuscany – Tuscany destination visittuscany.com
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